Religious Education

At Westbourne, we encourage the children to develop spiritual, moral and cultural awareness through the study of Religious Education. Lessons follow the agreed Sutton Syllabus (SACRE.) Through their time at Westbourne, the children learn about different elements of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Through assembly times children often have opportunities to learn about stories from different religions and the universal meanings we can take from these.

R.E lessons allow our children to learn about different religions and improve their understanding of the beliefs of others. The children are often keen to learn more of the faiths celebrated by others in their class. We teach children to be open-minded and to seek information to help answer questions they may have about various religions. Children are often encouraged to make links between religions to find commonalities and themes. This helps them to build a more comprehensive view of the meaning of religion in people’s lives.

We encourage first hand experiences to develop learning through handling real artefacts and, wherever possible, arrange fieldwork visits to places of religious significance. The children enjoy listening to speakers about day to day life of different religions. We also welcome visitors from different faiths to discuss their beliefs with the children.

Each year, the children will also take part in workshops given by ‘Sutton Schoolswork’ where they have the opportunity to learn about Christianity and Christian stories in an exciting and interactive way.

In our RE lessons, we focus on the following themes through different religions:

• Places
• Writings and stories
• Festivals
• Key people
• Rites of passage

RE Knowledge and Skills

At Westbourne, we are keen to build knowledge and understanding of different religions, as well as to foster certain skills throughout our work in R.E. These include the ability to investigate, analyse and interpret information. Additionally, the children are then guided to reflect on, and empathise with, various ideas before then developing their ability to express their own ideas and opinions.

Our programme of study is as follows:

EYFS:

• Festivals and Celebrations
• Growing Together and taking care of each other
   

Year 1:

• ‘Why are we Thankful?’
• Christianity (Key people, Places of worship)
• Judaism (Key people)
• Hinduism (Key people, Sacred Writings, Holi, Places of worship, Raksha Bandhan)

Year 2:

• Judaism (Places of worship, Sukkot, Sacred writings)
• Festivals of Light
• Christianity (Sacred writings)
• Islam (Key People, Places of worship, Sacred Writings and Festivals)
   

Year 3:

• ‘How does faith help us?’
• Christianity (Key people, Sacred writings, Approaches to life)
• Islam (Key people, Sacred writings)
   

Year 4:

• Hinduism (Key people, Places of worship, Festivals, Sacred writings, Approaches to life)
• Christianity (Rites of passage, Festivals)
• The Importance of Prayer (all religions)
   

Year 5

• Judaism (Key people, Sacred writings, Places of worship, Approaches to life, Yom Kippur, Purim)
• Christianity (Places of worship)
• Islam (Places of worship, Festivals, Approaches to life)
   

Year 6

• The journey of life
• Buddhism (Key people, approaches to life, Festivals and Places of worship)
• Religion through Art