RE Curriculum Intent

Students have the opportunity to be involved in religious education lessons from KS2 up to Year 11. Lessons follow National Curriculum guidance and the Suffolk Agreed Syllabus. At Churchill, the syllabus is built around 6 main themes as detailed below.

Parents may, if they wish, withdraw their child from the arrangement for Religious Education. They will need to put their request in writing addressing it to the Headteacher.

Continuity, Change and Diversity

• some common features of religions / worldviews
• how some features within each religion / worldview being studied have changed over time and some have stayed the same.
• the proportions of the world’s population who belong to religions and worldviews noting the limitations of such statistics
• important features of each religion / worldview being studied and how these features interrelate and its relation to its historical and cultural setting
• important differences in beliefs, values and practices between religions / worldviews but also close connections between some of them for historical and cultural reasons
• how religions / worldviews tend to be made up of several smaller groups that usually share core beliefs and practices but also have many differences.
• how during the 20th and 21st centuries systems of belief have had to respond to new global, political and social issues.

Words and Beyond

• how people often express their feelings and beliefs through art, music, poetry, story, drama and physical movement
• texts that are believed by some to be divinely inspired or revealed
• ways in which people convey their beliefs, values, commitments and identities through the arts and other media
• how texts and works of art may be subject to different interpretations.
• the use of specialised religious language and how people may use metaphor and analogy to describe metaphysical or abstract concepts
• how people inside and outside a tradition are likely to interpret its creative works very differently
• people who are learning to value and be moved by the arts of traditions other than their own.

A Good Life

• people who set a moral example to their followers and about the qualities for which they are admired
• guidance provided by religions / worldviews for their followers on how to live a good life
• how people within the same religion / worldview may disagree over what is right and wrong, or good and bad, and how people from different religions / worldviews may agree.
• the different sources of moral guidance used in religions / worldviews
• different theories about how and why humans ought to live a good life
• why religious and non-religious groups agree on some moral issues and disagree on others
• attempts by religious and non-religious organisations to identify rules and principles that should apply universally
• why some religions / worldviews have different expectations for different groups of people

Making Sense of Life’s Experiences

• what people might mean by ‘mystical’, ‘spiritual’, ‘religious’ or ‘peak’ experiences
• different meanings given to the ‘spiritual dimension of human beings’ including the denial of any such dimension
• how experience of religious rituals and other practices help some people make a connection with God or gods and with each other, or with what is most important to them
• different views about ‘consciousness’ and different views about ‘spirituality’
• the potential impact on individuals from membership of groups with whom they share beliefs, values and traditions

Influence and Power

• communities around the world where one religion / worldview is very influential
• communities influenced by many different religions / worldviews living alongside each other
• how this country has been influenced by particular religions / worldviews, historically and today
• the influence of religions / worldviews in individual, local, national and global contexts
• how, when an aspect of a religion / worldview, such as a text or leader, becomes authoritative in a community, it may be used to justify social and political actions

The big picture

• what people might mean by terms such as ‘religion’, ‘religious’, ‘non-religious’, ‘secular’, ‘atheist’, ‘agnostic’
• the coherent accounts, sometimes called ‘grand narratives’, provided by many religions / worldviews to describe what the universe is like and why it is as it is
• how, for many religious people, the most important sources of their big picture of the world are their sacred texts, often believed to have been divinely inspired
• the overarching narratives of religions / worldviews, sometimes called ‘grand narratives’
• the focus of most narratives on the relationship between God or ultimate reality and the world, the nature of human beings and their place in the universe
• how most narratives that attempt to explain what the world is like claim an authority for their explanation
• variations of belief within each tradition about the truth and meaning of these narratives
• why many religious people accept scientific accounts and find no conflict with their religious beliefs, while others, both religious and non-religious, say it is only possible to believe one or the other.

Careers

By learning Religious Education, below is a list of possible careers that are relevant to the subject area.

• Mediator
• Minister
• Missionary
• Clergyperson
• Religious Rights Advocate
• Museum Curator
• Writer/author
• Charity Worker
• Child & Youth Worker
• Victim’s Advocate
• Human Rights Advocate
• International Aid Worker
• Journalist
• Lobbyist

Associated Pages