'Nurturing Individuality, Growing Together, Embracing Community'

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At Roehampton Church Forest School, we are proud of all the work we do in our Religious Education (RE) lessons. RE is not just an academic subject, but lies at the very heart of the curriculum and has an important role in reflecting and conveying the distinctively Christian character of the school. The RE curriculum, for the most part, is based on the Southwark Diocesan Syllabus. We are delighted that our RE lessons are varied, interesting, relevant, stimulating and challenging. We have strived to organise an exciting and challenging scheme of work in RE, which offers our children high-quality teaching and learning.

RE is taught on a weekly basis in every class, and although the majority of our teaching is about the Christian faith, pupils have the opportunity to explore other world faiths, including: Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism.

We aim to ensure that children can learn about Jesus’ life and teaching, explore Old and New Testament Bible stories and characters, learn about our local church, its functions and traditions, and appreciate and embrace Christian values. We also give children the opportunity to visit other places of worship.

Intent

Our RE scheme of work has been developed to achieve the following aims and to ensure continuity and progression throughout the whole school. In RE at our school we aim to help children to: –

• To acquire and develop a knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith;

• To develop the ability to make reasoned and informed responses to religious and moral issues with reference to the teachings of Christianity;

• To acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of the other principal religions represented in the United Kingdom;

• To develop an understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on individuals and the wider community and to reflect upon their beliefs, values and experiences;

• To develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues, with reference to the teachings of Christianity and the other principal religions represented in the United Kingdom.
• To enhance their spiritual, moral, cultural and social development by:- 
         a) Developing awareness of the fundamental questions of life raised by human experiences, and of how religious teachings can relate to them. 
         b) Responding to such questions with reference to the teachings and practices of religions, and to their own understanding and experience. 
         c) Reflecting on their own beliefs, values and experiences in the light of their study.

• To develop a positive attitude towards all people, through laying foundations of knowledge about world faiths.

Curriculum Overview

As we have mixed classes, we have developed our RE curriculum so that it is taught across two academic years, Cycle A and Cycle B. Please see the overview below for additional information. Each aspect of the curriculum has been developed to include forest school activities, is progressive and includes the three lenses (ways of knowing) which are woven throughout. The three lenses are believing, thinking and living.