R.E. - Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus 

As a school we follow the Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus for R.E. Our syllabus establishes what shall be taught in RE, providing teachers with practical support and guidance about how to teach RE effectively.

Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus - Click here 

The aims are:

• To ensure that every pupil’s statutory entitlement to RE is met, irrespective of their faith or belief, and within this to encourage pupils to explore questions of spirituality, identity, ethics, discrimination and prejudice.

• To enable pupils to develop religious literacy and conceptual understanding of what it means to be a person of faith or no faith.

• To encourage pupils to articulate their own ideas and experience of religion, belief and spirituality.

• To encourage all pupils and teachers to experience RE as an exciting subject that feeds into an understanding of what it means to live in Derbyshire and our wider world communities and to promote harmony and good community relations.

• To encourage teachers to produce RE lessons that are challenging, inspiring and engaging to everyone.

• To assist pupils to engage critically with ideas and understanding of religion and belief systems, given the nature of our society, its speed of change and growing social media influences. RE studies how religions and world views shape and are shaped by the societies in which pupils live, promoting deepening understanding of those belief systems.

• To promote interactive, creative and experiential learning that promotes social and ethnic accord alongside the endorsement of fundamental British Values, so that schools will be supported in visiting places of worship, community meeting places and communicating with different social groups across the local community.

Intent
• Religious Education contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in schools by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
• In RE pupils learn about and from religions and worldviews in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions.
• Pupils learn to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their
insights in response, and to agree or disagree respectfully.
• Teaching therefore should equip pupils with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, enabling them to develop their ideas, values and identities.
• It should develop in pupils an aptitude for dialogue, so that they can participate positively in society, with its diverse religions and worldviews.
• Pupils should gain and deploy the skills needed to understand, interpret and evaluate texts, sources of wisdom and authority and other evidence. They should learn to articulate clearly and coherently their personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences while respecting the right of others to differ.

 Implementation

• Through their RE learning, pupils will explore big questions about life, in order to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that they can make sense of religion and worldviews, and reflect on their own ideas and ways of living.
• The agreed syllabus requires that all pupils learn from Christianity in each key stage. In addition, pupils will learn from the principal religions represented in the UK, in line with the law. These are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Judaism. Furthermore, children from families where non-religious worldviews are held are represented in almost all of our classrooms. These worldviews, including for example Humanism, will also be the focus for study. The main focus of our teaching is built up from the representation of faiths and beliefs within our community and wider local area.

EYFS 
Children will encounter Christianity and other faiths, as part of their growing sense of self, their own community and their place within it.

Key Stage 1:
Christians and Muslims

Key Stage 2:
Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jewish people, alongside other world views, such as Humanism and Spiritualism.

In order to deliver the aims and expected standards of the syllabus effectively, the expectation is that there is a minimum allocation of 5 percent of curriculum time for RE.

• In Reception, this equates to 36 hours of RE, e.g. 50 minutes a week or some short sessions implemented through continuous provision.
• In key Stage 1, this equates to 36 hours of tuition per year (e.g. an hour a week, or less than an hour a week plus a series of RE days).
• In Key Stage 2 this equates to 45 hours of tuition per year (e.g. an hour a week, or a series of RE days or weeks amounting to 45+ hours of RE).

Impact

Pupils are assessed periodically throughout units of learning, in accordance with our Teaching and Learning Policy. Each lesson, Teachers will use ongoing assessment to identify where children require additional support or challenge. Within lessons, activities will be adapted accordingly. Within planning, teachers shall ensure that lessons are progressive and build upon prior learning, recapping key concepts as appropriate. Planning will identify key success criteria, gathered from the Syllabus, and will identify what children should be doing to work towards, be expected or work at a greater depth. Units are structured in such a way to allow children to revisit and build upon prior learning - this will also support children who require additional support to achieve the end of unit goals. Opportunities will be planed for children to demonstrate their understanding in different ways, such as through art work, mathematics and extended pieces of writing.

Please see our curriculum maps for further details