Religious Education

Curriculum Intent

At Gordon Children’s Academy, our Religion and Worldviews curriculum enables children to develop secure, connected and increasingly sophisticated knowledge of religious and non-religious worldviews. It prepares pupils to understand and participate respectfully in a complex, multi-religious and multi-secular society. Our curriculum is designed around depth before comparison. From Year 1 onwards, most units are anchored in one principal religion or worldview. This enables pupils to build connected knowledge of its beliefs, sources of authority, practices, communities and lived expressions. Carefully selected comparisons are introduced where they deepen understanding, with more substantial comparative and philosophical study taking place in upper Key Stage 2.

Christianity is studied extensively across the curriculum. Pupils also undertake sustained study of Judaism, Islam, Sikh worldviews and Hindu traditions. Buddhist and Humanist worldviews are introduced as pupils develop the knowledge and maturity required to explore increasingly complex questions. Pupils learn that there is diversity within every tradition and that people’s lived worldviews may be influenced by religion, family, culture, geography, history and personal experience.

Across the school, the curriculum is organised through six recurring substantive threads:

• Belief (What do people believe about God, the divine, humanity and reality?)
• Authority and wisdom (How do stories, texts, traditions and leaders guide people?)
• Worship and expression (How and why do people express their beliefs?)
• Identity and belonging (How do worldviews shape individuals and communities?)
• Morality (How do religions and worldviews help people decide how to live?)
• And Life’s big questions (How do people understand meaning, purpose, suffering, death and hope?)

These threads allow children to revisit important concepts in increasingly complex contexts. For example, a young child may encounter a sacred story, while an older pupil considers how believers interpret that story differently and why it continues to hold authority.

We also recognise that strong Religion and Worldviews teaching develops three interconnected forms of knowledge:

Substantive knowledge

Pupils learn about religious and non-religious traditions, including their: beliefs and concepts; sacred and significant texts; stories and historical development; practices and forms of worship; people, communities and institutions; artefacts, symbols and places and diverse lived expressions.

Ways of knowing

Pupils learn how knowledge about religion and non-religion is constructed and examined. Their ways of knowing include: theological and textual understanding: examining beliefs, sacred texts, teachings and interpretations; historical understanding: considering origins, context, continuity and change; social-scientific understanding: investigating how individuals and communities live and express their worldviews and philosophical understanding: considering

Personal knowledge

Pupils develop awareness of the assumptions, experiences and values that they bring to their study of Religion and Worldviews. They learn to distinguish between: their own position; another person’s position; the teachings of a tradition; evidence about how a worldview is lived and a reasoned conclusion based on the knowledge studied.

Personal reflection takes place after pupils have acquired relevant substantive knowledge. Children are not assessed on their personal beliefs, and there is no expectation that their religious or non-religious position should change.

Through this curriculum, pupils learn to discuss religion and non-religion with accuracy, curiosity and respect. They increasingly use qualifying language such as “some”, “many” and “within this tradition”, avoiding generalisations such as “all Christians believe” or “Muslims always”. They learn to identify both common features and meaningful differences, recognising that apparent similarities between practices do not necessarily mean that they express the same beliefs.

By the end of year 2, pupils should be able to: recall important stories, beliefs,   people, places and practices from Christianity and Judaism; explain introductory ideas about Muslim identity and community; connect a religious belief or teaching with a practice or way of living; recognise that people within the same religion may believe or practise differently; identify that some people hold non-religious worldviews; discuss similarities and differences without suggesting that all religions are the same and reflect on their own views while recognising that these may differ from the views of others.

By the time children leave Gordon in year 6, they will be able to explain: important beliefs and concepts within the principal worldviews studied; how texts, teachings, traditions and leaders provide authority; how beliefs influence worship, identity and moral choices; why religious traditions are internally diverse; how history, culture and geography influence lived worldviews; how religious and non-religious worldviews respond to significant human questions; how to compare worldviews accurately without treating them as interchangeable and how their own assumptions may influence their responses.

Implementation:

Early Year Foundation Stage

In EYFS, Religion and Worldviews is not taught through discrete, formal units. Instead, six broad enquiry questions inform enhancements to the continuous provision, they listen to religious and non-religious stories; they explore special people, times, places, objects and symbols, they recognise that families and communities may celebrate and live differently, they begin to use respectful language about belief and identity and they begin to understand some people are religious and some are not. This is planned through carefully selected stories, role play, artefacts, visitors, celebrations, talk and exploration of the local environment. Provision responds to the children, families and communities represented within the cohort, while ensuring that children encounter a planned range of religious and non-religious perspectives. The children should encounter diversity without being expected to construct formal comparisons between religions. Adults should focus on language such as: “This is special to this person because…”, “Some Christian families…”, “Many Muslim people…”, “This family celebrates in this way…”, “Other families may do something different…”

Key Stage 1

In year 1, children begin more explicit religion and worldviews teaching which is then deepened and broadened in year 2

Key Stage 2

As children move through the Juniors, they should know a tradition securely, recognise the diversity within it, connect beliefs with texts and practices, compare it carefully with known traditions before evaluating wider religious and worldview questions in Upper KS2. However, even in year 6, comparison should not become a superficial list of similarities and differences and instead each unit will identify which previously taught knowledge pupils will retrieve, which tradition provides the anchor, what new knowledge is being introduced, how diversity within traditions will be represented and what evidence pupils will use to reach their conclusions.