R.E.

R.E. at Four Lanes Infant School

R.E. in Action!

R.E. at Four Lanes Infant School

Intent

At Four Lanes Infant School we encourage children’s spiritual development which is shown by their ability to reflect on their own experience and beliefs (religious or otherwise) that inform their perspective on life.  Through our concept based RE curriculum, we develop children’s knowledge of, tolerance and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values.  We develop a sense of enjoyment and fascination in learning about themselves, others and the world around them.

Implementation

At Four Lanes Infant School we teach RE following Living Difference IV, the agreed syllabus for Hampshire schools.  This concept based curriculum focuses on the four golden thread concepts of ‘community’, ‘belonging’, ‘specialness’ and ‘love’. These concepts are brought to life through real and concrete situations, making room for the different ways in which children experience these encounters.

 Units of work usually follow the cycle of enquiry (communicate – apply – enquire – contextualise – evaluate) tending to start at the ‘communicate’ step where children are introduced to a concept / word and invited to share their experiences in different ways.  This may be a creative response and not always require formal recording.  The ‘apply’ step will open up the conversation so that children share the experiences of others, beginning with those in class.  The material is introduced along with any new vocabulary to be used at the ‘Enquire’ step. At this step, children engage with the resources and learning which is often new to them.  Real-life examples are introduced in the ‘contextualise’ step.  The final step is usually ‘evaluate’ where children consider how the learning might matter in their own lives.  RE topics are blocked each half term so that the learning journey is meaningful for the children.  Throughout the teaching, teachers’ questioning will encourage children to engage intellectually and use any new vocabulary introduced in the unit.

Impact

Children will be reflective and respectful individuals who have a developing sense of the diverse world around them. They will be able to express their own experiences in a variety of ways and recognise that their responses relate to events in their own, and sometimes in the lives of other people.  They will recognise or describe the concept being taught and how it is used in the tradition studied. Children can start to discern the value of the concept in the lives of those in the traditions studied as well as for their own lives and communities.