A curriculum for life for all regardless of background
The RE syllabus at Didsbury CE provides opportunities for spiritual development and personal reflection. It develops children’s knowledge and understanding of the nature of religion and belief, it provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose, truth and values, identity and belonging.
At its best the RE at Didsbury CE offers pupils authentic encounters with living faith communities equipping them with the ability to hold an informed conversation about religious beliefs and practices. We are proud of the fact that the ambitious RE curriculum at Didsbury CE plays a vital role in equipping each child with the skills and knowledge needed to take advantage of opportunities that life can offer. We aim for pupils to understand the wide range of religious beliefs in their community and how they can be respectful inquisitive and positive members of their community. RE can break down barriers and builds communities. The RE curriculum at Didsbury CE prepares children for citizenship and courageous advocacy in today’s diverse society.
Curriculum end points
The RE curriculum is designed with clear key knowledge end points at the end of each year and ultimately each key stage. The RE curriculum that is taught in each year group is designed to work towards those end points. Our RE curriculum enables our pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, analyse evidence and arguments and develop a view point and opinion. Key aspects of English such as persuasive language, advocacy and critical thinking are woven in our RE curriculum.
The ladder of expectation and achievement in the Questful RE syllabus provides an indication of the expected level of achievement. The ladder is intended primarily to contribute to planning excellent tasks at the right level appropriate for the pupils’ experience, knowledge and ability. The ladder can be used to make judgements about the level of individual pupils’ achievement at the end of each year group. This is supported by assessment sheets for each unit which contain knowledge and skills objectives for teacher a pupil assessment.
Curriculum planning and sequencing
Children in Years 1 to 6 are taught RE using a spiral curriculum, revisiting previous concepts in the big idea which is visually transformed into a frieze, based on the study of the units year-on-year, building on their prior learning. Our curriculum coverage is 70-80% Christianity and 20-30% other faiths reflecting our foundation as a Church of England academy.
The curriculum at Didsbury CE is mainly a knowledge-engaged curriculum that consciously develops both knowledge and skills. We have provided training to support teachers to put in place opportunities for ‘I wonder’ and ‘Dive Deeper’ these skills which encourage the children to be inquisitive can be translated to other subjects including the humanities, science and English. A key feature of the syllabus is the opportunity for pupils to investigate, reflect, evaluate and make meaning. In doing so they will discover more about themselves, their relationships with others, their relationship with the world around them and their relationship with God.
In EYFS the knowledge and skills in RE come from the starting point of the child. The Early Years RE Chatterbox Units are designed to encourage an atmosphere of community where everyone, child and adult are learning together. Right from the start planning involves a child centred approach which aims to inspire and motivate. Children are confident to ask questions and make choices. Continuous provision is provided for all and children are given opportunities to explore various types of equipment. Often this is child-initiated but on occasion is also completed through adult-led activities. This results in enthusiastic, interested and creative children.
In Key Stage 1 the units have been chosen from the syllabus that we consider allow the exploration of the big idea which is the basis of the syllabus. The units also provide links to the wider curriculum including within the story of creation exploring recycling and looking after the planet and in the harvest topic looking at Fair Trade. Links are made to other faiths across the curriculum There are many cross curricular links with PSHE and English.
In Key Stage 2 the curriculum builds upon the higher-level thinking developed with the dive deeper and I wonder questioning started in KS1. The eight key concepts of the big idea continue to be revisited but with a great level of challenge in terms of the links that are made across the Bible and links with other faiths. We ensure that our RE curriculum builds on previous learning and that it is connected to other subject areas, especially English and PSHE to create a greater coherence and context for the children.
