RE

Religious Education at Yardley Wood Primary follows the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus for RE and is designed to promote children's spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

Intent

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• The intent of Birmingham’s character-driven approach is to encourage the development of 24 dispositions, or values. The dispositions were created by conference members and have been agreed unanimously.
   
• The dispositions derive from a number of sources including the Cardinal Virtues from the Classical tradition, Theological Virtues and Religious Practice. They are equally applicable to, and inclusive of, the religious, those who have an established non-religious world view and those classing themselves as ‘nones’. Importantly the dispositions were created by conference members representing all these groups and are therefore ‘religious and non-religious’.
   
• The dispositions both define and promote a flourishing personal, spiritual and moral character. Examples of the dispositions include, ‘Living By Rules’ and ‘Creating Unity And Harmony’.
   
• Such dispositions are the starting point for all study in Religious Education, the order and complexity in which they are presented being influenced by child development.
   
• A universal perspective is adopted as the starting point for understanding each disposition, gradually exposing pupils to a growing number of Religious Traditions and Non-Religious Worldviews as pupils engage with the dispositions.
   
• The dispositions encourage pupils to think about, and act upon, a growing understanding of their own faith or viewpoint, whilst acknowledging their neighbour’s perspective. Lessons focus on discussion and guidance to assist the formation of character-based judgements through the acquisition of knowledge.
   
• The syllabus includes the nine religious traditions recorded to have significant representation within Birmingham: Bahá’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Rastafari and Sikhism, and established non-religious worldviews such as Atheism, Humanism and Secularism.
   
• It responds to the experience of the growing number of pupils whose families identify as ‘nones’. The syllabus acknowledges this complete spectrum of beliefs and views and all are accorded equal respect.
   
• The use of the syllabus will ensure a Religious Education that complies with the legal requirements.

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Implementation

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RE at Yardley Wood Primary is taught using a learning model which breaks the dispositions into four tangible, interconnected aspects. They are:

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• Learning from Experience
• Learning about religious traditions and non-religious world views.
• Learning from Faith and non-religious world views.
• Learning to Discern

We aim to meet the guidance from the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus of:

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• Reception and Key Stage 1: 36 hours per year
• Key Stage 2: 45 hours per year

The various teaching and learning activities are engaging and mindful of different learning styles and the need for differentiation and the Early Years (EYFS) planning is aligned to the National Early Years Framework (England).

At Yardley Wood Primary we endeavour to create kind, caring and empathetic learners through our teaching of RE. By teaching about different beliefs and faiths we aim to promote healthy discussions and debate in order the deepen children’s understanding of themselves, their peers and the world around them. Through cultural days, visits to places of worship and celebrations; links are made throughout the curriculum to celebrate the diversity within our Yardley Wood Primary family and local community.

​Each year group at Yardley Wood Primary has the opportunity to visit a place of worship, these visits have proven incredibly valuable in increasing depth of knowledge as well as offering ‘hands on’ experience. 

We assess our children’s attainment and progress in RE using iTrack, our school tracking system. This allows our RE leader to track the progression of children throughout the school and identify any gaps in knowledge and understanding.

Impact

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The children at Yardley Wood Primary Primary enjoy learning about other religions and why people choose or choose not to follow a religion. RE acts as a hub, between social aspects of learning. It not only supports children’s knowledge and understanding but it helps them to appreciate differences around them. Through RE children develop an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life, which they are then able to communicate to the wider community. RE offers our children the means by which to understand how other people choose to live and to understand why they choose to live in that way. RE is invaluable in an ever changing and diverse world.