Overview of RE

Teaching and Learning

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 Planning and Organisation - St Mary’s Approach to implementing and embedding the RED’

RE is taught following the new RED framework which is supported by Clifton Diocese. Early Years to Year 6 are currently teaching the new RE Curriculum Directory. RE is taught for 10% of our school timetable and is at the Core of our curriculum. Our Catholic status informs our planning and teaching of all subjects – to make links with CST, to be Stewards and teach in a way that values each child.

Pupils at St Mary’s will enjoy RE lessons and they will not be seen as a way of either promoting the Catholic faith exclusively, nor for them to be something in which they are purely 'taught'. RE lessons will be faith-filled, enjoyable lessons where each child feels they belong to our school community and not excluded because they are not Catholic. Lessons will be places where everyone is respected for their beliefs and expressions of faith, but where ultimately, they all achieve.

The new RED can be found in full here.

Long term planning

The Religious Education Directory - ‘Day by Day’ branches are followed in all years:

Creation and Covenant

Prophecy and Promise

Galilee to Jerusalem

Desert to garden

To the ends of the Earth

Dialogue and Encounter

Medium term planning

Units are planned using the Diocese suggested Learning Outcomes and I Can Statements, leading to secure moderation and assessment. Each unit begins with an elicitation task to discover what children remember or know, this is then used as a baseline to plan from, filling gaps where necessary to allow all children to access the learning.

Each lesson is planned in terms of delivery, activity, scaffold and outcome. Teachers adapt their own lessons/PowerPoints from the Clifton resources, so they are suited to the needs and ability of their class from their unique starting points. Each cohort requires different levels of support and adaptation depending on their past RED learning, needs and abilities and planning reflects this.  A variety of outcomes such as art, drama, written pieces, and discussion are planned to enable all children to achieve.

Short term planning

Lessons are planned so that children can be educated beyond the RE curriculum, with space for reflection, discussion and asking questions. Scripture is a key part of our learning, using the Catholic Children’s bible as a text, relating it to the time it was written, its audience and authors and finding meaning today.

Each lesson is planned around Success Criteria based on the Understanding, Discern and Respond Ways of Knowing. Children and teachers assess learning at the end of each lesson against these criteria.

Teaching and Learning

Lessons incorporate various teaching strategies from independent tasks to paired and group work, including practical, creative, computer-based and collaborative tasks. This variety means that lessons are engaging and appeal to those with different learning styles. Guidance for adapting the learning is available for every lesson to ensure that all pupils can access learning, and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required. ICAN statements, knowledge organisers and Success Criteria help identify prior and future curriculum links to make the scheme as meaningful as possible and reinforce key vocabulary.

Assessment. Evidence and recording

Each unit is assessed through teacher judgement based on all areas – written pieces, contributions to class discussions, liturgy led by children and observations of tasks. These are assessed against the end of Unit outcomes/ I Can statements which result in a Working Towards/Expected or Greater Depth judgement each long term.

Success criteria are created using against the Ways of Knowing for each lesson. Children and teachers assess learning at the end of each lesson against these criteria. Next step questions are then designed to consolidate or deepen learning and cover misconceptions, these are responded to by children in the next lesson.

Children have their own RE book from Year 1 upwards and they are proud of the work they produce. Class discussion and tasks are recorded through notes and photographs and either placed in a class floor book or as a record in the children’s books.