RE

Religious Education

At Margaret Wix Primary School we follow The Hertfordshire Agreed Syllabus with the support of Discovery RE. It is a statutory requirement that all children from Reception to Year 6 participate in Religious Education lessons. 

At Margaret Wix our main intention is to provide high quality religious education for all pupils. 

What does a religious scholar look like at Margaret Wix Primary School?

• An outstanding level of religious understanding and knowledge.
• A thorough engagement with a range of ultimate questions about the meaning and significance of existence.
• The ability to ask significant and highly reflective questions about religion and demonstrate an excellent understanding of issues related to the nature, truth and value of religion.
• A strong understanding of how the beliefs, values, practices and ways of life within any religion cohere together.
• Exceptional independence; the ability to think for themselves and take the initiative in, for example, asking questions, carrying out investigations, evaluating ideas and working constructively with others.
• Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity, which are shown in their responses to their learning in RE.
• The ability to link the study of religion and belief to personal reflections on meaning and purpose.
• A wide knowledge and deep understanding across a wide range of religions and beliefs. 

Intent – why are we teaching this?

At Margaret Wix it is our intention to use Discovery RE (which supports us in following the Herts Agreed Syllabus for Education), alongside teachers’ expertise, to set high standards of teaching and learning in RE, enabling pupils to reach their potential in the subject.

Our RE Curriculum will:

• Provide a systematic knowledge and understanding about Christianity, principal religions and world views
• Enable pupils to become religiously and theologically literate
• Assist pupils in gaining shared human understanding, developing personal identity and searching for meaning in the context of evaluating different viewpoints
• Enable and encourage pupils to share and celebrate their own religious beliefs and customs with their class and the wider school community
• Encourage children to be inquisitive and respectful about others beliefs and customs
• Promote respect, inclusivity and tolerance of the rich and diverse community at Margaret Wix and the wider world.

The Margaret Wix community is diverse and we understand the vital need for representation within our teaching. We ensure diversity across the curriculum: careful thought and planning has gone into selecting whose stories we tell and how they are told. Our curriculum has been re-examined and we have endeavoured to reduce the western bias. We strive to ensure that BAME pupils see themselves reflected in our curriculum, all year round. We call our personalised curriculum ‘The Wix Way’. In RE, this includes learning about the six principal religions and comparing and contrasting beliefs and practices.

The EEF 'five-a-day' underpins all we do for our SEND learners in RE. As part of The Wix Way this means that small tweaks to the way we teach RE for all children could make a significant, positive difference for the pupils with SEND in our school.

Implementation – how are we teaching this?

At Margaret Wix pupils are taught Religious Education weekly but sometimes it may be delivered through a class topic, whole school themed events or a class trip. Teachers plan from the Hertfordshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2023-2028, using Discovery RE for guidance.

We use the non-statutory guidance ‘Religion for Today and Tomorrow’ to support planning. From Reception to Year 6, all pupils at Margaret Wix will follow a coherent and systematic study of the principal religion of Christianity across each key stage. All pupils will then be introduced to the other five principal religions represented in Great Britain by the end of key stage 2.

The other principal religions being taught at Margaret Wix are: -

• Hinduism
• Sikhi
• Judaism
• Buddhism
• Islam

All children across the school will cover these eight key areas of learning:-

• Beliefs and practices
• Prayer, worship and reflection
• Sources of wisdom
• Symbols and actions
• Identity and belonging
• Ultimate questions
• Human responsibility and values
• Justice and fairness

We implement the 'five-a-day' strategy from the EEF within the teaching of RE in variety of ways. The five strategies identified as having strong evidence for their effectiveness in supporting pupils with SEND which we use to underpin The Wix Way:

1. Explicit instruction

Explicit instruction refers to a range of teacher-led approaches, focused on teacher demonstration followed by guided practice and independent practice. Explicit instruction is not just ​“teaching by telling” or ​“transmission teaching”

Examples:

• Worked examples with the teacher modelling self-regulation and thought processes is helpful. A teacher might teach examples of the lesson outcome by ‘talking aloud’ their thought process, demonstrating to children how they should approach the task.
• Using visual aids and artefacts examples promotes discussion and links in learning.

2. Cognitive and metacognitive strategies

Cognitive strategies are skills like memorisation techniques to help children remember their learning.

Metacognitive strategies help pupils plan and evaluate their learning

Examples:

• Chunking the task will support pupils with SEND – this may be through  instructions on a whiteboard, step by step modelling and talking tins which helps reduce distractions to avoid overloading working memory.
• Prompt sheets that help pupils to evaluate their progress, with ideas for further support.
• Retrieval tasks to rehearse key facts, vocabulary and previous learning, to support deeper understanding.
• Word banks and prompt to promote accurate selection.
• Use of working walls, knowledge organisers and chalkboard to support retrieval of key facts, vocabulary and previous learning. Also use to reduce cognitive load.   
• Effective teacher talk to model thinking out loud.

3. Scaffolding

‘Scaffolding’ is a metaphor for temporary support that is removed when it is no longer required. Initially, a teacher would provide enough support so that pupils can successfully complete tasks that they could not do independently.

Examples:

• Support could be visual, verbal, or written.
• Include a variety of oracy rich opportunities throughout the lesson e.g. use of sentence stems, speaking frames, concept cartoons, discussion prompts, talk tactics to enable all pupils to access learning.
• Use of working walls, knowledge organisers and chalkboard to support retrieval of key facts, vocabulary and previous learning.

4. Flexible grouping

Flexible grouping describes when pupils are allocated to smaller groups based on the individual needs that they currently share with other pupils. Such groups can be formed for an explicit purpose and disbanded when that purpose is met

Examples:

• Allocating temporary groups can allow teachers to set up opportunities for collaborative learning, for example to work with a learning partner, mixed ability group work, independently carry out a skill, developing a new concept.
• Teachers are flexible in moving the positions of learners to suit the needs of the class and differing abilities.
• Pre-teaching key vocabulary to be used in RE lessons to enhance group discussion is helpful when learning new content.

5. Use technology

Technology can assist teacher modelling. Via the use of the internet, a wealth of videos and sound clips can be shared with children to support learning and understanding.

Examples:

• Use a visualizer to model worked examples, modelling or sharing good examples from peers.
• Where appropriate, some learner will access laptops for extended writing to remove the focus of letter formation.
• Talking tins could be used to learners to aid sentence rehearsal before writing.

Impact – what is the effect on the pupils?

The impact of the RE curriculum at Margaret Wix is demonstrated in the success of pupils and their confidence in demonstrating the knowledge and understanding they have gained in the subject. Achievements in RE are assessed in a variety of ways, including ongoing marking and feedback in pupil books, teacher assessment through verbal discussions, as well as end of key stage outcomes.

Pupil voice activities provide leaders with understanding of how the children feel about their learning and allows children the opportunity to reflect upon their learning, sharing this with staff.

The children at Margaret Wix Primary will:

• Have a sound knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions they have learnt about
• Develop their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding of the world around them
• Enjoy learning about and celebrating their own and other people’s beliefs and customs
• Show respect and tolerance to others and their religious or non-religious beliefs

The impact of our RE curriculum is continually evaluated by:

• Regular monitoring that includes triangulating data with book looks, lesson drop-ins and pupil voice discussions. This includes ensuring that the EEF 'Five a Day' are utilised to make certain that all pupils make measurable progress.
• Monitoring the engagement of pupils and their positive attitudes to learning. It has been observed that pupils are engaged and motivated in their learning. Children play an active role in lessons and are developing the abilities to think flexibly and critically.
• Ensuring feedback and assessment is purposeful, addressing misconceptions and positively highlighting the correct use of key vocabulary. This is used to inform planning and making sure that the curriculum meets the needs of all pupils.
• CPD carried out by teaching staff at least one yearly to ensure they remain up to date with developments within the subject.
• The subject has a link governor who makes at least termly visits to school. In addition, the subject lead also meets with the governing board to ensure that they are aware of the school’s current performance in RE, the action plan and the measures being put in place to improve attainment and progress in the subject.

Margaret Wix is an inclusive school. We promote respect, inclusivity and tolerance in all areas of school life. Through our RE curriculum we aim to celebrate key religious events and festivals for all principal religions. 

Festivals Calendar:

https://www.reonline.org.uk/festival-calendar/

Aspirations For The Future

Pupils develop an understanding of how subjects and specific skills are linked to future jobs.
Here are some of the jobs you could aspire to do in the future as a Religious Scholar:

• Priest
• Chaplain
• Member of Parliament
• Journalist
• Advice Worker
• Charity fundraiser
• Youth worker