R.E.

 At Sholing Junior School, our RE curriculum provides pupils with the opportunity to learn about a wide range of religious traditions in a safe and exploratory space. RE makes a unique contribution to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils; it supports wider community cohesion and allows all children to become more informed, understanding and tolerant members of society. Sholing Junior School children belong to a wonderfully diverse nation that celebrates other cultures and beliefs, and our RE curriculum, enables learners to apply their depth of learning in later life. 

In summary, our religious education for children and young people:

• provokes challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs, the self, issues of right and wrong, and what it means to be human. It develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, and religious traditions that examine these questions, fostering personal reflection and spiritual development
• encourages pupils to explore their own beliefs (whether they are religious or non-religious), in the light of what they learn, as they examine issues of religious belief and faith and how these impact on personal, institutional and social ethics; and to express their responses. This also builds resilience to anti-democratic or extremist narratives
• enables pupils to build their sense of identity and belonging, which helps them flourish within their communities and as citizens in a diverse society
• teaches pupils to develop respect for others, including people with different faiths and beliefs, and helps to challenge prejudice
• prompts pupils to consider their responsibilities to themselves and to others, and to explore how they might contribute to their communities and to It encourages empathy, generosity and compassion.
   

RE is taught in all year groups weekly and children have the opportunity, over the four years they are with us, to learn about major world religious traditions in Britain. In addition to this, children are provided with opportunities to experience different places of worship and benefit from a variety of visitors.

At Sholing Junior School, RE is taught following the Hampshire agreed syllabus (The Living Difference document) which emphasises a process of enquiry into different concepts/words.

These concepts are categorised as the following:

1. Concepts/words shared within as well as outside of religions and religious traditions.
2. Concepts/words shared across religions and religious traditions. 
3. Concepts/words distinctive to particular religions and religious traditions. 

Learning Support

Living Difference IV

The Agreed Syllabus for religious education (RE) in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton. Informed by current educational research, as well as research into the religion and worldviews, it build on the approach to religious education used in Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton since 2004. 

Living Difference IV seeks to introduce children and young people to what a religious way of looking at, and existing in, the world may offer in leading one's life, individually and collectively.  

It recognises and acknowledges that the question as to what it means to lead one's life with such an orientation can be answered in a number of qualitatively different ways. These include the idea that to live a religious life means to adhere to certain propositional beliefs (religion as truth); the idea that to live a religious life means to adhere to certain practices (religion as practice); and the idea that to live a religious life is characterised by a particular way of being in and with the world, with a particular kind of awareness of, and faith in, the world and in other human beings (religion as existence). 

Difference IV uses three broad, and at times overlapping, groups of concepts/words which assist with the making and organising of the spiral curriculum. It identifies three groups of concepts/words:

• concepts/words shared within as well as outside of religions and religious traditions. 
• concepts/words shared across religions and religious traditions. 
• concepts/words distinctive to particular religions and religious tradtions. 

Living Difference IV understands the name concept/words to be a term for words that give expression to human experience. Concepts/words suitable for enquiry in religious education are included in the Agreed Syllabus.

Age-related expectations (AREs) must inform planning, ensuring appropriate challenge in a particular cycle of enquiry, or sequence of cycles. Progress in religious education in Living Difference IV is understood as being in relation to the skills in the particular knowledge context. Teachers can devise a curriculum from Living Difference IV to suit their children or young people.

Thank You!

Year 4 would like to say a big thank you to Saranjit Singh Karir  from the Sabha Gurdwara for coming into to school today and talking to them about Sikh identity and the 5 K's. This was to support their RE curriculum on the concept of identity. We all learnt so much, asking lots of interesting questions and we can't wait to see him again soon.