Religious Education

At Cronton CE Primary School our KEYS Curriculum is built around the National Curriculum, enriched to reflect the children and community we teach in. As a church school our Christian ethos and school values are the heart of everything we do.

We believe every child can be their BEST with our Vision statement reflecting this.

“I can do everything through God who gives me strength” Philippians 4:13

Intent

The Aims of Religious Education as a Church of England School, the foundation of our approach is the Christian faith. The school enjoys strong links with the church, and this allows everyone to learn about and practice Christian beliefs, and all are invited to take part in its community life. The school is committed to respecting the personal values and beliefs (religious or otherwise) of parents and children. As an Aided Church of England school, we believe that R.E. in general and Christian teaching in particular play an important part in our teaching explicitly through weekly R.E lessons and implicitly through our teaching of the Christian values in collective worship and in everyday school life. These lessons are linked also to the statements on collective worship and the social, cultural and moral development.

They are also linked to the mission statement and the general aims of the school which are: Our mission is: To provide a wide range of high-quality educational and life experiences so that the children can attain their full potential within a happy and Christian environment based on Gospel values.

Our RE aims:

• Based on the Christian faith, we aim to teach the children to be considerate and respectful of themselves, others and the environment with everyone leading by example and demonstrating our belief in the gospel values.
• We aim to develop the children in our care by giving them wide ranging experiences so that they gain knowledge and understanding of the world about them and value the opportunities that they have.
• We aim to give them a firm grounding in the skills needed to succeed by being literate, numerate, creative and to possess technology skills to discover information for themselves within a safe, purposeful and open learning environment.
• We aim to develop the whole child so that they are confident and motivated to learn and develop their own individual abilities and talents in order to achieve success that is recognised and celebrated.
• We aim to make school a place of happy memories and enjoyable learning, where all children are given a chance to shine and to leave the school as well-rounded individuals.
• We aim to involve the parents in the partnership of their child’s education at our school and foster relationships that will support the development of their child.
• We aim to develop our own skills and knowledge as we recognise that learning is a lifelong journey and all staff are committed to their own development to benefit ourselves and the children we teach.
• To give the children in our care an understanding of the teachings of the Church of England, its principles and practices, appropriate to their age and ability.
• To give the children an insight into the wealth of stories from the old and new testaments, and how these are linked to our living in a Christian way.
• To introduce children to the fact that other people in our world have different beliefs from us, and to begin to develop in the pupils an understanding and respect of these faiths.
• To help children try to answer bigger questions in life.
• To develop spiritual awareness, vocabulary and concepts necessary for the potential of faith awareness and spiritual reflection.
• To make a distinctive contribution to the spiritual, moral, cultural, social and academic development of our children.
• To support our children in reflecting upon, developing and affirming their own beliefs, values and attitudes through an exploration of shared human experiences and of the place and significance of religion in the contemporary world.
• To celebrate our school values underpinned by our Christian beliefs and the Gospel values – respect, truthfulness, celebration, kindness and consideration, generosity, responsibility, patience and self-control and inclusion.
•  To begin to develop their own beliefs, attitudes, moral values and practices through a process of personal search, discovery and critical evaluation (Life as a Journey)
•  To foster the spiritual, moral, social, cultural development making sure that RE is an integral part of the curriculum

Implementation

It has been agreed that:

● The R.E. Syllabus for Primary School published by the Blackburn Diocesan Board be the main source for the planning and teaching of R.E. in Cronton C.E. School. The main resource is Questful RE.

● Christian and non- Christian faiths – Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism will be taught throughout Key Stage 1 and 2.

 ● Children are also given the opportunity to celebrate other religious festivals through cross curricular and multicultural links.

Lesson Structure

This lesson structure has been designed to ensure the children learn more and remember more, combining recapping with learning new knowledge and allowing children to make links. They will develop an understanding of vocabulary and knowledge.  

Courageous Advocacy

Courageous advocacy is defined by the Church of England as “the act of speaking out against an issue of injustice, often on behalf of those whose voice is not heard.” 

A courageous advocate is someone who supports, champions and speaks up for a cause that is important and meaningful to them. Courage is needed to persevere and stand up for something or someone you believe in, to make a difference.

Proverbs 31: 8-9 describes this to us perfectly:

Courageous Advocacy at Cronton CE

At Cronton C of E Primary School we want to support and encourage our children to become courageous advocates, not just locally but nationally and globally.

At some point in life we will all face challenges and need support to help us overcome these barriers. We teach our children that is important to help others when we see a need. We teach this in many ways: through our work on Christian values; through our class worship looking at Picture News; by looking at and reflecting on stories from the Bible and other world faiths and world views, as well as learning about other courageous advocates. We want our children to have confidence to discuss and debate big ideas, to challenge injustice and engage in activities that can bring about change on some level.

All acts of courageous advocacy at Cronton are driven by our school’s Christian vision: "I can do everything through God who gives me strength" which reminds us that, in all situations, God gives us strength to be courageous and 'agents of change'. Children act together with a purpose that people may live happily together in unity. Our Trust's vision encompasses God’s vision that everyone should live well together. Courage is one of our core Christian values and is at the heart of all actions and decision making by children and adults. Another core Christian value is service. We actively promote the value of serving God and loving and serving our local and wider communities.

Jesus spoke up for people who were disadvantaged, disempowered and ignored by their communities. Children are encouraged to reflect on Jesus’ actions and teachings to inform their own values, judgements and courageous choices. Other learning experiences, including, PSHE lessons, character education and learning about British values, enables children to grow in character and independence, develop their sense of respect and justice, and grow in courage “to speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” (Proverbs 31:8).

It's our belief that everyone has the power to change the world for the better.  To this end, we know that all of our pupils and our whole school community has the potential to be advocates of change, and we both encourage and celebrate them taking responsibility for doing this within the school community and wider afield.

Throughout our school, and in particular our PSHE and RE curriculums, we learn of opportunities for social action and where appropriate to challenge injustice. Every child learns about courageous advocates from across the globe, both past and present, that have faced injustice and overcome barriers in order to help others for the greater good. As part of their learning, the children reflect on what injustice these courageous advocates have faced and how they changed the world for the better.

Agents of Change - Courageous Advocacy on display

Ukraine Appeal

Our children chose to support children in Ukraine this Christmas. They were challenged by Mr Tunstall Sr. on the current situation in Ukraine for children just like themselves and wanted to step up and make a difference. The whole school community responded by filling 100s of shoeboxes that were sorted, packed and put into the van to go by our children. The Ethos group played a key role in ensuring that all items were appropriate and fairly distributed. They also, along with Year 6, helped to fill the van. It was so full it needed two trips! Well done everybody.

Spirituality

Our shared language for spirituality:

Simply put: Windows are for learning. Mirrors are for reflecting. Doors are for responding.

We have a Windows, Mirrors, Doors display in our school hall. Each week, worship is ended with a reflection and reflection questions are sent back to class. Children respond to these in their own way, at their own time, during the week. 

Here is an example below:

We also use this language as an assessment tool in foundation subjects. Using this means that learning goes from being just head knowledge and instead becomes transformative and meaningful: it becomes heart knowledge.

Here is an example below of how it has been used in RE at the end of a unit on Pilgrimages:

RE Long Term Plan

We use the Big Frieze to support our teaching and to help children gain an understanding of the whole of God's story. 

We have displays in the main hall that show each part of the Big Frieze. As a school, each class also recreated a section of the frieze during out Art Week.  

EYFS

In Nursery, we looked at the story of Jonah and the Whale and the children reflected on this with some drawings of the story.

Year 1

In Year 1, to start our topic off we went to see if the seeds we planted when we were in Reception had grown. We found that most had and we excited to find them. However we realised that none of our beetroot seeds had grown, which led us on to discuss what happens when crops fail. 

Year 2

Year 2 have been learning all about the Bible and why it is a special book for Christians.  We have read a selection of Bible stories and discussed which are our favourites and why.

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 5 have enjoyed learning all about the importance of the Bible and how Christians use the Bible in their everyday lives. We applied all the learning about values and attitudes to modern day issues such as climate change and thought about how the Bible could guide us. The highlight of the topic was a visit by Mrs Whitehouse who spoke passionately about how the Bible guides her. 

Year 6

Year 6 have been learning about Journey's and Pilgrimages. We were lucky to have a visit from Mrs Whitehouse, who talked about her journey as a Christian. The children had developed questions and listened carefully to Mrs Whitehouse as she talked about her travels and all the fantastic charities she has worked for . It was inspirational and our children took on board the message of hope and trust that we each have a different journey that is help by our faith. 

Ethos Group

Each year we recruit a group of Key Stage 2 children to become our Ethos Group. The children fill out application forms for the role, explaining why they would like to join and outlining the qualities they have to make them excellent Ethos Group members. 

Ethos Group attend meetings with members of school staff and clergy and are responsible for leading Collective Worship, leading prayer activities and helping with fund-raising and Courageous Advocacy projects. 

Ethos group recently helped with our Ukraine appeal - they were in charge of leading worship, as well as sorting, packing and filling up the van. They did a fantastic job!