Rationale

At Greet, we are driven by a collective mission of ensuring that children understand that there are no limits to what they can achieve.  It is through this relentless ambition and high expectations that we seek to secure academic excellence for our children, to develop their social intelligence and to develop their understanding of how to live ethical lives.   We do this so that our children can go on to live their best lives, with respect for and understanding of others and the world around them.

Religious education is not part of the national curriculum but part of the basic curriculum. As such it is an entitlement for every pupil in every school.

The ‘material’ of religious education stands separate as an object for study, critique and as such the personal beliefs of the teacher and pupils are irrelevant. It is every pupil’s entitlement to have access to the key concepts underpinning religions and beliefs, whether they are of that tradition, or not.

Religious education is important because like every other subject, it provides a particular set of materials through which pupils come to understand important things about the world, and themselves. It is the study of religion and beliefs and it stands in the curriculum as a set of ideas and practices which have shaped and continue to shape our world. The business of religious education is an exploration of the influence of religions and beliefs on individuals, culture, behaviour and national life.

Our approach

At Greet we follow the PlanBee whole school RE curriculum which ensures that all pupils:

• Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews.

• Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews.

• Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews.

• The characteristics of good quality provision are when teachers keep as close as possible to the fundamental ‘stuff’ of the subject. In RE, these include the following:

• The Bible and sacred texts - these should be the beating heart of religious education. Texts have a primacy in that they have stood the test of time over centuries, contain the accumulated wisdom of traditions and have a life beyond any individual. They usually point to the ultimate, whether God in Christian tradition, Yahweh in Judaism, Allah in Islam. The texts can provide the lens through which to engage with the theological.

• Stories from faith traditions - the hadith in Islam, the lives of the saints in the Christian tradition, the wisdom of the Midrash in Judaism, the Ramayana are all fertile sources providing insights into religious beliefs.

• Artefacts as ways of understanding belief and practice. Material based on strong ‘socio-historical’ grounds - namely that which has emerged from the past, stands up to the critique of time and resonates with society today. It is both static and malleable in that it can be interpreted through the lens of different individuals and their communities.

• Visits and visitors providing the unique insights of lived religion and belief

• Art and sacred music as ways of understanding and expressing religion

It is important that as teachers we appreciate the difference between the external aspects of religions and the lived experiences of individuals.