Intent 

 We live in a diverse and global world. In order to succeed in life, our children need to understand people from multiple backgrounds and with different outlooks.  RE helps us make sense of world views and helps us make sense of our own. 

 RE at Monks Abbey aims to equip the children with the knowledge and skills needed to understand and interact with others who have different perspectives. We aim for our children to able to hold balanced and informed conversations about religion and belief. Through our curriculum we want to ensure children are able to develop their own identity and sense of belonging. RE will give many opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual and moral development.  

We are very privileged at Monks Abbey to have children from a variety of nationalities, religions and backgrounds. Diversity within school is celebrated and children will be encouraged to share their varied beliefs, views and experiences. Being able to share these experiences will enhance the children’s learning and understanding alongside helping our children develop their beliefs and values. Our RE curriculum and deeply embedded school values will help prepare pupils for adult life, enabling them to develop respect, tolerance and empathy for others.  

                          Implementation  

At Monks Abbey we follow the Agreed Syllabus for RE in Lincolnshire. 

RE ensures all of our children gain a deeper understanding of different religions. The curriculum is progressive and each unit builds on prior knowledge, skills and learning. It offers opportunities to make links and compare religions, discussing similarities and differences between common themes. For example, in Community, Worship and Celebration children will regularly compare how people express their religion and beliefs across the religions they are studying. RE offers many opportunities for inquiry, debate and to develop the children’s thinking skills. 

RE at Monks Abbey is taught weekly for a minimum of 45 minutes in key stage 1 and 1 hour a week in Key Stage 2. The children learn about Christianity and Islam in Key Stage 1 and Christianity, Hinduism and Islam in Key stage 2. In the Autumn and Spring term, Key Stage 1 and 2 classes will be taught the compulsory units for their year group set out on the Long-Term plan. In the Summer term they will be taught the additional unit for their year group.  

The key areas of enquiry to be covered across each key stage are God: What people believe about God? Community, Worship and Celebration: How do people express their religion and beliefs? Being Human: How does faith and belief affect the way people live their lives? Life Journey: How do people mark important events in their lives?  

 Monitoring will take place throughout the year through observations, pupil voice, staff voice and book looks. This is to ensure coverage, attitudes towards teaching and learning and progression of the learning journey.  

Assessment will be carried out half termly after completing each unit by the teacher and children in the form of a reflective diary. We aim to invite local leaders of different faiths to build a relationship with our school and to offer first hand RE experiences. Where possible we will visit different places of worship.    

                                                    Impact  

Pupils should leave Monks Abbey having developed their own sense of identity and belonging. Through their Monks Abbey Journey, they will have been able to explore and develop their own beliefs and values. They will have gained a solid understanding of different world religions in particular Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. They will begin to understand the impact beliefs, practices and experiences have on people’s life, community and our wider world.  Our children will be able to demonstrate they have developed important life skills which they can use as they move onto their next step. They will have developed skills in investigating and enquiry. They will have the confidence to ask relevant and deep questions and to discuss challenging ideas. They will be able to analyse information and reflect on beliefs, practices, ultimate questions and experiences. They will have developed skills in interpreting religious language and the meaning of sacred texts drawing meaning from symbols and artefact. They will analyse what they have learned increasingly distinguishing between opinion, belief and fact and between the features of different religions.  They will be able to evaluate and draw conclusions. 

Most of all children will show respect, tolerance, sensitivity and empathy towards each other. They will consider the thoughts and feelings of others and recognise and respect we all see the world differently. They will leave Monks Abbey with a strong sense of belonging and begin to know their place in the world.