Religious Education – Dr South's School

Religious Education enables pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of people worldwide and as the religion that has most shaped British culture and heritage as well as enabling them to know and understand about other major world religions and world views, their impact on society, culture and the wider world, enabling pupils to express ideas and insights. It also contributes to the development of pupils’ own spiritual and philosophical convictions, exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.

A Statement of Entitlement 2016 (Church of England)

At Dr South’s we follow the Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. As part of that, we help the children learn about religion, in terms of factual knowledge about the world’s main religions and humanist perspectives, and learn from religion, as we believe that people of all faith perspectives can learn from each other.

Religious Education is not about converting the children, or presenting beliefs as facts, but more about helping the children develop critical thinking skills, and drawing their own conclusions. The curriculum is presented as a series of enquiry-based units and as such children will be encouraged to explore and accept that some questions are difficult to answer. Children will be challenged to approach a topic with an open mind, express their views clearly, justify their viewpoint and accept the opinions of others with courtesy.

At Dr South’s, we believe that all should have an understanding of Christianity as a living faith and how it has shaped the modern world. By the time children leave our school, they will have been introduced to the Creation, the Fall, Old Testament leaders, the Incarnation, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, the New Testament and major Christian festivals. From their study of these areas, the children will explore how Christianity relates to other religions and their own lives, and understand its impact on people’s behaviour.

The basic tenets of Islam, Judaism and Sikhism will be covered in order that children can compare ways of living and the underpinning values that shape people’s lives. In Judaism, this will include exploring the Ten Commandments and the Torah, Passover, the significance of Abraham and the life of Moses. In Islam, the children will learn about The Five Pillars of Islam, the life of Mohammad and significant stories. In Sikhism, they will learn about the Five ‘Ks’ and the importance of service. The influence of founders of religions and influential leaders is considered. Aspects of Hinduism and Buddhism are explored through stories in Collective Worship and linked to different values.

Across religions, the children will study the significance of collective worship and community, creation stories, symbolism (with a particular focus on light), pilgrimage, places of worship, clothing and life celebrations. They will also look at sources of inspiration and leadership and examine similarities and differences between the religions studied.

Towards the end of their time here, the children will explore aspects of humanism and secularism and discover that having different stimuli and belief systems can often result in similar outcomes.

The learning starts at a very early age, when children in Nursery find out about how other people live, and discover that differences are to be celebrated. In Key Stage One, there is a focus on understanding core elements of the Christian faith, along with features of other religions, so that in Key Stage Two the children have a firm foundation against which they can explore the beliefs of other religions in order to identify similarities and differences. To enrich their understanding, visits to places of worship are included, such as a visit in Key stage 1 to the local church and visits in Key Stage Two to a synagogue and a mosque. Throughout the school year, links to art, music, history, geography and celebrations are interwoven into the syllabus; in addition, many faith stories are reflected upon in Collective Worship, linked to our cycle of Christian values.

By having a rich understanding of these faiths, we hope that children will be able to develop the ability to articulate their own ideas and beliefs, to ask difficult questions and to seek answers, and to understand the importance of religious belief in the wider world.