Intent

At Petham Primary School our vision is to nurture our children, both academically and spiritually, in order to provide them with secure foundations for life, so that they leave us with an excellent education, self-confidence, independence, respect for others and a love of learning.

The principal aims of Religious Education are:

• Provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs in God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
• To learn about and from religions and world views in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions.
• Learning to articulate clearly and coherently their personal beliefs, ideas, values and experiences whilst respecting the right of others to differ.
• Develop in pupils an aptitude for dialogue so that they can participate positively in our society, with its diverse religions and world views.

Implementation

Our RE curriculum is designed to be challenging, rich and varied, enabling learners to acquire a thorough knowledge and understanding of a range of faiths and world views.

Using the Kent Agreed Syllabus we learn about other religions and world views, fostering respect for them. Links with our school’s values and vision, and support for pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development are intrinsic to our RE curriculum and have a significant impact on learners. We provide a wide range of opportunities for learners to understand and to make links between the beliefs, practices and value systems of the range of faiths and world views studied. We use a variety of teaching techniques such as drama, art, discussion, use of artefacts, stories, and reflection to provide children with opportunities to develop balanced and informed views about religions and world views. Children are encouraged to reflect critically and responsibly on their own spiritual, philosophical and ethical convictions, as a contribution to their understanding of the world and their own experience within it. They are confident to enter into discussions, where they respect each other’s difference of opinions on a variety of topics.

Where possible we want our pupils to have opportunities to encounter local faith communities through visits to local places of worship or visits from members of local faith communities.

Parents have had the right to withdraw their children from religious education. However, we would hope that all children admitted will participate fully in RE, and that anyone wishing to withdraw their child would discuss this with the headteacher before making this decision.