| Religious Education |
Religious Education at Shiney Row Primary School
At Shiney Row Primary School, our Religious Education curriculum is designed to promote curiosity, respect, and understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, enabling pupils to develop their own beliefs and values while appreciating those of others. In line with the Sunderland Agreed Syllabus, our curriculum supports pupils in exploring key religious concepts, practices, and traditions through thoughtful enquiry and reflection.
We aim to equip children with the knowledge and skills to ask meaningful questions, think critically, and engage in respectful dialogue about religion and belief. Through learning about Christianity and other principal religions and worldviews represented locally and nationally, pupils develop an understanding of how beliefs influence individuals, communities, and cultures.
Our RE curriculum promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development, fostering empathy, tolerance, and respect in an increasingly diverse society. By making links between faith, values, and everyday life, we support children in becoming reflective, informed, and respectful citizens who can contribute positively to their local community and the wider world.
Principal aim
The principal aim of religious education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.
The aims of RE
The curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils:
1. make sense of a range of religious and non-religious beliefs, so that they can:
identify, describe, explain and analyse beliefs and concepts in the context of living religions, using appropriate vocabulary
explain how and why these beliefs are understood in different ways, by individuals and within communities
recognise how and why sources of authority (e.g. texts, teachings, traditions, leaders) are used, expressed and interpreted in different ways, developing skills of interpretation
2. understand the impact and significance of religious and non-religious beliefs, so that they can:
examine and explain how and why people express their beliefs in diverse ways
recognise and account for ways in which people put their beliefs into action in diverse ways, in their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world
appreciate and appraise the significance of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning
3. make connections between religious and non-religious beliefs, concepts, practices and ideas studied, so that they can:
evaluate, reflect on and enquire into key concepts and questions studied, responding thoughtfully and creatively, giving good reasons for their responses
challenge the ideas studied, and allow the ideas studied to challenge their own thinking, articulating beliefs, values and commitments clearly in response
discern possible connections between the ideas studied and their own ways of understanding the world, expressing their critical responses and personal reflections with increasing clarity and understanding