The principal aim of Threshfield Primary School is to explore big questions about life, in order to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can make sense of religion and worldviews, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.
We share with our children:
'We study Religious Education so that we can ask the 'BIG' questions about life that religions and world views help us to understand.
So that we can learn how to compare all the different answers to these questions and decide what we believe ourselves.'
As we live in a diverse society, we consider Religious Education as a core subject in our curriculum to develop religious and belief understanding and tolerance. Children of all faiths and none explore the similarities and differences of worldviews and religions, asking questions, making links and drawing comparisons from the content they learn or investigate.
At Threshfield Primary School, Religious Education is taught following the North Yorkshire Agreed Syllabus (2019), which combines resources from ‘Understanding Christianity’ materials.
The full syllabus can be downloaded at North Yorkshire Agreed Syllabus 2019-2024
The Intent of our Religious Education Curriculum
The children at Threshfield Primary School will be provided with a Religious Education curriculum offer designed to teach pupils to:
Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews, so that they can:
- Describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising the diversity which exists within and between communities and amongst individuals
- Identify, investigate and respond to questions posed, and responses, offered by some of the sources of wisdom found in religions and worldviews
- Appreciate and appraise the nature, significance and impact of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning.
Express ideas and insights and nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews, so that they can:
- Explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities.
- Express with increasing discernment their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and valuing, including ethical issues.
- Appreciate and appraise varied dimensions of religion.
Gain and deploy the skills needed to engage seriously with religions and worldviews, so that they can:
- Find out about and investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, responding creatively
- Enquire into what enables different individuals and communities to live together respectfully for the wellbeing of all
- Articulate beliefs, values and commitments clearly in order to explain why they may be important in their own and other people’s lives.
The Implementation of our Religious Education Curriculum
- Religious Education will be taught as a discrete subject and will allow children to comment, question or explore the viewpoints and ideas of others.
- Religious Education will be taught using practical, hands on tasks, as well as discussions, resources, debates and visits, or visitors.
- Religious Education outcomes will be recorded through photographs, discussions, written evidence etc. across individual pieces of work and class ‘Big Books’.
The Impact of our Religious Education Curriculum
At Threshfield Primary School, we seek to ensure that all pupils in our school are educated to develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to better understand themselves and others and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world.
Regular assemblies and celebrations of work taught and learnt during each year group’s RE week will help to celebrate the diversity of the school community and promote positive images of people in the wider community, including their beliefs, traditions, culture, language and history.