Rationale - What has informed our curriculum design in RHSE?

At Calstock and Stoke Climsland Schools Federation we believe that Religious Education (RE) should make a major contribution to the education of children and young people. We believe it should be intellectually challenging and personally enriching. Its purpose it to help young people develop beliefs and values, and promotes the virtues of respect and empathy, which are important in our diverse society. Religious Education fosters civilised debate and reasoned argument, and helps pupils to understand the place of religion and belief in the modern world.

Religious Education contributes dynamically to children and young people’s education in schools by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. In RE they learn about and from religions and worldviews in local, national and global contexts, to discover, explore and consider different answers to these questions. They learn to weigh up the value of wisdom from different sources, to develop and express their insights in response, and to agree or disagree respectfull

Intent - What are our aims?

At Calstock and Stoke Climsland Schools Federation our intention is that all our children will become resilient, accepting, mindful and inquisitive learners, developing self-awareness and confidence. RE lessons will offer a broad and rich RE curriculum, allowing for a variety of ways to explore religions, community cohesion, personal development and wellbeing. The lessons will provide high quality, coherent and progressive experiences, with opportunities for cross-curricular learning. Pupils will learn about a range of religions and world views, through a Cornish focused syllabus. Teaching RE is vital to children understanding other beliefs and making connections between their own beliefs and values. We believe that it is essential to ensure that pupils are curious, engaged and are able to express their own ideas. Meaningful discussions, challenging questions and time for reflection will enable pupils to develop a rich understanding of religions, beliefs and will encourage deeper moral and cultural awareness. High quality experiences including balanced and informed conversations, will prepare pupils for modern life and enable them to develop personally. RE contributes to the pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The ability to understand moral and ethical issues, cultural influences and diversity enables pupils to reflect on their own beliefs, ideas and values.

Using the new Cornwall Agreed Syllabus (2020-2025) the purpose of the units are summed up in the following: “The principal aim of religious education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas.”

It is our aim that this is reflected in all the RE lessons taught in our schools and will enable all pupils to develop religious literacy; effective, articulate dialogue and the ability to participate positively knowing that they will all be respected and valued.

Implementation

As our pupils come from an area that is predominantly Christian, it is vitally important that their learning is inclusive of both other religious and non- religious world views. They also need the opportunity to learn more about the religious, spiritual and cultural character of Cornwall and its rich heritage. The RE across both schools is taught using the new Cornwall Agreed Syllabus (2020-2025). This syllabus is designed to develop and deliver excellence in RE throughout the whole school. It does this by studying one religion at a time in a systematic approach. Pupils encounter core concepts in religions and beliefs in a coherent way, developing their understanding and their ability to investigate questions, explore key concepts and encourage deeper understanding. The teaching and learning approach has three core elements which are interwoven together to allow for breadth, depth, flexibility and progress.

The three core elements are:

Making sense of beliefs – Identifying and making sense of religious and nonreligious beliefs and concepts; understanding what these beliefs mean; looking at a range of sources such as texts and how they are used and expressed and interpreted in different ways.

Understanding the impact – Examining how and why people put their beliefs into practice in diverse ways, within their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world.

Making connections – Evaluating, reflecting on and connecting beliefs and practises studied, allowing pupils to challenge ideas and the ideas studied to challenge pupils’ thinking; discerning possible connections between these and the pupils’ own lives and ways of understanding the wider world. The RE curriculum enables pupils to revisit previous learning and embed new concepts and develop long term consolidation.

Progress in RSHE will be assessed by;

The pupils encounter engaging and imaginatively resourced lessons which are taught using a range of teaching and learning styles. These allow for the personal development of skills and understanding. There is a clear sequence of progression throughout the school and children’s knowledge and understanding is built upon as they move from year to year. Progress and attainment are monitored through the end of phase outcomes and any gaps are then addressed. When monitoring, we check that pupils know, understand and apply the concepts, skills and learning processes relevant to each unit and that they are consolidating and embedding learning.

In addition to the RE Curriculum which is taught through dedicated RE lessons using the Cornwall Agreed Syllabus, the children attend daily assemblies and as part of these, enjoy and participate in ‘Open The Book’. This is a regular assembly led by a dedicated group from the local churches. They perform a series of plays that bring bible stories to life and enable pupils to think about some of the more challenging ideas. The school also has strong links with the local church and the local community. Celebrations of Christmas, Easter and Harvest are marked within school and the community.

In order to strengthen our multicultural links and to support our enriched curriculum, we organise a range of workshops with religious visitors of a variety of faiths. These visitors include: Daya, a Cornish Sikh lady. With Daya, pupils learn about Hindu and Sikh traditions, culture, clothes and cooking, in addition to the important aspects of Hindu and Sikh faith and beliefs. A wide range of resources and artefacts are used to inspire and encourage learning and opportunities for research and self-development are promoted; another inspirational visitor includes Sue, a Jewish lady who enjoys teaching us all about the Jewish festivals and stories. As well as visitors into school we also work hard to provide opportunities to visit places of worship.