Intent - What we believe for our curriculum

At Holbrook Primary School we believe that Religious Education provides an opportunity to celebrate and foster awareness of the differences within our school and the wider world. It is a subject that mirrors our whole school culture for celebrating diversity and challenging stereotypes. 

RE is taught in accordance with the aims of the Suffolk Agreed Syllabus. Particularly relevant to our school is the syllabus aim which states: 

‘Religious Education should help pupils to develop a positive attitude towards other people, respecting their right to hold different beliefs from their own, and towards living in a society of many religions and beliefs.’ 

Our aims at Holbrook are: 

• To understand the nature, role and influence of religion in the world. 
• For pupils to be able to reflect on their own experiences and to develop a personal response to the fundamental    questions of life. 
• To develop an understanding of religious traditions and to appreciate cultural differences in Britain today. 
• To have respect for other people’s views and celebrate diversity in society. 

Legal Requirements 

In accordance with the law we provide religious education for all pupils registered at the school. R.E. is taught weekly.

Parents are informed in the school prospectus that they have the right to withdraw their pupils from religious education. Parents who choose to withdraw their children from Religious Education lessons are required to state this in writing annually to the Head teacher. 

We believe that it is the responsibility of the parents who have chosen to withdraw their children from school R.E. to provide acceptable alternative religious education work for their children to do during RE lessons. We expect that this work will be discussed with the class teacher so that these children can be fully included, and their alternative work linked to what the rest of the class is learning. 

Implementation - How we put our aims into daily practice

R.E. will be taught in our school following the procedures and principles covered in the following school policies. 

• River of Knowledge Curriculum policy 
• Assessment 
• SEND 
• Teaching and Learning 
• Equality

• Feedback & Marking 
• Display 
• Health and Safety 

We use a bespoke Progression of Skills Grid which ensures that R.E. is carefully sequenced throughout the school.  In addition, the following are specific to this subject. 

R.E. should be taught each week for: 

Reception    20 minutes 

K.S.1     45 minutes 

K.S.2     1 hour (This is in addition to Assembly Time)

Each term we offer a series of Religious themed assemblies run by the RE Lead and guest speakers:

Rosh Hashanah (Judaism), Diwali (Sikhism), Chinese New Year (Confucian), Easter (Christian), Ramadan (Islam), Odon (Buddhism)

Impact - We are successful because

By ‘learning about’ and ‘learning from’ religion Holbrook Pupils become well-rounded and tolerant individuals, especially when they go out into the wider community and meet people from different faiths, cultures and nationalities from their own. This has been evident on all the RE school trips and through comments made by Year 7 teachers. The love of this subject is also clear from the comments made by present and former pupils both informally and from pupils’ perception interviews.

Pupils at Holbrook feel confident and able to openly discuss challenging personal and spiritual topics. One example of this is when a Year 6 group were able to talk about this subject of death. Parental feedback commented on how well this subject was tackled by the RE Subject Lead.

Pupil perception related to religious groups shows that as a community at Holbrook we are excepting of different religious groups and cultures.

Themed religious assemblies that have included trying special foods e.g. apple dipped in honey for Judaism have impacted on children’ learning and their ability to recall the details about different religious festivals.

Our SMSC board evidence the impact of our teaching of diversity across the school.

Click here for our Progression of Skills, Knowledge, Understanding and Vocabulary documents. These sequencing documents show how knowledge builds from EYFS year by year to the end of Y6 so that children know more and remember more.