At Willow Bank Infant School our aim is to ensure the RE which is taught, enhances children’s awareness and understanding of religions, beliefs and teachings of those around them. We want our children to develop their ability to reflect and explore their own beliefs. The children will not only learn RE facts but also think about what they have learnt and how they can apply it to their own lives. For example, Joseph was a strong and brave Jewish leader, how can we be strong and brave?
Our RE implementation
We encourage the children to share their own traditions and values with their peers, while recognising and respecting each other’s views.
The school’s RE curriculum will start where the child is (EYFS) and through themes the child will move on to exploring festivals such as Christmas, Chinese New Year and Diwali. Then in KS1, the children will learn about Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Our learning is based on the Wokingham RE syllabus, with the 6 enquiry questions for KS 1 and topics of learning in EYFS.
Our children also have opportunity to visit Woodley Baptist Church and St Johns Church to enhance their learning. We welcome speakers to school who share their faith beliefs with the children. We are fortunate as we have a good range of RE recourses and artefacts. The RE lessons have a similar structure in KS1, with a hooking in activity to engage the children in the topic of the lesson, a learning part and then a follow up activity and reflection at the end. Often the activity is practical including drama and art. We aim to make RE fun and the lesson memorable to embed the learning and create the foundation of a understanding of their wider community.
