Religious Education
"RE is well planned and makes a significant contribution to the Christian character of Trinity St Mary’s. Pupils have developed an undeniable understanding and respect towards other Christians and other faiths. One pupil explained that ‘we have to understand about other religions so that we know how to pay respect." SIAMs Inspection 2017
As a Church school and as part of the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education, we promote that 'Religious Education is not just an academic subject, but, lies at the very heart of the curriculum and has an important role in reflecting and conveying the distinctively Christian character of the school’ (SDBE)
At Trinity St Mary’s we follow the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education RE syllabus and schemes of work. The syllabus is sequenced through systematic units, focused on one religion, and thematic units which build on learning by comparing the religions, beliefs and practices. The syllabus comprises teaching units for the teaching of Christianity at Reception, Key Stage 1 (KS1) and Key Stage 2 (KS2) and the study of other principal world religions and worldviews in KS1 and KS2. Pupils encounter core concepts in religions and beliefs in a coherent way, developing their understanding and their ability to handle questions of religion and belief. The teaching and learning approach also has three disciplinary lenses or ‘ways of knowing’ (believing, thinking, living), which are woven together as golden threads to provide breadth and balance within teaching and learning about religions and beliefs, underpinning the aims of RE. Believing, relating to theological approaches, thinking, relating to more philosophical approaches and living, sociological approaches. Teaching and learning in the classroom will encompass all three elements, allowing for overlap between elements as suits the religion, concept and question being explored. These elements set the context for open exploration of religion and belief. They offer a structure through which pupils can encounter diverse religious traditions alongside non-religious worldviews. The elements present a broad and flexible strategy that allows for different traditions to be treated with integrity. These elements offer a route through each unit while also allowing for a range of questions reflecting different approaches, for example, from religious studies, philosophy, sociology, ethics and theology.
The curriculum is delivered in class through consistent high-quality teaching which incorporates a wide variety of teaching approaches and cross-curricular opportunities. Through this high-quality teaching, children feel inspired to explore their own and others religions, faiths, beliefs and traditions in both a positive and constructive manner. Throughout the course of each lesson, the children are invited to reflect upon their learning; this enables them to think more deeply and holistically about an issue, leading to greater insights and learning.
The Senior Leadership Team and Faith Group have an overview of the teaching of RE across the school. The school policy is reviewed annually to ensure that the school is up-to-date in its provision of RE. The RE Subject Lead has put monitoring procedures in place and these are in line with other core subjects through Leadership and child-led Learning Walks, book scrutinies, termly Pupil Progress meetings, reviews of the environment reflecting the high importance of RE across the school and Pupil Voice feedback.