Religious Education
Our Religious Education Intent
Greenside Primary School is located in the heart of an area with a rich social and culturally diverse community; we use this as a basis for our curriculum which celebrates diversity and utilises the skills, knowledge and cultural wealth of the community whilst supporting the pupils’ spiritual, moral and cultural development.
It is our intent for the Religious Education element of our school curriculum to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society.
Religious Education has a significant role for the development of pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It promotes respect and open-mindedness towards others with different faiths and beliefs and encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection.
This curriculum strongly links to our diversity and community drivers. Religious Education teaching is carefully planned so that current learning is linked to that from previous years ensuring that our children can build upon and develop knowledge, skills and understanding year after year. We want our children to know and understand the links to British values and how this supports cultural capital and a well-rounded educated citizen.
We aim to enhance our curriculum as much as possible with the use of religious artefacts, visitors, workshops and visits in order to engage and inspire our children’s interest in the unit of work. Lessons are planned and delivered in a variety of creative ways ensuring that all children can access and participate in lessons. Interactive, practical activities encourage the children to discuss their beliefs and broaden their understanding of thoughtful-concepts and challenging questions.
Religious Education teaching at Greenside Primary School aims to give children an understanding of the identity and diversity of the local and wider community, which will enable them to grow up, to live and to work alongside people of all beliefs and cultures. We want our children to not only learn about the world’s faiths, beliefs and teachings but also lessons learnt from them. Through discussion and debate, our children will learn to listen to the viewpoints of others; that not everyone has the same thoughts and beliefs and how to appreciate ideas that are different from our own. They will be given the opportunity to reflect on their learning through discussions and debate.