Religious Education

At Calder Primary School we follow the West Yorkshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2024) 'Believing and Belonging.'

We believe that well-prepared and challenging RE will help to inspire young people to learn from others and discover the value of empathy. Our curriculum aims to provide a framework to explore the rich heritage of faiths and beliefs but also the opportunity to develop critical and reflective skills that will support each pupil in discovering their own journey of purpose and meaning.

Religious Education helps young people to understand and articulate their own views about religion and world views. It helps them comprehend that not everyone feels the same as them, but teaches them to see other people's points of view. It gives them an understanding of why people think and behave differently and how that impacts society.

This syllabus is called Believing and Belonging because it weaves two key threads: First, it is about beliefs and values. It aims to develop learners’ understanding of religions/worldviews, exploring their commonality and diversity.

Specifically, RE:
a. Enables learners to develop a broad and balanced understanding of religions/worldviews. RE’s primary purpose is to give learners a broad understanding of Christianity, other religious traditions and non-religious beliefs, and understand how these are woven into human
experience and applied to life and decisions.
b. Empowers learners to develop and use critical thinking skills. Well taught, RE is a rigorous academic subject, supporting problem solving and critical thinking skills. It will inspire and motivate learners to enquire into religious and purposeful questions.
Engaging and stimulating RE helps to nurture informed and resilient responses to misunderstanding, stereotyping and division. It offers a place in the curriculum where difficult or ‘risky’ questions can be tackled within a safe but challenging context.

Secondly, the syllabus is about ‘belonging’. It aims to nurture pupils’ awareness of the treasury of diverse beliefs and cultures, as well as sensitivity to the questions and challenges that these can present. Ultimately, we all share a common humanity and our own patch of the Earth. In this way RE plays a part in helping pupils to discover their own place, identity and journey through life.

Specifically, RE will:
c. Broaden perspectives of faiths and cultures, encouraging tolerance of diversity. A universal RE entitlement means that the subject must aim to develop understanding of diversity, empathy and cohesion. RE develops pupils' knowledge and understanding of
Christianity, other religious traditions and worldviews and explores their responses to life's challenges. This gives them the knowledge and skills to flourish both within their own community and as members of a diverse and global society.
d. Develop their own personal worldview, identity, values and spirituality. The role of RE is neither to promote nor undermine organised religion. But part of its purpose is to provide structured opportunity for consideration of the non-material aspects
of life. RE can contribute dynamically to children and young people’s education 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. It can support their own discovery of their personal journeys of meaning, purpose and value, whether or not they identify with a specific, organised worldview.
e. Contribute to developing learners as positive, participating citizens of the world. Human beings are strengthened and empowered by learning from each other. So, through experience and culture, it is possible to explore the opportunities, challenges and purpose of
our individual lives and communities. RE plays an important role in preparing pupils for their future, for employment and lifelong learning.

It enhances spiritual, moral, social and cultural education by:
• Developing awareness of the fundamental questions raised by human experiences, and of how religious teachings can relate to them

• Responding to such questions with reference to the teachings and practices of religions and other belief systems, relating them to their own understanding and experience; 

• Reflecting on their own beliefs, values and experiences in the light of their study;

• Nurturing curiosity and insights to become positive, participating citizens.

In teaching RE we have three key aims of study:

Investigate the beliefs and practices of religions and worldviews;
Investigate how religions and worldviews address questions of meaning, purpose & value;
Investigate how religions and worldviews influence morality, identity and diversity.

We aim to broaden pupils' experiences of different religions through visits and visitors, to broaden their understanding and build on their learning in class. This can include virtual visits, for example a virtual tour of a Sikh Temple, visiting local churches and mosques and having visitors from the local vicar to staff with different religions to talk about their faiths.