RE

At Portsdown, we encourage children to explore their own beliefs and experience the beliefs of others so that they can consider and reflect on how others in their community live.

In accordance with the Education Act (2006), the teaching of Religious Education at Portsdown Primary School follows the Local Authority Agreed Syllabus ‘Living Difference III’ (revised December 2016).

Although the main learning focus at our school is Christianity, the children are taught other key religions which are non-Christian denominations identified in the Agreed Syllabus. Years 1 and 2 study Judaism, Years 3 and 4 study Hinduism and Years 5 and 6 study Islam. The RE topics build on the children’s own experiences and progressively develop an understanding of the key concepts, features, beliefs, celebrations and values of all religions. Whilst fostering an appreciation of the significance of faiths and their followers, children learn to appreciate the significance of faiths to their believers.

The teaching and learning methods of Religious Education is planned to employ a wide range of teaching methods including:

• Visits to places of worship.
• Exploring Religious artefacts.
• Listening to religious stories.
• Visits by members of faith communities.
• Reflection on religious symbols, sounds and the use of silence.
• Art, music, dance, including concerts and performances.
• Experiential learning through drama.
• RE is a delivered through a process of enquiry into concepts. This allows children to develop skills such as critical thinking. The enquiry model included the following five steps: communicate, apply, enquire, contextualise and apply.