RE

Pinner Wood follows the Harrow Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in accordance with Harrow’s ‘Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education’ (SACRE). This ensure all the main religions represented in our borough are present and non-religious views are represented through Humanism.

In accordance with the agreed syllabus, Religious Education at Pinner Wood School ensures that children:

• Celebrate the breadth of diversity within their local community.
• Respect and understand their own beliefs as well as those of others.
• Contribute actively to family life and to their communities.
• Can articulate and appreciate their beliefs and cultures
• Understand how these beliefs and cultures have an impact on individuals, local communities, and wider society.

The purpose of Religious Education at Pinner Wood is underpinned by the Agreed Syllabus and the National Curriculum. The four purposes are: –

• To establish an entitlement for all pupils irrespective of social background, culture, race, religion, gender, differences in ability and disabilities. This entitlement contributes to their developing knowledge, skills, understanding and attitudes. These are necessary for pupils’ self-fulfilment and development as active and responsible citizens.
• To establish standards by setting out expectations for learning and attainment. To use these standards to support assessment and set targets for improvement.
• To promote continuity and coherence by providing a curriculum that provides a foundation for lifelong learning.
• To promote public understanding of the work schools do in Religious Education. Encouraging those who are interested to participate in enriching the provision of Religious Education.

The aim of Religious Education at Pinner Wood is to help children and young people to learn about and learn from religious and spiritual insights, beliefs, and practices.

Our Religious Education curriculum at Pinner Wood: –

• Provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
• Develops knowledge, understanding and awareness of Christianity and other major world faiths, including the Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism as well as ethical non-theistic traditions, such as Humanism.
• Offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development and contribute to a search for meaning and purpose in life.
• Enhance awareness and understanding of religions and beliefs, teachings, practices and forms of expression, as well as of the influence of religious and other beliefs on individuals, families, communities, and cultures.
• Encourage learning from different religions, beliefs, values and traditions while reflecting on, considering, analysing, interpreting, and evaluating issues of truth, faith and ethics and communicating responses.
• Foster respect for, and sensitivity to, individuals and communities of different faiths and beliefs by promoting discernment and combating prejudice
• Develop further tolerance and harmony between different cultural and religious traditions and belief systems and develop an appreciation of diversity locally, nationally and internationally.
• Highlight that other people having different faiths or beliefs to oneself (or having none) should be accepted and tolerated, and should not be the cause of prejudicial or discriminatory behaviour.
• Explore the significance of the environment, both locally and globally within religions and other belief systems and the role of human beings and other species within it.
• Take account of the changing nature of society, including changes in religious practice and expression, and the influence of religious and other beliefs in the local, national and global community.

Our curriculum recognises the importance of spiritual development as children engage in discussions searching for meaning and purpose in life and the values that they seek to live by.  They are able to explore spirituality by: –

• Discussing and reflecting on key questions of meaning and truth such as the origins of the universe, life after death, good and evil, beliefs about God and values such as justice, honesty and truth.
• Learning about and reflecting on important concepts, experiences and beliefs that are at the heart of religions, other belief systems and various traditions and practices.
• Considering how beliefs and concepts may be expressed through the creative and expressive arts and sciences, thereby contributing to personal and communal identity.
• Exploring how religions and other world views perceive the value of human beings and their relationships with one another, with the natural world and where appropriate, with God.
• Appreciating the value placed on relationships with others and developing a sense of belonging.
• Developing their own views and ideas on religious and spiritual issues.
• Recognising the importance of feelings and emotions and the way in which personal experiences can influence the actions and beliefs of individuals and communities.

Our curriculum also seeks to present opportunities for children to explore moral, social and cultural dimensions of Religious Education by: –

• Encountering diversity and offering contexts in which to engage with issues of justice and truth.
• Growing in understanding of how society is influenced by beliefs, teachings, sacred texts and guidance from religious and secular leaders.
• Considering what is of ultimate value to themselves and others, including members of faith communities, through studying the key beliefs and teachings of different religions and belief systems.
• Considering how religious and other beliefs lead to particular actions.
• Articulating their own views and those of others on a range of contemporary social issues.
• Highlighting the diversity within different religions and belief systems.
• Considering the relationships between religions and belief systems within different cultures and reflecting on how they contribute to cultural identity.
• Raising awareness of how cooperation between different communities and cultures can serve the common good.

How RE is taught at Pinner Wood 

Religious Education is taught using a dedicated RE day each half term. In addition, we mark religious festivals and provide opportunities for children to celebrate and share significant events. These are marked through whole school and class assemblies..  Visits to places of worship contribute to a holistic approach of providing opportunities to children to experience all religious dimensions.

Pinner Wood adopts an enquiry-based approach to learning by using key questions to initiate teaching.  The learning begins with a significant ‘big question’.  Sequences of questions then follow and children can see a learning journey, building on previous learning.  Questions are rooted in the core beliefs of Christianity and the other religions required for the Agreed Syllabus.  Work is recorded in project learning books and is evidenced with a variety of outcomes, including written pieces, creative tasks and photographs.

As children progress through the programme of study, they are able to look deeper into spiritual, ethical, moral and social issues and with increasing breadth across different religions and worldviews through time and around the world.

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