Religious Education

At Petersgate, we believe that it is vital for all our pupils to learn from, and about, religion so that they can understand the world around them.  Our pupils begin to develop their knowledge of the world faiths and their understanding and awareness of the beliefs, values and traditions of other individuals, societies, communities and cultures.

Through the Hampshire Living Difference IV, the children are able to explore three groups of concepts:

• Concepts common to all people
• Concepts shared by many religions
• Concepts distinctive to particular religions

We aspire for children to be able to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and beliefs. We do this by exploring and asking questions in our mutually respectful environment.

The RE Curriculum focuses on the religious traditions of Christianity and Hinduism and is planned and taught through specific RE lessons planned as six half termly cycles of enquiry. These are delivered as either blocked or weekly units for each year group then further developed through provision based activities.

RE is taught through a spiral curriculum approach that brings about a coherent and integrated approach to RE that deepens and broadens over time as concepts are well sequenced, connected and revisited.   

Each unit of work uses a cycle of inquiry using the skills of:

• Communicate – sharing ideas about a new concept
• Apply – developing awareness of the experience of others
• Inquire – engaging & exploring new information about the concept
• Contextualise – looking at real life examples
• Evaluate  – Thinking about how the material might matter in their own life.

Questioning has a key focus  as children’s questions enable them to explore their own and others experiences, Teacher’s questions encourage children to attend in different ways, engage intellectually, think, speak, act and discern what is of value to them and overarching enquiry questions guide units of study.

By the time the children at Petersgate Infant School leave our school, they will be able to:

• Talk confidently about their beliefs, morals and cultural development for the society in which they live and be able to ask and answer questions about religion with informed opinions.

• Show respect, tolerance and understanding for all those around them including themselves. Produce high quality work showcasing a deep understanding of the main religions of the world, their community and their future.

• Demonstrate their understanding of religion through use of the correct vocabulary, explanations and respectful opinions, as well as cross-curricular evidence.