Religious Education
RE Curriculum Overview
Overview
The study of religion is the attempt to understand the various aspects of religion. Religious Education (RE) enables students to take their place within a diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society. It offers students both the opportunity to see the religion and non-religion in the world, and the opportunity to make sense of their own place in that world. As a Christian school we place great emphasis on RE and whilst our students learn about many other religions following the Cambridgeshire RE Syllabus, we have greater focus on Christianity.
Content
THE AIMS OF THE RE CURRICULUM
Ermine Street Church Academy is committed to offering a curriculum which is balanced and broadly based, and which:
- promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils, and
- prepares pupils at the school for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life and all state schools... must teach religious education... all schools must publish their curriculum by subject and academic year online.
Following the Cambridgeshire agreed RE syllabus, the aims of the RE curriculum are for pupils:
- to develop religious literacy;
- to acquire and develop knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions and world views represented in the United Kingdom;
- to develop an understanding of the influence of the beliefs, values and traditions on individuals, communities, societies and cultures;
- to develop attitudes of respect towards other people who hold views and beliefs different from their own;
- to develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious issues, with reference to the principal religions and world views represented locally and in the United Kingdom.
At Ermine Street Church Academy, pupils encounter a range of biblical texts, placed within a wider theological context. They gain knowledge of the nature of God and what it means for Christians to be in relationship with the Creator. They study Christian understanding of the relationship between God and his people in the Old Testament, and make sense of messianic expectations and Christian belief in their fulfilment in Jesus. Pupils learn about the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus, within this wider historical and theological context. They consider the present and future aspects of the Kingdom of God. Pupils examine the impact of these beliefs and their outworking in the lives of Christians, through (for example) celebrations, festivals, rituals, creative and spiritual expression, actions and activism, expressions of love and compassion, calls for justice and ethical responses.
Throughout their studies, pupils will encounter all major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism) developing a holistic approach to Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC), British Values, and Community. RE develops pupils' knowledge and understanding of religious traditions and secular world views and explores their responses to life's challenges. Reference is constantly made to those who live out their beliefs, insights and values in their daily lives and within their own communities. This gives pupils the knowledge and skills to flourish both within their own community and as members of a diverse and global society. Pupils will develop their religious literacy gaining the knowledge of, and ability to understand, religion, beliefs, practices, spiritual insights and secular world views.