St James Church
School
RE
Religious Education
Religious Education in our school is taught in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus and reflects the teaching of the Church of England.
Through the teaching of religious education we aim to promote the spiritual and moral development of the children, at the same time seeking to ensure that it promotes respect, understanding and tolerance for those who adhere to different faiths.
Understanding Christianity
For the teaching of Christianity, we use the resources from Understanding Christianity, which has been developed by the Church of England Education Office.
These resources allow the children to build a theological and conceptual understanding of Christianity by...
- Helping children make sense of a biblical text and how Christians interpret them.
- Understanding the impact of the biblical text and how Christians put their beliefs into action.
- Supporting children to make connections with the biblical text to their own lives and others around the world.
Awareness, Mystery & Value
For the teaching of other religions (Judaism, Islam & Hinduism) we use the resources from Awareness, Mystery & Value, which has been developed by Somerset SACRE as well as BANES AMV, Oak Academy and Discovery RE.
These resources allow children to build an essential core knowledge of these different religions by...
- Including a summary of a few of the most important beliefs for each faith.
- Emphasising that each key religion has one key belief or 'Big Idea' which allows each religion to be better understood.
- Ensuring there is clear progression in each religion so they are built upon and developed throughout the different key stages.
Overview of Religious Education Teaching
Christian Distinctiveness
To find out more about our aims and values at St James, please follow the link below.
A parent does have the right to withdraw their child from religious education if so wished. In order to comply with the 1988 Education Reform Act each school is required to ensure that all pupils take part in daily collective worship. Nothing in the Education Reform Act affects parents’ rights, as established in the 1944 Act. Any parent does have the right to withdraw their child from collective worship if they wish.
Understanding Christianity Day
On 25th January 2024 we held a day focussed on understanding Christianity.
Here are some photos:
RE
World Views
At St James it is important that we raise awareness of unconscious bias and discrimination, treating all worldviews, including religions, as of equal relevance and significance. It reshapes the subject away from a focus on gathering information about the ‘world religions’ towards gaining an understanding of how worldviews work in human experience, including pupils’ own.
The RW approach seeks to embody the vision developed by the Commission on RE (2018). This recognised the truth that ‘everyone has a worldview’ or, to put it another way, ‘nobody stands nowhere’. This vision seeks to engage all pupils in a personally relevant and engaging study of influential religious and non-religious worldviews in a way that enables them to embrace an academically rigorous understanding of their own personal worldview development. Such an approach offers an inclusive experience of religious education for all pupils, irrespective of their background or personal worldview. It puts the pupils’ educational outcomes at the centre of RE.
//www.youtube.com/embed/AFRxKF-Jdos#t=0.5https://www.j2e.com/jit5#pictogram https://youtu.be/AFRxKF-Jdos