St Edward's - A caring Christian Community where children achieve their potential, are confident in themselves and their abilities and are set on a positive path for life.

Through the teaching of RE, as part of our wider school curriculum and extra-curricular activities it is hoped that our children will develop the knowledge, attitude and skills required to reflect the aims of our mission statements. These aims are –

Be kindhearted, be thankful, work hard, never give up, always be honest, forgive and forget, keep your promises but most important, love one another.

The teaching of RE will give our children the opportunity to look at the big questions of life. It will give a safe and structured environment where these can be explored at each child’s individual level. It will lead to a respectful understanding of a variety of outlooks on life and will give our children a framework from which they can begin to explore, develop and articulate their own thoughtful world view as well as understanding, appreciating and learning from the views of others.

The teaching of RE at St Edward’s is based on the Rochdale Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2019-2024. This syllabus is based on question led units ensuring that pupils gain relevant knowledge whilst also encouraging investigation, independent thought and personal reflection.

In the Foundation stage children will encounter different religions and world views through exploring their own experiences and those of others around them. This will happen naturally during daily activities, but will also come through more focused discrete lessons. They will encounter special people, books, times, places and objects. They will listen to and talk about stories and experiences. They will ask questions and reflect on their own feelings and experiences.

In KS1 children will start a more formal approach to building up their knowledge and understanding of religious and world views, focusing mainly on Christianity and Islam, as is reflected in our school. They will develop their use of the correct vocabulary and terminology. They will continue to ask questions and express their own views. They will start to recognise what communities and individuals do and the reasons that underpin these. They will begin to recognise and respond to emerging themes such as special times and places.

In KS2 children will extend their knowledge of religions and world views and start to recognise their importance and significance on a local, national and global scale. They will continue to explore ideas, themes and beliefs in Christianity and Islam, whilst extending this to include Judaism in Year 3 and 4, and Hinduism and Humanism in Years 5 and 6. They will be encouraged to ask their own challenging questions about human life and be able to explore a range of responses. They will begin to form their own ideas and be able to give reasons explaining their ideas and views as well as being able to identify, understand and explain the views held by others.

RE as a subject is open, broad and explores a range of religious and non-religious world views. In the UK, parents have the right to withdraw their children from RE on the grounds that they wish to provide their own RE. This provision will be the parents’ responsibility. If this is the case, you will need to arrange a meeting to discuss this with the headteacher.