Our teaching incorporates the four elements of high-quality RE teaching as identified by Cumbria SACRE. Pupils progress in the areas of ‘knowing and understanding’, ‘expressing and communicating’ and ‘gaining and deploying skills’.

We use the Cumbria SACRE Agreed Syllabus in KS1 to guide our planning and ensure children are introduced to a wide range of ideas and given the right opportunities to reflect and respond to the ideas they encounter. Reception and Nursery use Development Matters and the Early Learning Goals to guide their practise and give children a foundational basis for their understanding of religions, cultures and worldviews.

In Reception, children are given immersive opportunities to experience different religious beliefs, cultural practices and worldviews. Children take part in a Diwali day, Christmas, Easter and Chinese New Year. As part of the ELGs children are also given the opportunity to begin to respond to the world around them and form and express their own opinion through an enquiry based approach.

In Year 1, children then begin to look at religions from around the world in more depth. Children study Christianity and Judaism, investigating the link between the two religions. Children learn about the special books of both religions, festivals of light, who Jesus met, Easter symbols, the creation story and what it means to be Jewish.

Year 2 then continue to develop their knowledge and understanding of Christianity but have a secondary focus on Hinduism. This is reflected in Year 2’s Spring topic of ‘Where
In The World Is India?’ and provides the children with an opportunity to explore another world religion of major cultural difference to Christianity. Children continue to develop their understanding and reflections with regards to Christianity including the stories Jesus told, places that are special to Christians, how a church celebrates Easter, the special qualities people have and what it means to belong. They also look more in depth at the celebration of Diwali for Hindus and its cultural significance, linking the themes of its story to other religious and secular stories that they know.