Religious Education at Warkworth CofE Primary School

At Warkworth, Religious Education is treated as a rigorous, academic subject that underpins both intellectual growth and spiritual maturity. Our RE curriculum – based on the Diocesan agreed syllabus and Understanding Christianity – gives pupils a deep knowledge of Christianity and the world’s major faiths. Through carefully sequenced lessons and enquiry-based learning, children engage with core theological concepts and big questions (such as “What does it mean to believe in God?”) in an intellectually challenging way. In line with the Church of England’s vision, we view RE as “intellectually challenging and personally enriching,” helping pupils make sense of their own place in a diverse, multi-religious society. It fosters theological literacy, teaching children to use the language of faith and doctrine accurately, and encourages critical thinking – pupils evaluate and compare beliefs, reflect on moral issues, and connect learning about religion to their own lives.

• We ensure academic excellence in RE by setting high expectations: teachers plan ambitious content, embed substantive knowledge, and require pupils to recall and build upon learning over time.

• Learners acquire knowledge and understanding of Christianity (its theology, symbols and festivals) and other religions, alongside philosophical questions.

• Pupils develop critical skills and wisdom: they are invited to ask “big questions” about meaning, ethics and belief, to reflect on evidence, and to justify their own ideas respectfully. This mirrors Ofsted’s RE Research Review that high-quality RE helps children ask theological and philosophical questions of life.

• RE lessons also promote our Christian values – love, peace and courage – in every unit. For example, when studying compassion in world religions or truth in biblical texts, pupils see these values in action

We believe this approach embodies The Warkworth Way (our agreed teaching approach across school). As our ethos states, we teach rigorous lessons with high expectations within a loving, nurturing environment, enabling all to flourish. Our RE curriculum reflects this: it is broad, balanced and academically demanding, preparing children to think deeply and to flourish spiritually. Ofsted’s research review notes that RE is “vital in preparing pupils to engage in a diverse and complex multi-religious and multi-secular society”. At Warkworth, we take that to heart – equipping every child with the knowledge, critical perspective and spiritual understanding they need to live out our Christian vision and to live life in all its fullness.

The RE Curriculum

The school follows the syllabus as set out by the joint dioceses of Newcastle and Durham. This syllabus gives children a deep understanding of Christianity (at around 50% of the curriculum) and a variety of world views, both through specific units (e.g. on Jewish Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhi peoples) and thematic units (that look across different faiths and worldviews, for example looking at how life events are celebrated in both different religions as well as those who do not follow a specific religion.

For Christian units, the school utilises Understanding Christianity in order to support planning. Understanding Christianity’s aims are:

• To enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living world faith, by exploring core theological concepts.
• To enable pupils to develop knowledge and skills in making sense of biblical texts and understanding their impact in the lives of Christians.
• To develop pupils’ abilities to connect, critically reflect upon, evaluate and apply their learning to their own growing understanding of religion and belief (particularly Christianity), of themselves, the world and human experience.