Religious Education

This is an important subject in our Church of England School. It is
systematically covered from Foundation Stage through to Year 6 and
monitored in a range of ways. As well as Christianity, children learn
about Judaism, Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism and how to respect the faith of
others. They learn about sacred writings, places of worship, beliefs and traditions as well as many other faith characteristics. They also learn about how other religions and cultures celebrate.

It is important that as a Christian school, we have 'Christian Distinctiveness'. This includes us taking time and space in all of our learning to be amazed and wonder at what we see and hear and this underpins everything that is taught and experienced.

The school follow two schemes of work. We use 'Understanding Christianity,' which is a scheme aimed to give children in a church school a good foundation of the whole, "Big Story", of Christianity and are a good foundation for those wanting to continue with RE as an academic subject. We also follow the South Gloucestershire scheme of work that covers the subjects from religions apart from Christianity.

If you wish to withdraw your child(ren) from all or part of RE please contact the school office.

RE Intent

The intent for the teaching of RE at St Peter’s C of E Primary School is for all children to develop

the knowledge and understanding of Christianity, other principal religions, religious traditions, and world views
the joy of a personal worldview
the awe of God
the excitement that can be experienced from exploring faiths.
consideration of responsibilities to themselves and to others, exploring how they might contribute to their community and to wider society encouraging empathy, generosity and compassion.

We will do this through our teaching RE as an academic subject with an enquiry approach using units from the South Gloucestershire scheme and units from The Understanding Christianity scheme. As we are a church school, we will teach over 50% of our RE as units about the Christian faith. We aim for our children to understand the basics of what Christians believe in and why. This will be provided through a spiral curriculum where children repeat certain units like Incarnation and Salvation, each year, to a different level of understanding. Children should leave St Peter’s C of E primary with a wider than average knowledge of the Christian faith. We will ensure that staff are confident to teach RE and that children enjoy the teaching of it. Work will be assessed regularly and pupil conferencing / discussions with our reflection leaders will help us to acknowledge where we need to develop further.

Our celebrations throughout the year will include, Harvest, Remembrance Day, Christmas, Easter, Collective worship will enhance the teaching of RE through singing, the use of liturgy and prayers.

We plan to work closely with the church to increase our community links. This year we will establish worship together post-Covid by an introductory celebration at the church incorporating the new St Peter’s Day celebration and the launch of a year of prayer. There will be opportunities to visit the church as classes and a plan to experience Easter in an exciting way with the help of St Peter’s church. (Easter extravaganza and Easter in a box). The church teaching team will be involved in weekly collective worship.

Evidence of the quality of education will be collected through book scrutinies, pupil conferencing, photographs, learning walks remote learning and assessment.

Here is the overview of the RE curriculum:

re progression.pdf

The school is able to meet regularly for separate KS1/KS2 collective worship .This builds a real sense of family and community. For more information about our Christian Distinctiveness please visit the 'Attending a Church School' page.

Collective Worship

This is a time when we gather together as a whole school or Key Stage to consider a variety of themes and stories – moral, social, multicultural, biblical. It is a time for reflection and quiet, an opportunity to celebrate together and share learning with one another. The collective worship includes a class worship where the children lead the worship and an opportunity to worship through song.

Church Link

The school has a close relationship with St Peter's Church. The Vicar, Mr Tim Godden, takes weekly assemblies in school. (These included video links through lockdown, when we were unable to meet outside of bubbles.) There is also support from Katie Biden who is the church youth and children's worker.

Each class visits the church once a year for a special morning led by the Church. This year they have been following the life and teachings of St Peter in order for our children to understand the life of Peter (Their school's name sake) Children are then invited to the churches Cafe Church that weekend, when their work will be displayed.

The Church provides an Easter Experience in the church for us to attend. Each class visits the church in the week leading up to the Easter holiday and they walk through the story of Easter.

The church is also used for school services during the year. At Christmas, there is a carol service.

Awe and Wonder

We are encouraging our children to look for the special moments in life. At the start of the year, many groups went for walks around the school to look at the wonderful signs of Autumn. Some linked this to art and others linked this to RE and creation. We were amazed at how amazing things were that we could find from nature in our own school!

Mr Herniman found a passion flower in the nursery, that the Church partner (Katie) had talked about in assembly. It was beautiful. You wouldn't expect to see a passion flower in St Peters!

We made a real colour wheel with the items that we found.

Prayer hub

We have just celebrated our first prayer hub, when, after school, children, teachers and friends from the church were invited to an interactive prayer workshop. They were invited to join in interactive prayer activities