Religious Education

Subject leader: Mrs Foxwell

At Trinity Academy Richmond RE has the status of a core subject that both supports and strengthens what we aim to do in every aspect of school life. Our caring ethos and the values which we place on the development of the whole child: spiritually, morally, socially, culturally and intellectually is reflected in our RE curriculum.

We value Religious Education as an important part of all children’s entitlement that engages, inspires and challenges pupils whilst equipping them with the knowledge and skills to:

Know about and understand Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of people worldwide and as the religion that has most shaped British culture and heritage.
Know and understand about other major world religions and non-religious worldviews, their impact on society, culture and the wider world, enabling pupils to express ideas and insights.
Develop an understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on individuals, communities, societies and cultures, including the local community;
Contribute to the development of pupils’ own spiritual/philosophical convictions, exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.
Recognise the right of people to hold different beliefs within an ethnically and socially diverse society

Our RE curriculum will allow children to encounter diverse religious traditions, alongside non-religious worldviews, and present a broad and flexible strategy that allows different traditions to be treated with integrity.

Teaching and learning in the classroom will encompass 3 different elements:

Making Sense of Beliefs/Texts: Identifying and making sense of core religious and non-religious concepts and beliefs; understanding what these beliefs mean within their traditions; recognise how and why sources of authority are used, expressed and interpreted in different ways, and developing skills of interpretation.
Understanding the Impact: Examining how and why people put their beliefs into action in diverse ways, within their everyday lives, within their communities and in the wider world.
Making Connections: Reasoning about, reflecting on, evaluating and connecting the concepts, beliefs and practices studies; allowing pupils to challenge ideas and the ideas to challenge pupils’ thinking; discerning possible connections between these ideas and pupils’ own lives and the ways of understanding the world.

Our Religious Education encourages all participants to reflect on their own beliefs and values and to acknowledge that others hold beliefs different from their own.