RE
"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." (Dalai Lama)
At Hillcroft, we intend that every child has the opportunity to contribute dynamically to deepening their understanding of other cultures, religions and ways of life by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.
We endeavour to give pupils valuable insights into the diverse beliefs and opinions held by people today, including Humanism. Our aim is to help with their own personal development & support an understanding of the spiritual, moral, social & cultural questions that may surface throughout their lives. We endeavour to offer opportunities to experience other religions and ways of life by involving all our stakeholders and inviting guests to bring their religion and philosophies to life.
At Hillcroft we implement ‘The Surrey Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education’. “The syllabus helps pupils to understand their own and others’ worldviews, religious and non-religious, and appreciate the influences of these on everyday life. The units of work outline substantive knowledge, ways of knowing (viewed through the multi-disciplinary ‘lenses’ of theology, sociology and philosophy) and personal knowledge, as well as key questions that might be asked to help shape the learning in different ways.”
We promote a safe environment for children to express their opinions and to question and challenge the world around them. We endeavour to provide the oracy skills and tools including vocabulary and debate to enable this and encourage our children to embrace similarities and differences to become well rounded individuals.British values are taught through this curriculum area especially mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.
Please see below the progression of knowledge and skills for each year group including Early Years.
Assessment
Each unit has the expected outcomes which are assessed against using teacher assessment (marking, on the ground conversations, class discussions etc)
Pupil Voice:
I like the stories in the Bible. I like the story about Jesus and the storm. He tells the storm to calm down. Daniel, Year 2
In RE we learnt all about how people celebrate when a baby is born. Some people don’t go to a church, some people celebrate in the park (Humanists). I liked it because we saw all the different things people do. I like the temple one the best. Zahra, Y 1
I like RE because I enjoy learning about different religions and Gods in particular. The stories are interesting and all the religions are different. James, Year 5
At Hillcroft Primary School, we follow the National Curriculum. From this, we ensure that skills and knowledge are taught in the appropriate year groups to ensure progression and sequencing.
Across Early Years, to ensure progression from the newly published Early Years Framework into KS1, we follow the revised and updated July 2021 version of Development Matters. In our Nursery, children are aged three and four, and so the progression maps show the objectives related to Three and Four year-old objectives. However, some children join after just turning three, therefore, with these children and following rigorous assessment of starting points, it may be deemed necessary to look at the Birth to Three objectives too.
For more information on this, please see the Nursery and Reception year group pages.
Below are links to our Progression of Skills and Knowledge documents.
