RE and the new primary curriculum
“RE has an important role in preparing
children for adult life, employment and
lifelong learning. It enables them to
develop respect for and sensitivity to
others, and enables children to
challenge prejudice. In these ways it
contributes to children’s wellbeing and
promotes ways in which communities
can live and work together.” (The
National Curriculum Primary Handbook.)
No change there!
QCDA website for the new curriculum
A new UK Government took office on 11 May. As a result
the content on this site may not reflect current
Government policy. All statutory guidance and legislation
published on this site continues to reflect the current
legal position unless indicated otherwise.
http://curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/new-primary-curriculum/areasof-learning/religious-education/index.aspx
Content  Learning
One of the biggest differences in the new
curriculum, which will also affect how RE is taught,
is that the focus has shifted from ‘content’ to
‘learning’, an approach that helps children to
develop the skills necessary to facilitate their own
exploration of a subject.
Suggestions that were made for
SACREs to keep in mind when it
came to revising the agreed syllabus:
 The quality of the learner experience has to be the prime focus.
 It should include a mixture of discrete and cross-curricular units.
 The design of the curriculum was important: RE can be
improved by paying attention to the structure, i.e. what type
of structure will best engage teachers.
 Taking into account the local context, there should be a balance
between big ideas (e.g. forms of expressing meaning; values and
commitments; identity, diversity and belonging) and specific content.
 There should be a cross-fertilising partnership between local
and national bodies.
 The SACRE/LA partnership is responsible for investment,
ownership and understanding of the locally agreed syllabus
Each of the seven programmes of
learning in the new primary curriculum
follow the same structure:
Curriculum aims: the three broad aims that
underpin the process of curriculum design. These
aims are to enable all young people to become:
 successful learners who enjoy learning, make
progress and achieve
 confident individuals who are able to live safe,
healthy and fulfilling lives
 responsible citizens who make a positive
contribution to society.
This is followed by an importance statement,
which describes the distinctive contribution of the
area to a child’s development and how this area
of learning helps to meet the curriculum aims.
 Provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose of life.
 Develops understanding of the nature of religion and belief
 Opportunities for reflection and spiritual development
 Enables children to flourish individually, within their communities
and as citizens in a diverse society and global community.
Essential knowledge
The big ideas
children need to know about and understand to
lay the foundations for deeper learning in
further stages of their education.
 Beliefs, teachings and sources
 Practices and ways of life
 Forms of expressing meaning
 Identity, diversity and belonging
 Meaning, purpose and truth
 Values and commitments
Key skills The important skills and
processes children need to develop in this
distinct phase of education to prepare them
for future learning.
 Identify questions and define enquiries, using a range of methods,
media and sources.
 Carry out and develop enquiries by gathering, comparing,
interpreting and analysing a range of information, ideas and
viewpoints.
 Present findings, suggest interpretations, express ideas
and feelings and develop arguments.
 Use empathy, critical thought and reflection to evaluate their
learning and how it might apply to their own and others’ lives.
Cross-curricular studies Opportunities
to enrich and enhance children’s learning
and make connections across the
curriculum.
 Provide opportunities to develop and apply literacy, numeracy
and ICT skills.
 Provide opportunities for personal, emotional, spiritual, moral,
social and cultural development.
 Provide opportunities to enhance understanding of
religions and beliefs through making links to other areas
of learning and to wider issues of interest and importance.
Breadth of learning
The range and
context for learning to help children acquire
the essential knowledge and key skills.
Curriculum progression What children
should be taught at early, middle and later
primary stages to help curriculum planning.
Feedback from schools already
implementing the new approach
Telling stories: children need to learn that
they have their own stories to tell, just as
‘inspirational’ figures tell stories.
There are lots of ways of structuring
learning in RE and not one way fits all
schools. Examples include:
 Taking existing modules in the agreed syllabus and
linking them to other areas of the curriculum.
 Investigative learning: using the four key skills as the
basis for learning through discovery.
 Creative curriculum: linking RE with subjects not
ordinarily considered together, e.g. RE and art.
 Days/weeks devoted entirely to RE.
When it comes to all-school planning, often
the first step is to generate a clear,
exploratory, RE-relevant question. Then the
learning experience can be led by RE. Some
examples:
 KS1 Belonging: who do you think I am?
 KS1 Stories with meaning.
 In a year 5 class, a character story from the Buddhist
tradition was linked to learning about Buddhism, as well
as to a dance lesson inspired by meditation.
 A year 6 unit on life and death was linked to a history
lesson on Britain since the 1930s.