St Luke's C of E Primary School

Trust in God
and give of your best

"For each one of us to shine with God’s light
believing we can make a difference in His world." Matthew 5:16

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The school has a core Christian foundation; our whole school vision and nine Christian values of Faith, Love, Hope, Trust, Forgiveness, Friendship, Respect, Courage and Peace play a central part in the life of the school. Our school community, including staff and pupils, are all encouraged and inspired ‘to shine with God’s light, believing we can make a difference in God’s world’.


Intent:

At All Saints Carshalton, RE is respected as a core subject and we strive for all children to become curious, deep thinkers who can hold a balanced and well-informed conversation about religions and beliefs in the world around us. We aim for the children to show an empathetic understanding and appreciation that their own spiritual and religious beliefs may differ to others. With this level of understanding and compassion of the world around them, we hope that all children can go forth and make a positive difference to others.

From our Religious Education curriculum we aim:

  • to encourage the children to explore the spiritual dimension of life and worship and to provide an environment in which they can experience an awareness of God.
  • to engage pupils in enquiring into and exploring questions arising from the study of religion and belief, so as to promote their personal, spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
  • to develop children’s respect for the beliefs and customs of others, while developing their own.
  • to encourage learners to develop a positive attitude towards others who hold religious beliefs that differ from their own.
  • to develop children's understanding of the ways in which beliefs influence people in their behaviour, practices and outlook in life.

 

Implementation:

At All Saints, we ensure that our teachers plan for and provide children with a challenging and enriching RE curriculum, ensuring progression is made as they move through the school. Religious Education is taught every week and lessons are planned and delivered in a variety of ways, to ensure the curriculum can be accessed by all. This may include, interactive, practical activities that encourage the children to discuss their ideas and extend their understanding of difficult concepts and challenging questions. Our Religious Education provision is 2/3 of a Christian nature and 1/3 Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism. The content is based on the idea of developing an educational awareness of other faiths and cultures in the community in which we live. Children will be introduced to the life and teachings of Jesus, along with developing a basic knowledge of Bible stories, handed down to use through the Old and New Testaments.

Visits are made to local places of worship including All Saints Church and Sutton Synagogue and those further afield such as Southwark Cathedral.  Visitors and speakers are also invited into school to enhance the children’s learning.

 

Impact:

Religious Education in our school is not only concerned with knowledge- learning about religion, (AT1) but it also focuses on learning through religion (AT2). This involves exploring our own spirituality, reflecting on feelings, experiencing awe and wonder, and making personal responses to the lesson. Children are provided with a safe space to explore their own religious ways of seeing and believing, and there are numerous opportunities for every child to flourish.

Through our Religious Education curriculum, we aim to help children realise the importance of belonging to a family and to groups within the wider community. Consequently, children will realise that belonging means caring for and showing respect for each other, but also taking on responsibility for those less fortunate than themselves. Children will adopt skills of reflection, expression, analysis and evaluation believes, values and practices and be able to communicate their own personal responses.

The teaching of Religious Education within the school supports our vision, mission statement and the C of E Statement of Entitlement. As a school we follow the Southwark Diocesan Religious Education Guidelines and Syllabus. Through the RE teaching, the school will:

  • create in them an awareness of the Church as a continuing manifestation of God’s work.
  • teach them about the importance of religious and, in particular, Christian festivals support this through attendance at church services.
  • introduce the children to the lives of significant individuals who have influenced the way Christians believe and live.
  • teach the children about the different elements of worship as practised at the church services they attend and help to plan in the school.
  • acquaint them with the symbolism which lies behind church buildings and their furnishings.
  • explore other ways of worshipping and to learn to respect these.
  • lay foundations of knowledge and respect for other world faiths and in particular to explore Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Islam.
  • nurture in the children an understanding of their own individual worth and potential for growth.
  • open up the children’s minds to the needs of God’s world.

 

How Parents can help:

We ask for parents to encourage their children to respect the beliefs and teachings from religions that differ from their own. Our aim is to educate and inform children of the different religions within our community, not to ask children to follow these religions.

Under the terms of Section 9 of the 1988 Education Act, parents have the right to withdraw their children from the collective act of worship and/or Religious Education. Parents wishing to exercise this right must notify the Head teacher in writing.