Religious Education
Vision for RE
The vision for RE at Elizabeth Selby Infants is to create a safe and supportive environment for pupils to learn about different religions, cultures, and values, promoting respect, tolerance, empathy, critical thinking, through exploration, reflection, and understanding of religious celebrations and festivals.
At Elizabeth Selby Infants’ School, Religious Education is taught in accordance with the Tower Hamlets Agreed Syllabus. The syllabus, which has been created by the SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) reflects the diversity of Modern Britain and the world we live in. We believe the syllabus provides the structures and support systems that will enable the teaching of RE in a manner that is coherent, progressive, pedagogically, and philosophically sound, and that will promote spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of all learners.
Elizabeth Selby recognises and values the religious backgrounds and non-religious backgrounds of each of our pupils. We intend to be sensitive to the home background of all and therefore work to ensure that RE is accessible to all pupils.
At Elizabeth Selby Infants’ School we know how relationships with members of local communities and local faith communities can enrich pupils’ experiences in RE and we strive to cultivate and maintain these relationships. Each year, pupils visit a religious place of worship to understand the practices of either their own or others’ religions. The pupils will cover topics such as places of worship, holy books, religious leaders and festivals and celebration. The learning and teaching of RE equips children with many skills that help us deal with difficult situations and complex issues
* Have REspect for other people’s beliefs
*REspond to religion in your own way
*REsearch -find out what people believe and why
*CompaRE religions-they are not all the same
*ExpREss your opinions and beliefs
*Decide if the teaching of religious leaders from the past are Relevant today
The Foundation Stage
Early years learning environments should feature RE scenarios based on experience in the real world, such as in role play. We teach RE to all pupils in the school, including those in Reception. In Reception class, RE is an integral part of the topic work covered during the year. As the Reception class is part of the Foundation Stage Curriculum, we relate the RE aspects of the pupils’ work to the objectives set out under the Personal, Social and Emotional Development and Knowledge and Understanding of the World areas which are crucial to the development and progress of all pupils at this stage.
