Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. — Aristotle

Religious Education

Aims of the Religious Education curriculum (Intent):

RE does not try to persuade but rather to inform and develop the skills with which evaluation can take place. RE makes a valuable contribution to pupils’ personal development and to their understanding of the wider world. Our belief is that, using an enquiry-based model, children’s critical thinking skills can be developed, their motivation to learn increased, and their knowledge and understanding of, and empathy with people and their beliefs, religious or otherwise, will be enhanced. This approach takes very seriously the philosophy that children are free to make their own choices and decisions concerning religion and belief.

Progression in the Religious Education curriculum:

The school follows a curriculum created by Birmingham SACRE. The agreed syllabus covers a wide range of religious and world views and ensures these are taught between year groups and key stages. Each disposition is focused upon three times over the children’s time at Brownmead Academy. Between years 1 and 2 the children will be introduced to each disposition once. The Children will revisited each disposition again in Years 3 and 4 this time deepening their understanding and letting them further explore the different religious and non-religious world views. In Years 5 and 6, the children will again explore each disposition to secure their understanding of some of the different religions and world views they will see and interact with in the world.      

Curriculum:

The focus of our curriculum is the ‘24 dispositions’; they are:

1. Being imaginative and exploratory.
2. Appreciating beauty.
3. Expressing joy.
4. Being thankful.
5. Caring for others, animals and the environment.
6. Sharing and being generous.
7. Responding to suffering.
8. Being merciful and forgiving.
9. Being fair and just.
10. Living by rules.
11. Being accountable and living with integrity.
12. Being temperate, self-disciplined and seeking contentment.
13. Being modest and listening to others.
14. Creating inclusion, identity and belonging.
15. Creating unity and harmony.
16. Participating and being willing to lead.
17. Remembering roots.
18. Being loyal and steadfast.
19. Being hopeful and visionary.
20. Being courageous and confident.
21. Being curious and valuing knowledge.
22. Being open, honest and truthful.
23. Being reflective and self-critical.
24. Being attentive to the sacred, as well as the precious.

These dispositions are used to examine religious views and non-religious world views. By exploring how these dispositions are an intriguing part of different world views, the children can explore and understand the similarities and differences that we see in our society. 

Implementation: 

Religious Education will be taught in all year groups from Reception to Year 6. In Reception, the curriculum will be based around the different religious ceremonies observed throughout the year. In Years 1-6, RE will be taught once every two weeks for an hour and a half to ensure the children have the time to embed a deeper understanding of the different religions, world views and the dispositions.  

Impact:

In summary, the impact of a powerful knowledge based Religious Education curriculum at Brownmead will have the following features:

• Subject driven.
• Knowledge-rich.
• Children able to explore and explain beliefs and theological concepts
• Children can understand the significance and impact of beliefs and practices on individuals, communities and societies connect these together into a coherent framework of beliefs and practices gain and deploy deepening understanding of specialist vocabulary and terms.
• Know and understand about religious diversity within the region, as well as nationally and globally.
• Know and understand how religion can be defined and what is meant by the term “religious and non-religious worldviews” and with increasing clarity know that these worldviews are complex and diverse.
• Gain and deploy skills that enable critical thinking and enquiry in relation to the material they study.
• Reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, experiences, ideas, values and beliefs with increasing discernment.