RE | Hartington C of E Primary School

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION is taught in accordance with the Derbyshire LA agreed syllabus and Hartington is a Church of England school. This means that the school has a strong Christian ethos with the vision statement being at its heart, which is also reflected in the teaching of religious education. Children learn about Christianity and Judaism in KS1 while Christianity, Sikhism and Islam is taught in KS2. RE encourages the children and staff to think about what they them selves and others believe but ultimately respecting the views and opinions of everyone.

Our Christian values are:

Friendship, Compassion, Service, Generosity, Trust and Respect.

Key Stage 1 – Autumn Term 1

Which people are special and why

During Autumn term 1 the Reception and key stage 1 children were thinking about people who are special to us and why. We thought about family and friends and people who help us. Everyone was super enthusiastic about interviewing Katie Kitchen and we all agreed that she is a very special person in school as she cooks the best dinners! Her food keeps us all going through the busy school days!

As we progressed through the term we began to transfer this line of thinking to focus on special people within religion. Through learning the story of Jairus’ daughter from the New Testament, the children were able to think about how Jesus was a friend to others and how he helped them. Using these ideas we then made friendship bracelets to demonstrate being a friend to others and how we can show this.

We all enjoyed learning the Buddhist story of the Wind and the moon. The reception children used the puppets to retell this story whilst the older children sequenced the pictures. The children were able to suggest some great ideas about what this story tells us about friendship:-

“If you have an argument try to make it better.”

“Love each other whatever you believe in.”

“If you fall out you can still be friends again.”

Key Stage 1 – Autumn Term 2

Christmas: A year by year approach

During Autumn term 2 we focused on the Christian celebration of Christmas, and the story of Jesus; birth. The children were able to use the puppets to demonstrate prior knowledge of this story.

The children were intrigued to find out what special gift was in the box. They each had the opportunity to look inside and discovered that they could see themselves in the mirror inside the box. ‘The most special gift is YOU!’ and Christians believe the gifts and talents that we can share with others are gifts given to us by God.

We explored examples of the gifts that the Wise Men gave to Jesus and what Christians believe the symbolism of these were.

“Gold was a symbol of a king.”

“Frankincense was used by the priests and Jesus was a holy man.”

“Myrrh was for healing and Jesus was going to be the savior of the world.”

As a class we then created a newspaper article sharing the Gospel of Jesus’ birth, joining the Shepherds and the angels in sharing the Christian good news of Jesus’ birth.

Key Stage 2 – Autumn Term 1

Our first big question was “What is God like to follow?”. We started the unit by looking at the story of Noah and we explored the links between this story and the idea of a covenant. We also made links between the story and how we live in school and the wider world. We explored the Christian wedding ceremony and talked about the meaning of the symbols Christians use during wedding ceremonies. We finished the unit by looking at the story of Abraham and exploring the covenant that Abraham made with God.

Key Stage 2 – Autumn Term 2

In the second autumn term, our key question was ‘Why is Jesus inspiring to some people?’ We started the unit by thinking about people that we find inspirational. We then looked at Jesus and discussed Jesus’ qualities as a leader.

We explored the parable of the Good Samaritan through hot-seating, drama, freeze-frame and artwork. In lesson 4, we explored the question: why do Christians call Good Friday ‘good’? We also identified the most important parts of Easter for Christians and discussed why they are important. We finished the unit by thinking of examples of what some Christians say are the most important attitudes and values to have, as inspired by Jesus’ teachings and actions.

Key Stage 2 – Spring Term 1

In the first half of the spring term, we have explored the question – “What does it mean to be a Hindu in Britain today?” We started our learning by looking at the Christian concept of Grace and compared it to Hindu belief of Ahimsa. We looked at some ways in which Hindus express their faith through pujas (a ritual of worship and prayer that can involve offering food, flowers, incense, or light to a deity, or reciting verses), aarti (this is a ceremony that involves waving a lit lamp in front of deities while singing hymns in their praise) and bhajans which are devotional songs. We explored the concepts of karma and dharma and made connections with some Hindu beliefs and teachings about aims and duties in life.