Religious Education

How RE is taught at Arnot St Mary

At Arnot St. Mary School, we develop the children’s knowledge and understanding of the major world faiths and, we address the fundamental questions in life. We enable children to develop a sound knowledge of Christianity and also of other world religions.  Children reflect on what it means to have a faith and to develop their own spiritual knowledge and understanding. We believe RE has an important place in the development of every pupil.

As a Voluntary Controlled school, we adhere to the requirements of the Liverpool Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. A minimum of 5% of curriculum time is given to RE.  Currently RE is delivered in Years 1-6 as discrete lessons taught weekly. To address the balance of Christian and non-Christian faith units being taught across all Key Stages (a 66/34% split), we use the Discovery RE scheme of work to cover non-Christian faith units. Discovery RE explores core concepts and beliefs through key questions and uses a four-step enquiry model: Engagement, Investigation, Evaluation and Expression.

Learning about the Christian faith is through the Understanding Christianity scheme of work, which delivers progression through exploring core Christian concepts using a spiral curriculum model, where children will encounter the same concepts throughout their school career; increasing in complexity and reinforcing previous learning.

During the EYFS, children’s learning in Religious Education contributes to both the prime and specific areas of learning, in particular Personal Social and Emotional Development and Understanding of the World. This enables them to work towards the Early Learning Goals.

Enrichment in RE

Enrichment is provided through trips, visitors and quality religious artefacts.  Children are given the opportunity to visit Liverpool Cathedral to take part in workshops as well as faith encounters at ‘Homes of Hospitality’ to meet those of other faiths, who live out their faith in the local community.

We also offer children in Year 5 the opportunity to gain a Young Leaders Award, where they can grow in leadership, character and key life skills while discovering the benefits of helping others.