Religious Education

At Rowlatts Mead Primary Academy, we believe that Religious Education is an integral part of our curriculum as it provides our pupils with opportunities to enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. To ensure all pupils are offered a broad and balanced curriculum for Religious Education, we follow the Agreed Syllabus designed by the Local Authority (Leicester City).

The units taught are based around a question and cover the key themes outlined in the syllabus, aiming to support pupils to develop positive attitudes of respect towards people of all faiths and none. This allows pupils to share their experiences and learn from one another about the religions and beliefs in our community. To achieve the aforementioned, we aim to invite a variety of religious speakers, from our local community to share their beliefs and traditions with the pupils, and provide opportunities for pupils to ask questions to build on their understanding.

Throughout the key stages, pupils learn about many different faiths including Christianity, Sikhism, Hinduisms and Islam. As we are a school of diverse faiths, we also ensure that we celebrate some of the major festivals that take place throughout the academic year including Diwali, Eid, Christmas, Easter and Vaisakhi. Coinciding with this, every year group across the school visits a place of worship throughout the year to gain a first-hand experience and deepen their knowledge and understanding of each faith.

Our pupils highly benefit from such experiences by developing a sense of respect and understanding for our diverse community which we feel is an important part of our school ethos.

Subject Policies/Plans

RE Policy 21-22 (MISSING FILE)
RE Curriculum Overview 21-22 (MISSING FILE)
Religious Education in Leicester City Non-Statutory Guidance-2019-2024 (MISSING FILE)

Subject Leader/s

Miss S Creed

Impact

FS

Our Foundation Stage 2 children have been to visit St Luke’s Church in Thurnby. The children took part in a workshop where they were able to explore the different features of the church using flashcards to find religious symbols and objects. They also enjoyed searching for different animals in the stained glass windows. Such experiences as this enable our pupils to develop an understanding of the different cultures in the world around them as well as building on their language skills in relation to their own family traditions. This is a key aspect of the Foundation Stage Curriculum.

Year 1

As part of our Year 1 curriculum the pupils are given the opportunity to learn about Hinduism. Here you can see an example of one pupil’s Mehndi pattern design which was part of a lesson where pupils were exploring about what Hindus do to celebrate Diwali. The Year 1 pupils have also learnt about the religious meaning of the festival of Diwali through the story of ‘Rama and Sita’. Here you can see that the pupils were able to sequence the events of the story and were then given the opportunity to apply their understanding through acting it out in the classroom as well as carrying out a performance in a whole school assembly.

Year 2

Our Year 2 pupils have been to visit a local Gurdwara as they have been learning about Sikh beliefs and traditions as part of their curriculum. Before their visit, pupils prepared questions to ask in order to develop their understanding and were then able to explore these findings back in the classroom. An example of their findings can be seen here where pupils have explored the meaning of the ‘5 K’s’ and the festival of Holi in which the Sikh community celebrate each year. At Rowlatts we believe it is important to acknowledge each of the many different religious festivals that take place amongst our community and give recognition to such festivals by celebrating as a whole school.

Year 3 

Visits to different places of worship are a vital part of our pupils’ curriculum and reinforces the importance of acknowledging our multi-cultural society. Here you can see Year 3 enjoyed a visit to Leicester Cathedral to explore Christian beliefs and traditions. They took part in a workshop that included exploring the meanings of religious symbols linked to Christianity and the historical features of the Cathedral.

Year 4

Here you can see Year 4 pupils taking part in a workshop based at Leicester Cathedral, where the pupils were encouraged to ask questions about Christian beliefs and traditions. At Rowlatts we believe that first hand experiences are of great importance to our pupils to enable them to gain a more thorough understanding of different cultures and traditions. This in turn positively impacts on their learning in the classroom as they are able to draw upon their own experiences and take part in meaningful discussions based on what they learnt from their visit.

Year 5

At Rowlatts all of our pupils are given the opportunity to take part in daily ‘Reflection Time’ which is an integral part of our RE Curriculum. This activity enables pupils to explore topics which are of great importance to them and our society e.g. showing kindness, being thankful, understanding right from wrong. Each class displays a glowing candle to highlight ‘Reflection Time’ has begun which symbolises taking the time to quietly think or send a message to their God as part of reflecting on their own values and beliefs. Here you can see Year 5 children enjoying their reflection time in a peaceful and motivating outdoor environment.

Year 6

Here in Leicester we are very fortunate to have close links with many different local places of worship. Our Year 6 pupils were lucky enough to visit a local temple in the Autumn term as part of their learning about Hinduism. Our pupils were encouraged to ask questions about different Hindu beliefs and traditions and looked closely at the features of a Mandir. Once back in the classroom the pupils showed high levels of enthusiasm since they could draw upon first hand experiences which enabled them to carry out deep and meaningful discussions related to their own beliefs in comparison to others.