Intent

At Beulah Junior School, we follow Kapow Primary’s Religion and Worldviews curriculum which aims to develop deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews.

We aim to ensure that the R&W curriculum is relevant to pupils, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain. Through the scheme, children will secure a deep   understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views.

Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally and globally in our progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their positionality in relation to their learning.

By revisiting key ‘big questions’ and building on prior knowledge, pupils will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their personal worldviews.

Kapow Primary’s R&W scheme of work enables pupils to meet the government guidance, which states that RE must reflect that ‘the religious traditions in Great Britain are, in the main, Christian while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain’. The scheme has been designed to fulfil the aims of A Curriculum framework for Religious Education in England. It also falls in line with Croydon's agreed Syllabus.

Implementation

Reflecting the findings of the Ofsted Research review series: religious education (May 2021), the scheme has the following three strands running through it:

• Substantive knowledge (conceptual and worldviews related).
• Disciplinary knowledge.
• Personal knowledge.

These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build children’s conceptual knowledge and understanding of religion and worldviews (substantive knowledge) and use a range of disciplinary lenses. Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaging learning experiences.

The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts. This can be seen in the Religion and worldviews: Progression of knowledge and skills.

In Key stage 2, the children develop a greater awareness of the range of religions and worldviews and consider further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience.

Each unit includes overarching ‘big questions’ which will be revisited throughout lower key stage 2 and upper key Stage 2, allowing children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts.

These ‘big questions’ are:

• Why are we here?
• Why do worldviews change?
• What is religion?
• How can worldviews be expressed?
• How do worldviews affect our daily lives?
• How can we live together in harmony if we have different worldviews?

A more specific, focused enquiry question frames the learning across each unit. Both the ‘big questions’ and the focused enquiry question will allow children to explore the content they are studying, make comparisons and links within and across religions and worldviews, and explore their personal views.

Lessons are designed to be varied, engaging and hands-on, allowing children to learn and record their thoughts, answers and ideas in various ways. In each lesson, children will participate in activities involving disciplinary and substantive concepts, developing their knowledge and understanding of diverse religions and worldviews.

Guidance for adapting the learning is available for every lesson to ensure that all pupils can access lessons, and opportunities to stretch pupils’ learning are available when required.

Knowledge organisers support pupils in developing conceptual knowledge and schemata by summarising the key concepts covered in a unit and linking these to the examples covered.

Each unit of lessons will focus on the key subject knowledge needed to deliver the curriculum, making links with prior learning and identifying possible misconceptions.

The nature of R&W means that controversial and sensitive issues will be taught and discussed in some units or may come up when not directly part of a planned lesson. Throughout the units, children will learn skills to have respectful discussions and respond sensitively to one another.

The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum emphasises the importance of diverse representations within and across religions and worldviews, focusing on real people’s lived experiences of their beliefs.