Religion and Worldviews

Meet your subject leader

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Mr. Clegg

People often cherish religion and worldviews because they provide a framework for understanding the world, offering meaning, purpose, ethical guidance, a sense of community, and a foundation for personal values, allowing individuals to navigate life's challenges and connect with something larger than themselves; essentially, it acts as a lens through which to interpret life experiences and fosters a sense of belonging.

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At Penwortham Primary School our Religion and Worldviews curriculum aims to develop deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews. Our Religion and Worldview curriculum is relevant to pupils, reflecting and preparing them for life in modern Britain. We strive for excellence through our school values: Aspire, Belong, Care and Discover.​

Aspire: Through the curriculum, children will secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions.​

Belong: 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.​

Care: Children will learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views.

Discover: 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.

At Penwortham Primary School we have adopted Kapow Primary’s Religion and worldviews curriculum- which aims to develop deep thinkers who are open-minded about religion and worldviews. Our 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.

For EYFS, the lessons allow pupils to work towards targeted ‘Understanding the world’ Development matters statements and Early learning goals, while covering foundational knowledge that will support them in their further Religion and worldviews learning in Key stage 1.

Implementation

The implementation of the curriculum relates to how the learning is going to be delivered across your school, taking the intent of the learning, and translating it into a progressive and effective curriculum. When using a scheme, such as Kapow Primary, the majority of this aspect is taken care of.

Reflecting the findings of the Ofsted Research review series: religious education (May 2021), our adopted 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 (ways of knowing). 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.

In EYFS, children begin to talk about the beliefs of their immediate family and community, recognising that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. They listen to religious and modern day stories and compare and contrast characters, including figures from the past. Children develop their awareness of religion and worldviews in Key stage 1, focusing on conceptual knowledge through the study of a limited range of religions and worldviews represented in the UK, including Christianity. This will support children in building knowledge they can refer to throughout their learning in Key stage 2 while encountering a greater range of religions and worldviews and considering further the diverse nature of religious and non-religious lived experience.

Impact

Kapow Primary’s scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, which can be used at the end of the unit to provide a summative assessment. After the implementation of the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum, pupils will be equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed in their secondary education. They will be prepared for life in modern Britain, being able to interact with others from different religious and non-religious viewpoints in a respectful, knowledgeable and open-minded way. They will be curious learners who ask questions and make connections, confident to explore their personal worldview and have the skills to appreciate, evaluate and respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions. The expected impact of following the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme of work is that children will:

● Meet the relevant Early learning goals at the end of EYFS (Reception) and the End of Key stage 1 and Key stage 2 requirements from the Curriculum framework for Religious Education for England.

● Know and understand religious concepts relating to beliefs, practices, community and belonging, and wisdom and guidance.

● Develop an understanding of the influence of organised and personal worldviews on individuals, communities, countries and globally.

● Understand some of the ways religions and worldviews are studied (disciplinary knowledge).

● Develop understanding of their relationship with the content studied, being able to talk about their assumptions and preconceptions (personal knowledge).

● Build secure vocabulary which allows them to talk confidently and fluently about their learning.

● Answer questions about worldviews through an enquiry-based approach including investigating, interpreting, evaluating, applying and expressing.

● Talk about the similarities and differences between their own and others’ beliefs with respect and open mindedness.

● Understand the lived experiences of religious and non-religious worldviews to be diverse within and between people and communities.

● Develop an understanding of the ways in which personal and organised worldviews may develop and change across time and place. This relates to how staff identify that the curriculum is having a positive impact on pupils’ learning, how to identify gaps in the learning and how to fill these.

Religion and Worldviews documents for your information.

Resources and support materials

Religion and Worldviews in action.