Religious Education (RE)

As a federation of a Voluntary Controlled and a Voluntary Aided School we have agreed with the diocese and the local authority to follow the RE curriculum for Voluntary Aided schools.  However, we are aware of the local SACRE curriculum and draw upon that to enrich our curriculum as appropriate.  We carefully consider the statement of entitlement for RE by the Church of England.  Our RE curriculum is two-thirds about Christianity and one-third explore world faiths - however, we are in the process of re-balancing our curriculum towards a more 50:50 split.  We are using the 'Understanding Christianity' resources to enable us to deliver an exciting and challenging RE curriculum.  We seek to use the same guide of reference to text/belief, the impact of those beliefs and making connections from Understanding Christianity to our work on other world faiths.
 
To add depth and richness to our RE curriculum we include several RE days or events throughout the year.  For example we explore special festivals from different religions (for example, Bandi Chhor Divas in Sikhism, Diwali in Hinduism, Rosh Hashanah in Judaism, The Hindu Chariot Festival as well as Christian celebrations of Harvest Festival, Christmas, Holy Week and Easter, St Cuthbert's Day and the feast of St John the Baptist (to mark our local churches on Holy Island and in Lowick respectively).  We welcome visitors from different world faiths including Sikhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Shintoism as well as from different denominations of Christianity).  We also celebrate our local area with work on the lives of the Northern Saints, the Lindisfarne Gospels and work about pilgrimage, which included a school walk across the sands following the poles to Holy Island.  
 
 
In addition to our weekly RE lessons, we also plan a termly RE day to augment our offer and ensure time for a greater breadth and depth within our exploration of the subject as well as an opportunity to make connections and to reflect on what we have learned.
 
 
 An example of our approach to RE on the theme of Salvation.