Religious Education

St Mary’s Prittlewell, Church of England, Primary School is a Voluntary Aided School and therefore the Governors of the school are responsible for the Religious Education taught in the school.

We believe the teaching of R.E. to be a vital part of our children’s education, which in the broadest sense, lays down the foundation for life. The celebration of the Christian faith lies at the heart of St. Mary’s school, both by what is taught and how we live as a community. We believe we can encourage our pupils to develop a deeper understanding of the Christian faith and to develop their own sense of spirituality, which will produce a socially well-adjusted young person ready to take their place in society.

RE surrounds our entire curriculum, as it is intended to be Christ-centred, with joyful memories made for the whole community. In order for this to be achieved, we focus on giving hope for the future, instilling wisdom to our learners and to enhance respect to others. Our curriculum is widening to explore cultural differences and to appreciate the value these differences have within our world.

Teaching Objectives

The Teaching Objectives are for pupils to learn about people, places, writings, worship, festivals and fasts, rites of passage, individual and community, relationship with the natural world in the study of Christianity and other faiths.

The RE curriculum we follow enables our teaching to promote religious and theological literate children by providing opportunities for children to explore Biblical texts and the relationship between God and his people and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament. They also look at the impact of these beliefs in the everyday life of a Christian and the impact this has on their community and globally.

Children are able learn about the different religious views, where they can explore religious texts and compare to other world religions, as well as their own views. Theological literacy is supported through the teaching of other faiths by expanding children’s knowledge and understanding of different faiths, whilst also engaging children in the skills and practices of other faiths that are frequently used as part of being believers of these different world faiths.

Curriculum Organisation

Religious Education is taught as a separate subject, although there may be occasions when crosscurricular links are used. Our curriculum is based on ‘Understanding Christianity’ (Diocese recommended scheme of work). For Other Faiths, we use the SACRE document (LA produced) whose content is reflective of the religions in Southend. Two thirds of our curriculum is Christianity and one-third Other Faiths.

Within Understanding Christianity (UC), we teach different faiths across different year groups. The table below shows which units are taught when:

The units for the Southend Agreed Syllabus are as follows:

Time Allocation

Our syllabus and curriculum meet the aims contained in the statement of entitlement - pupils have an opportunity to gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and engage in challenging questions of meaning and purpose. RE is given sufficient curriculum time (10%). The Scheme of Work is designed to provide course material for 36 hours per year in Key Stage 1 and 45 hours per year in Key Stage 2. As a Church school there are occasions when this is exceeded.

Subject Co-ordinators

The subject co-ordinators for RE at St Mary's are Mrs Cashell, Mr Napper and Mrs Mackay. 

Key Documents

Below are some key documents for the subject of RE at St Mary's.