Religious Education

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.
— Mahatma Gandhi

At Southill Primary, we teach Religious Education because it empowers our children to understand themselves, their community, and the wider world of belief and non-belief. Our RE curriculum makes full use of our local context — including visits to places of worship and encounters with our faith and non-faith-based communities in Dorset — so that learning is rooted in the real lived experience of pupils.

We aim for our children to be curious about how people’s beliefs, values and worldviews shape their actions and communities. From the earliest years children begin to explore ideas of identity, belonging, meaning and value through stories, reflection and celebration. As they progress through the school, they build on this knowledge by studying a range of religious and non-religious worldviews, including Christianity alongside other faiths and humanism.

Aligned with the Dorset syllabus, our curriculum ensures children:

• Know about and understand a range of religions and worldviews, so they can describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices, recognising that diversity exists within and between traditions. 
• Express ideas and insights about the nature, significance and impact of religions and worldviews, so they can explain their own ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities. 
• Develop skills of enquiry so that they can ask and investigate questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, and articulate beliefs, values and commitments clearly. 

In our RE work children will revisit core concepts and vocabularies (such as belief, worship, community, commitment, world-view) in a structured way so that they deepen their understanding over time. The learning is sequential and reflective: children will revisit ideas in new contexts, make links between their own lives and the lives of others, and appreciate the place of religion and non-religion in Britain and the world today.

Religious Education at Southill Primary supports the development of respectful, reflective, and open-minded learners. By exploring the rich diversity of beliefs and values, our pupils develop confidence to share their own viewpoints, and show curiosity and empathy for those whose perspectives differ. In doing so, we prepare children not only for further study of worldviews but for life as thoughtful, responsible citizens in our ever-changing society.

 Bright Futures RE Curriculum Documents

• Bright Futures Curriculum - RELIGIOUS EDUCATION download_for_offline
  download_for_offlineBright Futures Curriculum - RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

 Our Religious Education Curriculum