Gardners Lane Primary School

Religious Education encourages children to challenge questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human.

Religious Education in Gardners Lane Primary School aims to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other principal religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. Other religions may be taught when applicable. Consideration is also given to other non-religious perspectives such as Humanism.

Gardners Lane follows the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus 2017-2022, supplementing units with the Understanding of Christianity, which has been published by 'RE Today'.

Religious Education offers children opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development. It considers the influence of faith on individuals, families, communities and cultures.

The Religious Education teaching and learning approach in Gloucestershire has three core elements, which are woven together to provide breadth and balance within teaching and learning about religions and beliefs. They are:

• making sense of a range of religious and non-religious beliefs.
• understanding the impact and significance of religious and non-religious beliefs.
• making connections between religious and non-religious beliefs, concepts, practices and ideas studied.

Teaching and learning in the classroom will encompass all three elements, allowing for overlap between elements as suits the religion, concept and question being explored.

Key Skills

Religious Education seeks to develop children’s skills in investigation / enquiry, communication, interpretation, analysis and evaluation. These include:

• investigation / enquiry (finding out what people believe, how their beliefs affect the way they live and the different ways people express their beliefs).
• communication (sharing their ideas and those within religions and beliefs in a lively, informed way including different styles of writing, oral contributions and the use of Computing).
• interpretation (recognising and talking about religious symbols, stories and sacred texts).
• analysis and evaluation (developing their own views and ideas, recognising the views of others).

Key Attitudes

As with skills, Religious Education has a number of key attitudes it seeks to promote. These include: 

• self-esteem (so that every child feels valued and significant).
• respect (including being sensitive to the beliefs, feelings and values of others).
• open-mindedness (being willing to learn and gain new understanding).
• appreciation and wonder (developing children’s imagination and curiosity).

To view what your child is studying access the 'Our Curriculum' part of the website under the 'School Information' section.