Religious Education at Sarisbury CE Junior School follows the requirements of Hampshire’s Agreed Syllabus – Living Difference.
Each unit is taught conceptually and follows a cycle of learning as specified by the Living Difference document.
Throughout the Key Stage, children will be given the opportunity to explore how the concepts link to the religions we study – Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Years 3 & 4 will focus on concepts linked to Christianity and Hinduism. In Years 5 & 6, the focus becomes Christianity and Islam.
The stages of the cycle are as follows:
COMMUNICATE – This is usually the starting point of the enquiry into the key concept. During this stage children are encouraged to think about things in their own life, linked to the concept and their own feelings about it.
APPLY – This stage of the cycle extends and deepens the enquiry but still within the context of the pupils’ own experience. Here they are encouraged to discuss whether the concept is of any importance to them or whether it has any impact of their lives.
ENQUIRE – Children have the opportunity to ‘unpack’ the meaning of the concept and develop awareness that it probably means different things to different people.
CONTEXUALISE – During this stage of the cycle, the children will explore how the concept links to a religion(s) through the use of stories, festivals, artefacts and pictures.
EVALUATE – To complete the cycle, we discuss what value the concept has to the religious people we have learnt about and why it is important to them.
A different concept is taught each half term with specific units taught in line with the Christian Calendar – Christmas and Easter.