Introduction & Notes
This schemeof work for RE, revised during 2016-2017, covers the requirements of the Locally Agreed Syllabi in the Oxford Diocese, and is designed to meet the recommendations of the Church of England Education Office Statement of Entitlement for RE, published in 2016.
Each unit has a “Big Question” which has been created to allow children to experience a range of theological, philosophical and social elements. The big questions address syllabus questions and topics. The assumption is that Christianity will be the main religion taught, in accordance with the national guidelines. In addition, Judaism will be taught in KS1, and in KS2 there are units on Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism to select according to the local syllabus. Many of the questions could be adapted to cover other faiths as required by the demands of other syllabi or school choice.
Each unit consists of an outline mid-term plan and aclass record sheet. These should be used in conjunction by the class teacher in planning the unit of work. Neither is exhaustive or exclusive, but should be used as a starting point. There is a unit for each half term, for each year group. The units do not have to be taught weekly, but could be blocked into special weeks or special days; hence the mid-term plans are not split into weekly lessons. This is particularly the case with the Year 5 and 6 Christmas and Easter term units.
The background information for teachers included in each unit contains enough information to get teachers started and is a springboard for further research. Expectations for pupil achievement at three standards are included – at developing, expected and excelling but teachers should feel free to adapt the language to meet the assessment and recording procedures in their schools.
The Engage, Enquire, Evaluate and Reflect model of teaching should not progress in a linear fashion, nor should each section be encountered only once, but revisited many times during a unit of work. There should also be scope to leave the plans behind if the pupils’ questioning and investigating opens up other interesting avenues for enquiry.Where special events occur (WW1 remembrance for example), a unit of work may need to be adapted or abandoned.
It is important that whenever the children are given the opportunity to reflect on what they have learned, they are considering what difference their learning is making to their thinking and acting.
The class record sheet is designed to be used in conjunction with planning as it contains ideas for assessible activities. This will help to ensure that teaching is suitably challenging for all pupils as well as providing a means of recording achievement.The class record sheet should be filled in by naming only those pupils who have performed at above or below the expected level; the assumption being that any pupil not named has performed at the expected level. Together over the course of 6 years, these sheetswould provide a record of pupil and cohort progress.
The suggested resources are just that. Each term RE Today publications produces a new curriculum book, covering a whole range of topics and with new ideas for approaches and materials. The resource lists should therefore be viewedas working documents. There are plenty of other resources available to teachers of RE, and different resources will suit different teachers and classes. Further resources are available in the resources section of the website.
We hope you find this scheme useful and exciting. We envisage that more units will be added, giving options to explore other faiths and locally focused questions.
Anne Andrews
November 2017