Religious Education Intent

The 2020 Worcestershire Agreed Syllabus has been created for Worcestershire SACRE and approved by Worcestershire County Council. It provides a syllabus for Religious Education (RE) for Worcestershire schools including St Oswald’s.
 

‘The principal aim of religious education is to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.’ (Worcestershire Agreed Syllabus, page 7.)

Through the teaching of RE our children will have:

• • An outstanding level of religious understanding and knowledge.
• • A thorough engagement with a range of ultimate questions about the meaning and significance of existence.
• • The ability to ask significant and highly reflective questions about religion and demonstrate an excellent understanding of issues related to the nature, truth and value of religion.
• • A strong understanding of how the beliefs, values, practices and ways of life within any religion cohere together.
• • Exceptional independence; the ability to think for themselves and take the initiative in, for example, asking questions, carrying out investigations, evaluating ideas and working constructively with others.
• • Significant levels of originality, imagination or creativity, which are shown in their responses to their learning in RE.
• • The ability to link the study of religion and belief to personal reflections on meaning and purpose.
• • A wide knowledge and deep understanding across a wide range of religions and beliefs. 

The Right of Withdrawal from Religious Education

At St Oswald’s we wish to be an inclusive community but recognise that parents have the legal right to withdraw their children from RE on the grounds of conscience. However, the right of withdrawal does not extend to other areas of the curriculum when, as may happen on occasions, spontaneous questions on religious matters are raised by pupils or there are issues related to religion that arise in other subjects such as history and citizenship.

Where parents make a request to withdraw their child(ren) from the teaching of RE, the school will, as a matter of courtesy, ensure that the parents are aware of the following:

• the learning objectives covered in RE so that parents can make an informed decision

• what supervision arrangements will be in place for child(ren).

We would ask any parent considering this to contact the Headteacher to discuss any concerns and anxieties about the policy, provision and practice of RE at our school.