Religious Education (RE)
Purpose of Study
The purpose of a Religious Education is to support children in developing their own values and principles whilst cultivating their spiritual, moral, social and cultural understanding.
Being a multi-cultural, and multi-religious London school, we understand how the teaching of Religious Education is vital in building our children’s cultural capital, needed to prepare them for future success as citizens of the world. This culture of understanding and tolerance is fundamental to the British Values supported by Religious Education at Barham.
In our school, Religious Education is formally taught once a week in Key Stage 1 and 2, while reception and nursery children are given opportunities to learn about religions through stories and discussions. During Religious Education lessons at Barham, children learn about concepts, beliefs and practices within different religions and engage with their own and others’ cultural and life experiences, whether religious or not. This desire to learn about and from each other is a key British Value, and whilst parents retain the right to withdraw pupils from all or part of Religious Education, it is a strength of our community that children can learn about each other’s faith or non-faith background.
Subsequently, Religious Education, which is part of the National Curriculum, is essential learning in a world where we want children to grow up tolerant and respectful of people of all faiths (or those of no faith) and to have an understanding of different cultures and religions. At Barham, our curriculum covers both major world religions, for example Christianity, Islam and Judaism to name a few. Having a wide understanding of differing religious and non-religious practices, cultures and traditions helps us to further draw on our core school values, in particular, empathy.
We follow the Brent Syllabus for Religious Education:
https://www.brent.gov.uk/media/946060/agreed_syllabus_for_religious_education.pdf
Collective Worship
We hold a daily act of collective worship or reflection in classrooms, in key stage groups or as a whole school. We collectively celebrate important events across the year, recognising key religious and cultural events in our local area such as Advent, Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah and International Women’s day. As well as hold assemblies to reflect on our common values, we use these opportunities to share songs and stories and reflect on spiritual, moral and social issues.
