RE Statement of Intent

Resilient          Respectful         Inspired       Curious

Respectful Thinkers at Yeadon Westfield Junior School

The study of RE helps children to develop critical thinking skills and to acquire the skills of reflection and resilience. It enables children to be curious about and inspired by world faiths, spirituality and morality. Fundamentally, it leads to greater community cohesion, respect and tolerance.

At YWJS we want our children to be fully equipped for life in modern Britain by developing respect, awareness, understanding and acceptance for those of other faiths, and those of none.

There are three main aims of the RE curriculum: 

• Children should investigate and know the beliefs and practices of religions and other world views.
• Children should investigate and know how religions and other world views address questions of meaning, purpose and value.
• Children should investigate and know how religions and other world views influence morality, identity and diversity.

Like all Leeds maintained and foundation schools, we follow the Leeds Agreed RE Syllabus for RE - Belonging and Believing, which provides children with a robust, challenging and enquiry-based approach to the study of RE. In KS2, we build on the learning foundations of KS1 in Christianity, Islam and non-religious approaches to life, by adding studies in Judaism and Sikhism.

At YWJS we aim to provide exemplary RE lessons through the creative use of outdoor learning, drama, exploration of artefacts, visits and visitors, art, and robust class discussion. 

By the end of Year 6, our children will be critical, respectful thinkers who are curious and inspired by the variety of world views encountered in Modern Britain and the world.  They will be further along in their personal journeys of spirituality and morality and will have a deeper understanding of what is important to them, and to others.

Parents maintain the right to formally withdraw their children from Religious Education.

In RE, we are learning about special places and journeys. Today, we had a visit from Reverend Caroline from St John’s Church. She spoke about Christian pilgrimage and shared people’s accounts of their journeys and her own experience. She explained that Christian pilgrimage is not just about journeys but also about keeping God in your heart.

 We had a visitor in school today, Who did an assembly about ‘What is a Muslim?” We also learned about some of the Islamic beliefs. Year 3 class then took part in a Muslim workshop which linked with our RE topic on ‘Creation stories.’

We heard the Islamic creation story and learned the importance of bees. We then tasted some honey and made a class honeycomb with information about the importance of bees.

We are learning about Sikhism in Year 6 and we were lucky enough to be joined by Mr Singh who told us all about what is important to Sikhs including the 5Ks, Vaisakhi, the creation of the Khalsa and the Amrit ceremony. The children had lots of questions to ask him too!

Below are some comments that pupils made about our learning in Religious Education at Yeadon Westfield Junior School:

'I enjoy learning about how people celebrate different festivals.' 

'In RE, I think about things that are important to me.'

'I really like RE because we get to discuss things and do art and drama.'

'RE is thinking about what makes you happy and your own beliefs.'

'I enjoyed making the diva lamp and I was proud of the Rangoli pattern I created.'

'RE teaches about different beliefs and to respect people who are different from us.'

''I have learned about values such as equality and stepping up for others.'

'I now know that a person who studies RE is called a Theologist.' 

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