Religious Education (R.E) Policy Autumn 2025

Intent

Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds and Healthy Futures

At Norman Pannell Religious Education (RE) enables pupils to develop a deep understanding of a range of religions and worldviews, fostering respect, curiosity, and reflective thinking. The purpose of our RE curriculum is to help pupils:

• Understand major world religions and worldviews, including their beliefs, practices, values, and histories.
• Develop empathy, respect, and tolerance for people of different faiths and cultures.
• Reflect on key questions about meaning, purpose, and human experience.
• Develop vocabulary and concepts needed to express ideas clearly and confidently.
• Build secure foundational knowledge in EYFS and KS1 that prepares pupils for the Opening Worlds programme in KS2.
• Develop strong critical thinking, enquiry, and discussion skills.

Our curriculum is coherently sequenced, ensuring progression in knowledge, vocabulary, and understanding from EYFS → KS1 → KS2.

• In EYFS and Key Stage 1, RE is taught using the Liverpool RE plans, which provide a broad foundation of stories, celebrations, beliefs, and practices across major world faiths.
• In Years 3- 6, RE is taught through the Opening Worlds programme, a knowledge-rich and academically ambitious curriculum with a strong emphasis on vocabulary, reading, and conceptual understanding.

By the end of KS2, pupils have developed a deep, meaningful understanding of religion and worldviews, preparing them well for Key Stage 3 and their future lives.

Implementation

RE is taught weekly in all classes across the school, following the curriculum expectations for each phase.

Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)

In EYFS, RE is taught through the ‘Understanding the World’ area of learning and through the Liverpool RE plans, providing opportunities for children to:

• Explore religious stories, festivals, celebrations, and traditions.
• Learn about similarities and differences between families, cultures, and beliefs.
• Develop early concepts of respect, fairness, community, and belonging.
• Engage in discussion, role play, storytelling, and practical experiences.
• Build early religious vocabulary and understanding through carefully structured activities.

Key Stage 1

RE in KS1 follows the Liverpool RE scheme, which ensures a balanced introduction to the major religious traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and non-religious worldviews.
Teaching focuses on:

• Key stories, beliefs, symbols, and practices.
• Opportunities to compare themes across religions (community, kindness, celebration).
• Developing early enquiry skills through questions, discussion, and simple reflection.
• Explicit teaching of vocabulary to ensure pupils build a strong foundation for KS2.

Key Stage 2 (Opening Worlds Programme)

In KS2, pupils study RE through the Opening Worlds programme, which is:

• Knowledge-rich, with clearly sequenced content that builds year on year.
• Designed to develop deep conceptual understanding of religions and worldviews.
• Strongly focused on vocabulary acquisition, ensuring pupils can articulate complex ideas.
• Integrated with high-quality reading materials, narratives, and images.
• Taught using explicit instruction, retrieval practice, and structured discussion.

Key features of KS2 RE through Opening Worlds include:

• Systematic study of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, and non-religious worldviews.
• A clear chronological structure and consistent revisiting of previous learning to ensure retention.
• Use of stories, historical context, people of importance, sacred texts, and practices to deepen understanding.

Teaching Approaches (EYFS – KS2)

Across all phases, RE teaching incorporates:

• Explicit teaching of vocabulary
• Retrieval practice to support long-term memory
• Carefully structured explanations and modelling
• Discussion and enquiry-based learning
• Use of artefacts, images, texts, videos, role play, and real-life examples
• Encouragement of respectful dialogue and active listening

RE is taught discretely, but links to PSHE, British Values, and wider curriculum topics strengthen pupils’ cultural and moral understanding.

Impact

The impact of our RE curriculum is seen in pupils who:

• Have a secure and connected understanding of major world religions and non-religious worldviews.
• Use accurate religious vocabulary confidently and appropriately.
• Show respect, empathy, and curiosity about people of different backgrounds.
• Can discuss religious concepts with increasing depth and maturity.
• Make links between beliefs, practices, and values across different faiths.
• Develop personal reflections about meaning, purpose, and questions of life.

Assessment

We measure impact through:

• EYFS: Ongoing assessments against Understanding the World (Development Matters).
• KS1 & KS2: Termly assessment of knowledge and vocabulary taught.
• Pupil voice interviews to gauge understanding, curiosity, and attitudes.
• Book scrutiny / work monitoring to evaluate progression and quality of learning.
• Learning walks to ensure teaching aligns with curriculum expectations.
• Retrieval tasks and quizzes, especially within Opening Worlds.
• End-of-unit and end-of-year reviews to identify strengths and next steps.

Pupils who are keeping up with the learning will make at least expected progress. By the end of Year 6, pupils are well-prepared for the demands of KS3 Religious Education, with a strong foundation of knowledge, vocabulary, and reflective skills.