Curriculum Intent
At Meadlands we believe that Religious Education (RE) is an avenue to develop pupils into thoughtful individuals, who are able to demonstrate respect and an understanding of the people they will meet, work and live alongside. Our RE curriculum allows our pupils to demonstrate the knowledge and attitudes that will equip them to talk about RE in a sensitive and respectful way.
Curriculum Implementation
At Meadlands, we follow the Richmond SACRE (Standing Advisory Councils for RE) RE Curriculum. RE is taught in discrete blocks with each Key Stage 1 class learning about two main religions per year, and Key Stage 2 about three. Over the course of their time at Meadlands, pupils will learn about Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Humanism and each unit will start with a question that is to be explored.
As stated in the Richmond SACRE, schools within the Richmond upon Thames borough should ensure that more material is drawn from Christianity within each Key Stage than from other single religion of belief system’. Therefore every year group covers Christianity during the season of Advent and in preparation for Christmas.
The RE units taught are:
Living the faith - Christianity
Living the faith – religious study
Religious buildings and places
At Meadlands we recognise the importance of learning about religions through trips. Therefore all pupils complete at least one trip (two in Key Stage 2) to a place of worship every year. We also welcome people from different religions to come and share their beliefs and practices with the pupils. This is either done in assemblies on during whole class sessions. Alongside our discrete units above, RE is also threaded through English lessons, with all classes learning about a significant Christian and the moral teachings of religious stories.
We welcome visitors from all cultural and religious backgrounds to share their stories with the children in assemblies. This year we held an International Week at school where children learnt about different cultures and religions and dressed up in different cultural dress, sharing our cultural diversity.
Celebrating
Year 5 trip to St Andrews Church at Easter.