Religious Education

Purpose of Study

Religious Education at Markyate Village School is designed to enable our pupils to become tolerant young people with respect and understanding of the views of others, including the beliefs and practices of religions and otherworld views.

Religious Education is a statutory entitlement for all pupils including Reception. At Markyate Village School we use the Herts SACRE agreed syllabus to teach an R.E. curriculum, which provides the statutory requirements for Religious Education in schools. This reflects the fact that religious traditions of Great Britain, are, in the main, Christian, whilst taking into account the teaching and practices of other principal religions in the world. With this in mind, Christianity (Christian traditions and beliefs) is taught regularly across each key stage. The children are introduced to an increasing variety of religions and worldviews as they progress through the school, and we reflect faiths represented in the school and wider local area.

Herts for Learning explains the syllabus on their website:

“The Syllabus sets out the statutory requirements for Hertfordshire Community Schools and Foundation and Voluntary Schools without a religious character. It offers clarity and revision to the aims, time allocation, breadth of study and expected learning outcomes for Religious Education.” https://www.hertsforlearning.co.uk/resources/hertfordshire-agreed-syllabus-religious-education-2017-2022-digital-download

What we teach:

Religious Education in Markyate Village School supports our children to ask, understand and consider deep questions through investigating eight key areas of religious and world views:

• Beliefs and practices
• Sources of wisdom
• Symbols and actions
• Prayer and worship
• Identify and belonging
• Ultimate questions
• Human responsibility and values and
• Justice and fairness

 We apply these eight areas to our R.E. teaching from Reception to Year 6. As children progress through the school, our aim is to enable our pupils to become religiously and theologically literate in order to connect their understanding and knowledge to six main religions and other widely held world views. Importantly, we work to develop a demonstration of respect and compassion towards a range of beliefs and viewpoints and assist our pupils in gaining shared human understanding so they can engage in life in an increasingly diverse society.  

Our curriculum helps pupils develop the ability to be reflective about their own beliefs and identify (religious or otherwise) and to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues.

What our Children tell us:

(R.E.) …. helps you to understand religious belief so when you are older you know what you want to believe in.                                                                                                               

You learn to understand different religions and compare them.                                               

We can learn that people are different from us and its ok to be different.

I enjoyed expressing my ideas through writing and drawing. KS2

I enjoyed creating a Sukkah out of Lego for the Jewish festival of Sukkot. KS1

We think it is important that pupils have opportunities to explore religious artefacts and visits to religious places around our local area. We look for opportunities to explore religion in our local community by inviting visitors into our school. An example of this is, our local Church of England Vicar who comes into school to lead assemblies to enrich children’s learning on Christianity. We also invite staff and pupils to talk about their religious beliefs. For example, Mrs Mohammed one of our Teaching Assistants, visited each class to share her family’s Diwali traditions.

Our pupils have opportunities to experience a range of extra-curricular opportunities through the year. Pupils take part in activities to raise money for charities and are part of harvest festival where we collect and give food donations to the village food bank. Assemblies also provide opportunities to enrich our teaching and learning of R.E.

The Impact of our curriculum:
Alongside an evaluation of children’s work, we assess the impact of our curriculum through the behaviour and values children reflect in their everyday life. Children consistently demonstrate harmonious relationships across the school community, a positive attitude and sense of self –worth. These values are modelled consistently by staff.

 Useful Links and ways to support children with their RE learning

• Discuss different religions, beliefs and practices.
• Visit places of worship in our community, around the UK and also in other countries around the world.
• Read religious stories together and discuss the meaning behind them.
• Bitesize:This website offers knowledge and understanding of world religions, their traditions and views.
• The School Run: A range of resources designed to inform parents who are supporting their children with their RE learning.
• E. Online A calendar of festivals. (Celebrate religious festivals with friends and family.) 
• Encourage children to ask questions about religion and explore answers together.
• St John's Markyate The Benefice of Markyate and Flamstead
• Markyate Baptist Markyate Baptist church website
• Humanists This webpage is designed for parents to provide information on Humanism education.

Hertfordshire RE syllabus 2017-2022

RE Assessment Grid

Markyate RE Planning by Year Group 

What does Religious Education look like in our school?

Whole School - Trees of Kindness        

In every class during the spring term, there has been a tree of kindness, an idea that has been linked to Lent . The children have thought about the kind acts that they can do during Lent to help another person. The trees will be shared in our subway frames this term. Here are some of our Trees of Kindness.

Early Years

In our Early Years, the children learn about faiths such as Christianity and they learn that Remembrance Day is a time to reflect on events that have happened in the past and how these events make us think about how we make decisions today.

In December, our Nursery children created a fantastic countdown to Christmas advent calendar featuring the their work.

In Key Stage 1, Year 1 have been learning about how different religions celebrate harvest. The children learned what Sukkot is and how Jewish people celebrate it. All the children designed and built their own Sukkah and were able to talk about its symbolism. 

Garnet class have created Christingles after learning about different festivals of light.

Amber class have been exploring the Christian festival of Christmas. The children learned about the ways festivals can bring people together. They identified the events Christians are remembering when they celebrate Christmas and why Christmas matters to Christians. Finally, the children discussed the possibility that the best presents may be to do with love and kindness and that some gifts are invisible (qualities). Each child drew around their hand and wrote their ‘special’ gifts.

In Lower Key Stage 2, Year 4 have been exploring the 5Ks, the Kanda and the importance of Sewa for some Sikhs.

In Upper Key Stage 2, Year 5 have been exploring Jewish artefacts and understanding their importance in the Jewish religion. During the Autumn Term, Quartz and Emerald Classes have also been exploring the incarnation through the Christmas story. Year 6 have completed a unit on Buddhism, that looked at the key teachings of this faith and how the ideas are similar or different to other faiths.