The Little Children and Jesus

¹⁵ People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. ¹⁶ But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷ Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

What does RE look like at Wolvey CofE?

RE is a vital curriculum area at Wolvey that contributes to the development and preservation of the spiritual and moral ethos of our school. It is a vehicle that encourages and equips young minds to ask questions and seek truth, in all spheres of life. RE is taught weekly with a systematic and thematic approach through half-termly themes based upon the Warwickshire locally agreed syllabus and the Understanding Christianity syllabus. We believe that RE should be active, creative and fun therefore we offer lots of opportunities for children to explore faith through the arts and literature.  

3 types of knowledge in our curriculum 

These broad types of knowledge are ‘pillars of progression’ within RE. ‘Getting better’ at RE at our school comprises both of knowing more and remembering more of these pillars as they are set out within the RE curriculum:

• first, ‘substantive’ knowledge: knowledge about various religious and non-religious traditions

• second, ‘ways of knowing’: pupils learn ‘how to know’ about religion and non-religion

• third, ‘personal knowledge’: pupils build an awareness of their own presuppositions and values about the religious and non-religious traditions they study

Our high-quality RE may have the following features

• A consideration of the knowledge that pupils build through the RE curriculum, because accurate knowledge about religion and non-religion can be beneficial for achieving different purposes and aims for RE.

• High expectations about scholarship in the curriculum to guard against pupils’ misconceptions. What is taught and learned in RE is grounded in what is known about religion/non-religion from academic study (scholarship).

• Carefully selected and well-sequenced substantive content and concepts.

• ‘Ways of knowing’ are appropriately taught alongside the substantive content and are not isolated from the content and concepts that pupils learn.

• A consideration of when pupils should relate the content to their own personal knowledge (for example, prior assumptions).

1. Warwickshire and Coventry agreed syllabus for Religious Education

The Agreed Syllabus sets out what pupils should be taught in religious education (RE) from ages 3 to 19. All maintained schools have a statutory duty to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which includes RE. Maintained schools without a religious character are required to teach RE to all registered pupils in accordance with the Locally Agreed Syllabus. Academies and free schools are also required through the terms of their funding agreement to make provision for the teaching of RE. They can choose to use the locally agreed syllabus but are not required to do so. It is a legal requirement for the Local Authority to review the Agreed Syllabus every 5 years. The review is overseen by an Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC), which has a similar membership to the SACRE. The Syllabus for Warwickshire and Coventry schools was published in 2017.