Religious Education (RE)

Subject Leader: Mrs C.Nichols

RE Documents

Kennington-CE-Academy-RE-Long-Term-Plan-2023-2024 Download

RE-Long-Term- Canterbury Diocese suggested overview.-Sept-23 Download

Kent-SACRE-Agreed-Syllabus-for-RE-2022 to 2027 Download

Religious Education is a core subject at our school and we use the Understanding Christianity units alongside the Kent Agreed Syllabus, which includes the other world religions. Meeting the curriculum expectations, two thirds of the units covered are Christianity based and one third are related to other world religions.

Opportunities to develop spiritual, moral, social and cultural issues are often explored. Encouraging the children to think and discuss thought provoking topics, helps develop speaking and listening skills whilst also encouraging the children to be respectful of other people’s opinions, beliefs and practices. We draw upon a wider range of stimulus for RE including role play, hot seating, film clips, art, visitors, IT, music, poetry, the school environment, talk partners, artefacts and our local church-St Mary’s Church – so children have opportunities to learn both about religion and from religion. Where possible, we want our children to have opportunities to encounter local faith communities through visits to local places of worship or visits from members of local faith communities. We want to enable our children to develop the ability to make their own reasoned and informed judgements about the religious and moral issues which arise from reflection on human experience and a study of religious beliefs and practice. For them to consider ways in which beliefs, values and traditions might have significance for their own lives.

Religious Education at Kennington CE Academy is fun but also reflective, and is delivered in a variety of imaginative ways so that each child has the time and space to deepen their own understanding of God and appreciate something of how the Christian Community, both locally and nationally, responds to a busy and complex world.

Spirited Arts 2023 entries

As a school, we incorporate the Spirited Arts competition (run by NATRE) into our yearly curriculum. We use it as a theme day to encourage children to explore their own and others’ opinions about the big questions in life, both of a religious and non-religious nature. Following the experiences of the last few years, we use the idea of resilience within our entries. We think about the challenges we all have to face and how our ability to learn and adapt makes us truly unique beings. Our resilience as individuals and as a community, allows us to achieve, celebrate and succeed in every thing we do. Below are some of the examples of the work children completed for this year’s competition. Each year group was given a specific art skill to focus on to create their pieces to meet the key theme and then write a short explanation of their work. We think you will have to agree, they are inspiring!

Spirited Arts 2022 entries

Rosie-R-powerpoint Download

A few of our RE displays

YEAR 6 RE

As part of their unit on Creation and Science: Conflicting or Complementary?, the children investigate the different ideas of how the world began through Creation, Evolution and Cosmology. They design their own art through the ideas of Creation and discuss their own opinion of whether Christians could believe in both science and God.

Reverend Dawn joins year 6 to work with the children. They plan questions to ask Reverend Dawn about her personal opinions on how the world was made and if science helped or hindered that. The children really enjoy her visit and always find her answers very inspirational, so much so they always want to invite her in for more RE lessons!

In the unit, What Would Jesus Do?, the children create their own models to think about how a good life needs good foundations using the story of the Wise and Foolish Builder. The children think about the lessons Jesus taught from the Sermon on the Mount and what kind of advice Jesus would give in different situations. They design their own prayer corners to help other people to have time to reflect.

Year 5 RE

As part of their Christianity unit, What does it mean if God is loving and holy?, Year 5 have consider what God might be like and use biblical texts to support their ideas. They create their own songs and raps about a holy and loving God before considering how God can love everyone in the world if they sometimes do the things He hates.

In the unit Was Jesus the Messiah?, the children discover what the word Messiah means and why it was important to the Jews. They talk about the prophecies that they expected the Messiah to fulfil and how Jesus fulfilled all but one of these in His lifetime. They think about what Christmas means in our modern world and look at the charity Christmas Starts with Christ to create their own posters and scenes to show the true meaning of Christmas.

For the unit on How can following God being freedom and justice?, the children learn about the events in Moses’ life and how he helped the People of God achieve justice and freedom. They think about how this story and those about Jesus, inspires Christians to live a life helping others to achieve justice and freedom. We consider why these themes are important to the world as a whole and how we can help.

As part of the unit What did Jesus do to save human beings?, the children learn about the Stations of the Cross and why these are important to Christians now. They look at the story of Jesus’ death in more detail and discuss who was responsible for it. They think about the roles Jesus has for Christians and how this links to their every day lives. Looking at the Eucharist, they learn about the importance of the events and the symbols involved. They consider how Jesus’ life 2000 years ago continues to inspire and save humans now.

Year 4

As part of their Christianity topic on What do Christians learn about the Creation story?, the children look at where the story of Creation fits into the Bible. They create their own poems about the wonder of Creation. As a class they create class charters to show how they can try to be good stewards to make God happy. They read the story of The Fall and how Christians use it to help them to remember to ask for forgiveness.

Children look at Christian views in the unit What is the Trinity? They look at the story of Jesus’ birth in different Gospels and discuss why they might be different. They look closely at John’s Gospel and think about what he meant when he referred to Jesus as the Word before creating their own Christmas cards or Carols in the style of John’s Gospel. They learn about the word Incarnation and Reverend Dawn comes in to discuss her own views of the birth stories and Incarnation.

Hindu Faith Visitors

Year 4 are lucky to have an afternoon with two ladies who come to share their Hindu Faith with them. They share many aspects of their religion, explaining how their faith helps them in every aspect of their life, every day. The children get to look at Hindu items used for prayer, dress up in traditional Indian outfits and hear stories about how the world was created according to the Hindu Faith and what role the different deities have. The children absolutely love it!

Year 3

As part of their work around the unit What was it like to follow God?, the children learn about the stories of Noah and Abraham and Sarah. They discuss the covenants (promises) God made with them in each story and how that promised was kept. They think about how Christians shows similar promises to each other during wedding ceremonies. The children learn about William Booth and the things he did to help others and how the Salvation Army still achieves this today.

Children look at the Sikhi Faith in their unit on What is it important for Sikh people? They learn about their beliefs about God, the 5Ks and the special celebration of the Khalsa. The children consider how these beliefs were important to Sikh followers and how it might impact on their lives and actions.