RE
Hi, I’m Miss Manning and I’m the Year 4 Team Leader and one of the RE Subject Leaders. I have helped develop the teaching of RE at my previous school in inner-city Bristol and have enjoyed bringing my experience to St Leonard’s. My passion is making sure RE lessons are ambitious and meet the needs of all learners – so I’ve spent lots of time helping teachers design lessons that help all of our children demonstrate their understanding of this important subject.
Hi, I’m Miss Cousens and I’m a Year 2 teacher and one of the RE Subject Leaders. I have joined the RE team this year and am excited to bring my Key Stage 1 experience to the subject. I’m a big believer in the power of RE to help our children be more open-minded and accepting of difference – a vital skill for our children growing into an ever more globalised society.
What does RE look like at St Leonard’s?
We use the Devon and Torbay Agreed Syllabus to ensure we plan and teach a rigorous, progressive RE curriculum that prepares our children for life in 21st Century Britain. The scheme has been designed and written by experts, who have ensured that the learning build coherently, enabling children to meet their potential. It incorporates the Understanding Christianity approach, which gives our children a thorough grounding in the religion – something very important to us as a church school.
However, we recognise that every scheme needs adapting to meet the needs of our children. Therefore, our teachers do not simply teach the lessons ‘off the peg’, but instead adapt the lessons to provide a range of scaffolds and outcomes.
You can look at our curriculum progression map below:
RE Curriculum Progression Map (Updated Feb 24)
What makes RE extra special here at St Leonard’s?
We are lucky enough to enjoy a wonderfully close relationship with our local church:
https://www.stleonards.church/
Our Chair of Governors, Ruth Clarke, is also the Children and Families Minister at the church and, as a result, provides us with wonderful support for the subject. As well as deepening the children’s understanding of Christianity through high-quality collective worship, Ruth (a fully qualified teacher), has also planned and delivered RE teaching to upskill our teachers.
In addition, another of our governors, Chris Keene, is the Associate Rector at the church. Chris has been kind enough to take part in RE curriculum mornings, bringing his wealth of experience to help develop the subject whilst deepening his understanding as a governor. He is also always happy to come in and enrich the subject – for example he recently spoke to our Year 6s and hosted a debate entitled ‘Creation and Science – Conflicting or Complementary?’
We visit the church regularly, with parents invited to watch their children celebrating Harvest and the Nativity, to name but a few.
Global Citizens
One key strand of our Curriculum intent is, ‘To celebrate our community whilst remaining outward looking’. We want our children to develop an understanding of all major religions, so, as well as our RE teaching, we plan in a sequence of visits to a wide variety of places of worship over the children’s journey in our school.
Our RE curriculum aims to provide children with a high-quality, sequential, religious education (RE) programme. This is essential to meet the statutory requirement for all state funded schools, academies and free schools, to teach a full curriculum that prepares pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life in modern Britain. Our pupils find learning about all faiths and spirituality highly rewarding and enables them to be curious and objective. We are always careful to ensure that children receive a broad and balanced experience where they can consider their own views and values. As a parent, you do have the right to withdraw your child from, part or all, of RE lessons if you wished to do so. If this is something you are considering or would like to know more about please make an appointment to discuss this with the Headteacher. To do this please contact the school office.