At Firs we use the Derbyshire and Derby City Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2020-2025). It provides the legal framework for a syllabus for Religious Education for Derby City and Derbyshire schools.

We use a key question approach where the questions engage the children and open up the content to be studied. E.g: What does it mean to be a Hindu in Britain today? 

We intend children to understand what it truly means to be a person of faith as well as a person with no faith and encourage them to articulate their own ideas and experience about belief, religion and spirituality.

The principal aim of RE is to engage pupils in systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.

The threefold aim of RE elaborates the principal aim. The curriculum for RE aims to ensure that all pupils:

All pupils in the EYFS will be taught RE as an integral part of their personal, social and emotional learning. All pupils will encounter religions and world-views through multiple methods of teaching, e.g. books, educational visits and storytelling.

In EYFS, children will learn about special times, people, places and stories. They will discuss how these are different for different people and religions, and begin to consider which people/times/place/stories are special to them.

See our progression map and RE policy (below) for more information about progression in EYFS.

Our progression map (see documents below) ensures learning and knowledge is revisited and built upon as children move through EYFS, KS1 and KS2.

E.g: Children will study ‘Who is a Christian and what do they believe? (part 1)’ in Year 1 and then ‘Who is a Christian and what do they believe? (part 2)’ in Year 2 to allow time to check and build on knowledge. This ensures children have the correct prior knowledge for when they study ‘What is like to be a Christian in Britain today?’ in Year 3 & 4. This is built on further in Year 5 & 6 where children compare Christian and Humanist views.

We believe our RE curriculum prepares children to study and succeed in RE at KS3 by equipping them with the right skills and prior knowledge. E.g: When children go on to study biblical interpretation in Year 8, it is necessary for them to have already studied Christianity in some depth.

We will add some of our amazing RE work here throughout the year: