Religious Education and Collective Worship
Religious Education (RE)
We are respectful and inclusive of the religious beliefs and values of all the children within our school. We recognise the importance of allowing children to observe their own religious customs and cultural traditions. Through RE lessons, we are aiming to support children’s knowledge and understanding of different World religions and through this, to help children develop enquiring minds, form their own opinions and develop respect for other people’s views and values.
At Queen’s Crescent School our RE teaching is based on the Wiltshire Agreed Syllabus. Our approach to teaching RE focuses on developing children’s subject knowledge, while at the same time supporting them to relate to their own experiences, reflecting on similarities and differences between themselves and other people. To further support our planning and teaching of RE, we follow the enquiry based scheme of learning, ‘Discovery RE’. This begins every RE topic with a key question which helps to focus the learning.
Christianity is taught in every year group, with Christmas and Easter taught on a yearly basis, developing the learning in a progressive way. Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism are also covered with a greater emphasis on Judaism and Islam, which are introduced in Key Stage 1 and revisited in KS2. In Foundation Stage, the children also follow ‘Discovery RE’; learning about special people, celebrations and festivals, special places and special stories. Opportunities for RE support their Personal, Social and Emotional Development and their Understanding of the World: two areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum.
Each unit of work, supported by the ‘Discovery RE’ scheme of Learning, is led by a key question. The organisation of the planning and delivery of the lessons is split into four main parts throughout the term: Engagement - beginning with the children’s own experiences. Investigation - The teacher guides the children through the enquiry, developing their subject knowledge. Evaluation - drawing together the children’s learning and their conclusions about the key question of that enquiry; and finally, Expression - Children are taken back to Step 1, their own experience, to reflect on how this enquiry might have influenced their own starting point/beliefs, etc.
Although we are not a Church school, we have established good links with some of our local churches: Ladyfield, St. Peter’s and the town’s branch of the Salvation Army.
World Faith Days
To further enhance the children’s understanding of world religions, we run annual ‘World/Multi Faith Days’. Each year we choose a particular religion or theme such as festivals, to help raise the profile of this aspect of the subject. In previous years, we have invited a range of special visitors into the school to help bring the teaching to life. We have enjoyed learning about the traditions behind festivals such as Diwali and Hanukkah as well as a more in depth look at the Christian festival of Christmas. This academic year, our Multi Faith Day will take place at the beginning of Term 5 and will focus on learning a little about each faith. FS2/KS1 classes will look closely at 'special buildings'.
RE Ambassadors
In order to help further raise the profile of RE within our school, as well as recognising ‘Pupil Voice’, a group of twenty children from across KS1 and KS2 have become the Queen’s Crescent RE Ambassadors. They will meet approximately twice per term with the RE Subject Leader and can expect to:
- Be part of a special Christingle making workshop;
- Look at a range of RE artefacts, and help ‘teach’ their classes about them;
- Discuss their RE lessons in a bit more detail;
- Learn about different religious festivals, acting out religious stories etc;
- Light the candles for whole school/class collective worship.
RE Quality Mark
In 2017 our school achieved the Silver RE Quality Mark. This award reflects the good quality RE evidence within our school.
Collective Worship
At Queen’s Crescent School, we meet the legal requirement to offer a daily act of Collective Worship. This is covered in the form of Key Stage or whole school assemblies, with class or unit assemblies also timetabled. We recognise that Collective Worship forms a valuable part of our children’s overall education, providing opportunities for our students Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development.
At the beginning of each term, a new Value/theme is introduced, which provides the focus for the Collective Worship element of our assemblies. Examples of our values are: Courage, Responsibility, Generosity and Perseverance. We aim to engage the children with stories with an important message, visiting speakers, lively singing and opportunities for audience participation and discussion. Our Music Specialist selects songs and hymns to support the current value.
Every class is responsible for bringing a candle to each assembly and these are lit by the RE Ambassadors during our act of Collective Worship. We end our assemblies with either a prayer or a moment of reflection. During prayer, children are encouraged to sit quietly and show good listening; they are invited to say ‘Amen’ if they agree with the prayer and wish to do so.
Carol Concerts
Each year we produce two carol concerts. One from year 5&6 and one from years 3&4. This is an opportunity for the children to perform songs, poetry and readings and display their own work. This year, the carol concerts were performed and recorded in school and sent out to parents/guardians. Normally, the concerts are performed live in front of friends and family at Ladyfield Church.
Christingle making Workshop
Previously, our School Councillors have been invited to attend a special workshop to create their own Christingle and learn about the symbolism behind the different ingredients used! They then have had the responsible task of feeding back this information to their classmates. We have also run special assemblies where a member of a local church leads the Collective Worship and the Christingles are proudly displayed!
Right to withdraw
Parents should note that there is an entitlement to withdraw from RE lessons and/or Collective Worship. Any parents considering doing so should initially speak to Mr Essam.
