Although RE is statutory, it justifies its place in the curriculum on purely educational grounds. It is the opportunity to explore a major and distinctive dimension of what it means to be a person: the search for meaning and value in a wondrous but also often confusing and sometimes threatening world. It offers pupils: the chance to raise and reflect on perennial questions about life; insights into the development of different human cultures. In doing this, RE draws on the major religious traditions in Britain, giving due prominence to Christianity to reflect the fact that these traditions are in the main Christian, whilst taking account of the other principal world religions, and non‐religious beliefs that may form the family background of many children in our schools.

Challenging RE The Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2023

Religious Education at The Batt

Exploration - in RE lessons children will have the opportunity to explore

• the lives of people of faith and those of no particular faith.
• religious ideas, principles, teachings.
• the way people in different places worship and practice their beliefs within the same and different faiths to avoid stereotyping.

Co-operation - we seek to develop the children's desire and abilities to co-operate with others by:

• sharing religious/non religious teachings and experiences on how others live and work together both historically and today applying these to daily life e.g. composting project/no dig care for our world.
• demonstrating our Christian values and encouraging them to do likewise.
• modelling this to our children through our own behaviour and attitudes.
• helping the children to work together to value and serve others day to day within the school, without prejudice or the exclusion of others e.g. reading partners, play leaders, school councillors etc and to the wider community e.g. by raising money for charity, visiting the elderly, or inviting community groups to afternoon tea.

Communication - we develop communication skills by

• encouraging the children to speak confidently and respectfully about what they believe about themselves and the world around them understanding that not everyone holds the same beliefs as they do.
• helping them to understand what might influence what they and others believe and that this may change over time.
• helping them understand that it is vital to understand what we believe as it shapes how we behave by studying scenarios in others lives and relating them to our own e.g religious stories and accounts.
• facilitating the children's discovery of what other people of all faiths and none religious believe.
• fostering understanding of how to work alongside those who think differently to ourselves, helping the children to see through the lives of others how conflicts can be resolved and peace restored.

Innovation - in RE we work to

• finding new ways to work alongside others and come up with ways to help those who are in need.
• reveal new ways to learn about faith and belief and think of exciting ways to communicate what they have learnt to others e.g. drama, art, presentations etc.

We follow Challenging RE - The Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2023

Our scheme of work meets the locally agreed syllabus and is based on content from both the ODBE scheme of work for RE and Understanding Christianity.

Click here to view our Curriculum Statement for Religious Education

Click here to view our Religious Education Curriculum Plan

 Parents have the right to withdraw their child from RE lessons or parts of it and should talk to the Executive Headteacher if this is their intention. Whilst we respect this right, we hope parents can see our curriculum does not promote or encourage a certain set of beliefs and contributes to children’s development in many valuable ways.