Religious Education (RE)

Our intent:

At South End Junior, we believe that Religious Education plays a significant role within the curriculum. It promotes spiritual, moral, cultural and mental health development, preparing learners for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life, and helping them to become successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. Children will be introduced to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism and Humanism and Ethical Veganism throughout their time with us. Children will be encouraged to explore religious origins, main beliefs, key vocabulary, festivals of importance, religious texts and symbols before learning how to compare, contrast and develop respectful opinions of them. We allow children to be active, thoughtful, reflective and expressive in their handling of questions about beliefs, religion, spirituality and values. We aim to include elements of enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection within our lessons whilst ensuring children understand the importance of showing tolerance and understanding the diverse nature of our world. We collaborate closely with our local communities and welcome visitors to our school by people of different religions. By the time our children move to secondary school, they will have visited a number of different places of worship. 

Please click here for the RE long term overview.

Our way:

At South End Junior School, we teach Religious Education to pupils through weekly sessions which are planned by the RE lead for consistency and are adapted where necessary for individual classes. When planning, we follow the Northamptonshire Agreed Syllabus 'SACRE' for 2025-2030, which has been mapped against the National Curriculum. RE is also regularly interwoven into whole school assemblies and class reflections. 

During the weekly sessions, children build on their knowledge of the religions that they were introduced to in Key Stage 1 (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), and they are also introduced to Buddhism, Santani Dharma (Hinduism) Humanism and Ethical Veganism. Pupils participate in a variety of activities which explore their origins, main beliefs, festivals, religious texts, and symbols. 

As children progress to Upper Hub, they use their knowledge to compare and contrast beliefs in different religions – this will help to deepen their understanding of the different aspects of religion. Throughout the units, there is a focus on subject-specific vocabulary. Over a pupil’s time at SEJ, the vocabulary is regularly revisited and interwoven into lessons and retrieval activities. 

Children take part in a variety of activities during their RE lessons, and these include whole-class lessons, paired and group discussions, drama, use of ICT, art and the use of religious artefacts. Throughout their time at SEJS, children are encouraged to share their own experiences of religion whilst being tolerant and respectful of others’ beliefs and attitudes. Over the year, a wide variety of religious events are recognised and celebrated and regularly form creative learning afternoons. For example, traditional dance and drumming workshops.