Religious Education at Godfrey Ermen plays a major part in promoting the Christian aims, values and ethos of the school. It is expressed through the attitudes, relationships, values, visual symbols and Christian observances in our school.
The school follows the 2023 Religious Education Syllabus devised by RE Tdoday in conjuntion the Diocese of Manchester, which also links with the Understanding Christianity resource pack from Manchester Diocese.
In R.E. there is a clear, sequenced curriculum that allows pupils to understand the key Christian concepts of God – Creation – Fall – People of God – Incarnation – Gospel – Salvation – Kingdom of God. These areas are revisited at each key stage to enable pupils to retrieve and deepen their knowledge and understanding about the key concepts and the ‘Big Story’ of the Bible.
The curriculum time allocated to Religious Education is approximately 50 minutes a week in EYFS (through taught sessions and continuous provision activities), 60 minutes for Key Stage 1 and 75 minutes for Key Stage 2 pupils which can be blocked but is generally taught weekly.
The balance of time allocated to Christianity is 50%, with 50% to other faiths.
That as well as Christianity pupils should study aspects of the practices and beliefs of the three of the other five major world faiths. (Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.) The curriculum also allows time for children to reflect on those who do not have a faith.
Children are taught to make sense of beliefs and make connections with their own experiences and prior learning. They are then are encouraged to understand the impact by looking at how people put their beliefs into action.