Religious Education
“RE encourages children to ask big questions about life, belief, and what it means to be human.”
Purpose
At Woodside C of E Primary School, we aim for all pupils to learn and achieve through our vision of ‘Together in God’s love we inspire and grow through living life in all its fullness.’ – John 10:10.
Being a Church School, Religious Education plays an important part of our curriculum. Having a personal ‘religious literacy’ is critical in our children becoming the tolerant, understanding individuals in the diverse world we live in; a key aim within our vision. We use both Jigsaw RE and Understanding Christianity as our sources to discover the insights to our world offered by Christianity and the world’s other faiths. Using both resources has allowed us to design a bespoke curriculum that is specifically tailored to the learners we serve at Woodside.
The aims of the RE curriculum at Woodside are:
Encourage appreciation of diverse faiths and worldviews, promoting empathy, respect, and positive attitudes towards people of all backgrounds.
Help pupils understand how religious beliefs influence daily life, moral choices, celebrations, and community values.
Provide opportunities for pupils to reflect on their own ideas, values, and experiences in light of what they learn, developing critical thinking and spiritual awareness.
Curriculum Organisation
Being a Church School, Religious Education plays an important part of our curriculum. Having a personal ‘religious literacy’ is critical in our children becoming the tolerant, understanding individuals in the diverse world we live in, a key aim within our vision.
We use both Jigsaw RE and Understanding Christianity as our sources to discover the insights to our world offered by Christianity and the world’s other faiths. Using both resources has allowed us to design a bespoke curriculum that is specifically tailored to the learners we serve at Woodside.
Rationale for Focusing on Three Religions
Our decision to concentrate on three religions in the curriculum is carefully informed by the context of our school community and the need to provide a meaningful and in-depth learning experience for pupils. At Woodside, the majority of our pupils are White British, and most do not attend the school because of their Christian faith. This unique context shapes our approach to Religious Education.
Additionally, feedback from Ofsted highlighted that pupils’ knowledge of religions beyond Christianity was often surface-level, which impacted our ability to achieve outstanding in the area of personal development. In response, we have deliberately chosen to limit the number of religions studied to ensure deeper, more meaningful engagement with each faith.
The three religions selected—Christianity, Islam, and one other—were chosen because:
- Islam shares key beliefs and values with Christianity, making it accessible for pupils to make meaningful comparisons and connections.
- These religions reflect important local and cultural contexts relevant to our pupils’ lives and communities.
- This focused approach enables us to develop pupils’ understanding in a more nuanced and respectful way, moving beyond superficial knowledge to genuine empathy and insight.
By prioritizing depth over breadth, we aim to foster a richer understanding of faith, identity, and community, better preparing pupils for life in a diverse society.
Humanism
Humanism is a way of thinking that focuses on kindness, fairness, and making good choices without following a religion. We teach Humanism in KS2 to help children understand different beliefs, including those of people who don’t follow a religion. This helps pupils respect everyone’s views, think carefully about right and wrong, and prepare for living in a diverse world.
Understanding Christianity Curriculum
Each of our units have a core set of knowledge which we expect our children to learn and remember. This knowledge is taken forward to support new learning in subsequent years.
understandingchristianity.org.uk
Jigsaw RE
Jigsaw Religious Education (RE) is a comprehensive program designed for children aged 3-12, focusing on exploring different worldviews and fostering empathy and respect. It employs an enquiry-based approach, allowing flexibility in the curriculum to include various religions and worldviews. At Woodside, we use this programme to teach Islam and Sikhism, so the children have a deep knowledge other two other main world religions.
From Early Years to Year 6 the foundations of Religious Education are taught holistically, with knowledge and skills woven into half-termly topics that have been developed systematically to ensure progression. Our children explore Christianity, Islam and Sikhism as their three-core religious allowing progression throughout the year group and a deep understanding of three major religions by the time they leave Woodside. This is supplemented by opportunities such as Interfaith Week to explore other religious and engage in different workshops and key speakers.
Each RE lesson follows a clear sequence:
- Enquiry driver question
- Explicit vocabulary
- Prior Knowledge Review
- New knowledge taught through multiple sources
- Effective questioning
- A meaningful task
- Exit ticket that answers the enquiry question
- Spirituality question- Woodside Wows and Owls
Spirituality
When planning for spiritual development in the curriculum we carefully consider our ‘Woodside Wows and Owls.
The school recognises the “Wows and Owls” framework as a way to encourage reflection, curiosity, and growth within our learning community.
- “Wows” represent moments of awe, wonder, and inspiration — times when students and staff experience excitement and appreciation for learning, creativity, or discovery.
- “Owls” symbolize wisdom, reflection, and the pursuit of deeper understanding. They encourage individuals to seek knowledge, use sound judgment, and approach challenges with insight and confidence.
Together, “Wows” and “Owls” promote a balanced approach to learning that values both the joy of discovery and the wisdom gained through reflection.
In Collective Worship each week, we look to these moments explicitly.
In school, we promote spiritual development in a myriad of ways and try to think of this linked to SELF, OTHERS, WORLD and BEYOND.
Spiritual development may come through the curriculum e.g. through explicit reflection of SELF in PSHE lessons or consideration of OTHERS in our team work during PE. Sometimes though, it is through the wider school life where we encourage Spiritual Development.
What we think of being in a Church of England School
Our ‘Junior Leadership team’ have been thinking about what a Church of England school means and why it is important to them:
We are a Christian school which means:
- We learn about God – all of the wonderful things he has done and what he wants us to be like.
- We have values which are key to the Christian faith and we try hard to live these every day.
- Our school’s vision is linked to the Bible.
- We have connections with church and visit regularly.
- We pray and even have our own school prayer.
- We celebrate Christian festivals and learn the true meaning of them.
- We are inclusive and welcome everybody.