At Northleaze, our Christian vision “Let your light shine” shapes every aspect of school life, including our Religious Education (RE) curriculum. We want every child to flourish academically, spiritually and personally as they learn to live well together in a diverse world.

Intent

Religious Education at Northleaze aims to:

• Give children opportunities to explore big questions about meaning, purpose, belief and values
• Develop secure knowledge and understanding of Christianity as well as other major world religions and worldviews
• Encourage personal reflection, spiritual development and thoughtful discussion
• Promote respect, empathy and understanding for people of all backgrounds
• Build religious literacy and critical thinking
• Enable children to form and express their own ideas with confidence

Our curriculum fulfils the Church of England’s Statement of Entitlement and reflects our values of responsibility, creativity, respect, compassion, resilience and friendship.

Implementation

Our Curriculum

We follow:

• The North Somerset Agreed Syllabus: Awareness, Mystery & Value (AMV) for teaching world faiths and worldviews  
• Understanding Christianity for our core teaching in Christian theology
• Christianity makes up at least 50% of curriculum time, with weekly RE lessons across the school (aiming for 10% of timetable).

Faiths and worldviews taught include: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Humanism.

Across Reception to Year 6, children learn about:

• Christianity (theology, biblical narrative, Christian living) — taught in every year group
• Judaism — e.g., belonging, festivals, Torah stories (notably in Year 3) 
• Islam — e.g., beliefs, prayer, Ramadan, Hajj (Year 5) 
• Hinduism — e.g., worship, festivals, dharma and values (Year 4) 
• Buddhism — explored in Year 5 through AMV Unit 8 (“What do people believe about life?”), where pupils compare Christian and Buddhist ideas about life, suffering and meaning. 
• Non‑religious worldviews (e.g., Humanism) — integrated in units dealing with values, big questions and moral choices.

How We Teach RE

We use a rich variety of teaching approaches, including:

• Story, discussion and debate
• Enquiry‑based learning
• Use of religious artefacts, sacred texts and digital resources
• Creative work: drama, art, music and reflective writing
• Visits to places of worship and visitors from local faith communities

In Reception, learning is recorded in a class RE book; in Years 1–6, pupils use individual RE books.

Reflection is encouraged through class prayer books, the school prayer tree and Shine Journals.

Impact

Assessment

Teachers assess pupils’ learning continuously throughout each unit, using discussion, questioning, written work and observation to check understanding and address misconceptions as part of normal classroom practice.

At the end of a unit, teachers make a recorded judgement against the specific learning outcomes for that unit from the AMV Agreed Syllabus and Understanding Christianity. These outcomes are set out clearly in our internal progression document, and they guide teachers in identifying what pupils have secured and what the next steps should be.  

Teachers use these recorded outcomes to:

• Assess pupils’ understanding of key concepts
• Identify strengths and next steps
• Inform future planning and ensure progression year on year

Assessment evidence is kept in pupils’ RE books and/or accompanying teacher assessment records, building a clear picture of progress across the RE curriculum.

See our 'Policies' page for our RE policy