Religious Education

Religious Education

At St Cleopas Church of England Primary School, Religious Education has an important and central place within our curriculum. Our school values and Collective Worship support the beliefs and practices of the church. Concepts and values are explored both through discrete RE lessons each week and through class and whole school Collective Worship. The Governors, in consultation with the Headteacher and following advice from the Diocese, have adopted the Diocesan Syllabus. We believe RE has an important place in the development of every pupil.

We are an inclusive school and teach about tolerance, celebrating differences and welcoming all, in a community of respect, nurture and support. We give our children opportunities to discuss topics, reflect on the impact religion has on others in their community, the wider world and themselves.

We use our strong links with St Cleopas Church and visits to other places of worship to enrich our children’s religious education. Our Vicar, Sian, is a school governor and regular visitor to school. She enriches and brings learning in RE to life, holding services and sharing in God’s work.

Children regularly engage in extra special RE events. We regularly support at community events and over the course of the year visits to the Cathedral and to other places of worship take place.  We also attend St Cleopas Church as well as celebrating Christian festivals with special services.

Please see the RE Overview document attached for more details of the curriculum coverage and progression.

Across our RE curriculum we use Understanding Christianity as a resource to support children’s understanding of Christianity and the Bible. The big Frieze is used to depict the stories from The Bible and follow the journey of our learning in RE.

Godly Play 

At St Cleopas we use Godly Play to engage and develop children’s spirituality. Godly Play begins with children’s innate sense of the presence of God and offers Christian language as a support for their ongoing spiritual formation. 

Mrs Berry is a fully trained practitioner and delivers sessions to every class across the school throughout the year (see RE Syllabus Overview).

Godly Play and its underlying principles offer a different way of being with children that can help nurture their spirituality in all aspects of school life. Godly Play values process rather than product, multi-modality learning, open questions and space for discovery, meaning-making and self-directed activity. It teaches a process that aims to promote an inner working model for life-long Christian learning.