RE

Religious Education (RE) is an important element in the broad and balanced curriculum we provide at Leap Federation. Through our RE curriculum we provide opportunities to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of world religions, other world views including British Values, and reflect on the challenging questions that it provokes. It is our intent to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society.

The aims of religious education at LEAP are:

To develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the six major religions and consider how the beliefs of others impact on their lives and the lives of others.
To encourage children to ask and reflect on challenging questions.
To provide opportunities for personal reflection where children can explore their own beliefs (not necessarily religious).
To encourage children to appreciate and respect the different cultures in today’s society.
To celebrate and embrace the diverse cultures in Hackney.

Religious Education at LEAP schools meets the requirements of our pupils who are members of local, national and global communities and it celebrates the diverse nature of our borough.

National Curriculum

The RE curriculum forms an important part of our school’s spiritual, moral and social teaching. Our schools use Plan Bee’s RE scheme to ensure we offer a broad and balanced curriculum that builds on knowledge and skills.

National Curriculum RE guidance

Curriculum overview

At LEAP we teach the six main world faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism). We also encourage the consideration of non-religious world views. These are staggered throughout the key stages and RE is taught for 3 weeks a year in each year group.

Every year our diverse community is celebrated in one evening called ‘International Evening’. On this night the community come together to celebrate world food, music, clothes, traditions and more. Our schools also put on spectacular Nativity performances at the end of autumn term. Furthermore, each year group performs one religious assembly covering the six major religions.

The long and medium term plans ensure that there is progression throughout the school and that children are building upon knowledge learnt in previous years. Our curriculum content is arranged so that ideas and processes become more challenging over time and demonstrates clear progression. In class, pupils have the opportunity to learn through various online presentations and videos, fiction and non-fiction books, real artefacts and objects. Children have ample opportunity to articulate their ideas about religion, beliefs and spirituality through class discussions and assemblies.

Cultural Capital

Children at LEAP have the opportunity to visit various places of worship and meet people from various religious and belief communities. These include visits to a church, Sikh temple, mosque etc. This enables the children to further enhance their understanding of world religions, beliefs and practices.

Rich, Relevant and Representative: The LEAP Empowerment Curriculum

Hackney’s diverse and rich community provides our classrooms with a range of religions and non-religious beliefs. We provide opportunities for every child to share their experiences and ideas about their faith and ensure that each child’s faith and beliefs has the platform to be represented and acknowledged. We recognise that there are denominations within religions such as Christianity and understand there are sensitive differences between different branches of a religion such as Methodist, Baptist, Greek Orthodox and Presbyterian etc. As a result, we ensure that ethnic minority religions are represented fairly within our RE curriculum.

Fundamental British Values

At LEAP, we actively promote the Fundamental British Values and RE is a fantastic way to address ‘Mutual Respect and Tolerance.’ Our children learn about and learn from many religions. In particular, we believe that our RE curriculum helps children to understand each other’s faiths and encourages tolerance. We aim to explore multiple identities and communities, with the aim for young people to come to an informed and empathetic understanding of different groups that will promote cohesion and integration. Our RE curriculum challenges pupils to be increasingly respectful and to celebrate diversity of different cultures, faiths and beliefs.

Religious Education at Home

Being a diverse, multi-cultural borough provides our children with a great opportunity to discover more about Religious Education. Hackney houses the oldest building which used to be part of a church and dates back to the 13^th century. The building is called St Augustine’s Tower. Here you will find religious artefacts and relics that are still in use and the tower is open to the public every last Sunday of the month. Hackney also has many beautiful Mosques which re open to the public. At LEAP we actively encourage children to continue their research at home. Below are some websites you might find useful.