At St. Andrew’s (Barnsbury), a Church of England school, where pupils and staff come from all faiths and none, Religious Education (R.E.) is a highly valued academic subject that enables understanding of how religion and beliefs affect our lives. At the heart of R.E. in church schools is the teaching of Christianity but pupils also learn about other faiths and world views.

The main aim of R.E. is to engage pupils in systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.

Our aim is that pupils should develop their knowledge and understanding of religions and worldviews, recognising their local, national and global contexts. They should use basic subject specific vocabulary. They should raise questions and begin to express their own views in response to the material they learn about and in response to questions about their ideas.

We follow the L.D.B.S. (London Diocesan Board for Schools) Agreed Syllabus which can be found here: https://ldbs.co.uk/primary-re-syllabus

The areas of R.E. enquiry are Theology, Philosophy and Human/Social Science which are woven throughout our R.E. lessons and assessments. R.E. is a core subject at St. Andrew’s and is taught in all classes across the school at the same time each Monday morning. We also supplement our R.E. teaching with half termly R.E. days which have a different theme e.g. Harvest Festival and Thankfulness; St. Andrew and other saints and martyrs; Lent and Sacrifice and so on.

R.E. has specific assessments based around the learning in each unit and the areas of enquiry. To effectively assess a child’s attainment and progress in R.E., we use a range of evidence so that holistic and accurate judgements can be made.