Religious Education

At Orgill Primary School we teach Religious Education to allow pupils to make their own choices and decisions concerning religion and belief.  We ensure pupils increase their knowledge and understanding of a variety of religions and cultures developing empathy with different people and their beliefs around the world.  The teaching of Religious Education also supports the spiritual development of our pupils as well as ensuring British Values are covered.  Diversity is celebrated and Orgill Primary School pupils leave us equipped for living in the wider world. 

Religious Education is taught on a weekly basis with children accessing approximately one hour per week. This may be a lesson a week or it may be used flexibly to enable more sustained work, or cross-curricular work. The teaching and learning of Religious Education is that of an enquiry approach.  Within this model children investigate key elements of a number of world religions as well as having the opportunity to apply this knowledge and develop their critical thinking skills through Evaluation sessions. All children learn about aspects of Christianity. The other five principal religions represented in Britain should be studied across the key stages. By the end of Key Stage Two pupils should have an adequate understanding of at least three religions. They should also have knowledge of aspects of other religions and world views, especially those with a significant local or topical presence. At Orgill Primary School we use the Discovery RE Scheme of Work which covers all the objectives covered in The Cumbria Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2017 revision). Children in Key Stage One focus their learning on Christianity and Islam with some aspects of Judaism covered in Year Two. In Key Stage Two, children continue to develop their understanding and knowledge of Christianity, Islam and Judaism and look at Hinduism as a study into other world religions. Aspects of other world religions may also be linked in to teaching. 

At Orgill Primary School Religious Education teaching is enhanced by opportunities for children to visit places of interest with a religious context. We have links with the Church of England and Roman Catholic churches in Egremont and the Methodist Church. Due to both the rural area we live in and the lack of diversity which is seen where we live, it is often not possible to visit a wide ranging list of different places of worship. In order to balance this, children are able to access many different virtual tours online and are able to access websites such as REOnline and their ‘Email a believer’ section to answer any questions they may have. Our Religious Education curriculum is accessible for all children and strives to ensure that the needs of all children are met and that every child is provided with the means to question, understand and empathise.