World Views and Religion at Bolton

Subject Lead: Ruth Elstone 

Monitoring Governor: Bronwen Maxwell 

Intent:

The intent is to make sure that children understand the relevance of Religion in today’s modern world and how it affects our lives. Teachers, pupils and parents will have a positive view of this subject and understand its potential in the world today. Our WV&R lessons are intended to offer a broad and rich curriculum that covers the key skills in the subject. We aim to offer a variety of ways to explore religions and raise some of the big questions. It is our intention that this subject has a key role in terms of personal development and wellbeing. We intend to provide a high quality, coherent and progressive experience, with scope for cross-curricular learning. Through each unit, children will know about and understand a range of religions and world views. It is our aim that our pupils will be able to identify, investigate and respond to a variety of issues in a considered and informed way. They will develop a rich vocabulary related to the subject that they can use with increasing confidence.

SMSC, personal growth and community cohesion are featured throughout each medium-term plan. There will be planned opportunities for children to develop positive attitudes and values and to reflect on and relate their learning in R&WV to their own experiences living in Cumbria.

Implementation:

We use and follow the Cumbria Agreed Syllabus. We have designed a specific series of medium-term plans for each year group, which complement our PHSE and assembly programme. In KS1, children begin to look at other religions, focusing on celebrations and rituals. Along with Christianity, they will focus in more depth on Islam which will then be built upon in KS2.  In KS2, we offer a wider range of learning opportunities about the world’s religions including deeper understanding of the origin of those religions and their key stories and teachings. Knowledge organisers will be used to support learning and memory and the children will be encouraged to develop and use an ever-growing subject vocabulary. Topics are usually 6  sessions long and are carefully sequenced. Topics are organised in a two-year cycle. A variety of teaching methods will be employed, and children will have opportunities for discussion and learning from each other. Throughout both key stages, emphasis on personal growth and personal development is evident. Each unit caters for all students and includes an end of unit assessments to enable teachers in making sure children have reached the intended outcomes and so that they can make a judgement about each child’s their learning progress in the subject. The units taught will be tailored to the experiences and needs of Bolton pupils or to any current or global events. 

We plan visits and visitors as we believe that these ignite and enrich learning and understanding. Imran Kotwal visits from the Muslim Learning Centre when we are finding out 'What it means to be Muslim' (Y3/4) and 'What is Commitment and how do we show it?'

In  Y5/6, we organise a trip to the Buddhist Temple in Langholm when studying Buddhism. We plan a visit to our local church when studying 'Places of Worship' in class 1 and the York Minster (Y5/6) when the children visit York on their residential when they are learning about 'Worship.'  

Impact:

Our WV&R curriculum leads to children having a better understanding of the religions that make up the UK landscape and a greater understanding of the actions of some people from non-religious groups. Pupils learning about other faiths and groups creates community cohesion and reinforces our British Values. Through WV&R, our children are more informed about their position in the world, and the decisions they can make impacting their future. All children can talk confidently, discussing religious, spiritual, social or moral themes and are better prepared for the society in which they live. The WV&R curriculum promotes inquisitive minds, respect, tolerance and understanding for all those around them including themselves.

Both pupils and teachers demonstrate the values of Caring, Excelling, Enjoying and Inspiring in this subject area and consequently the profile of the subject is high.

Our designed curriculum fosters high quality learning and experiences, and this can be evidenced through pupils deep understanding of the main religions of the world; their community and the wider world; and knowledge of key themes and concepts related to world views and religion. Children use a wide range of vocabulary associated with this subject and can offer thoughtful explanations and give respectful opinions, as well as make cross-curricular links. Teachers represent this subject well and generate inquisitive reflective pupils. They keep themselves up to date with developments in the subject.

Please see our World Views and Religion at Bolton document below for more information, including our policy, progression of skills and long term plans.