World Views and Religion at Bolton

Subject Lead: Ruth Elstone 

Monitoring Governor: Carla Miller  

Schools have a duty to teach RE as part of its promotion of students’ personal development. At Bolton we feel that it is crucial that children understand religion and can make sense of what they see and hear from the media and a better understanding of the complex world in which they live. Also, living in Cumbria, we are poignantly aware that this is not a very diverse place to live and grow up and this can lead to stereotypical views on different faiths or religious people.

The new Cumbria Syllabus (which becomes statutory September 2024) is our key document produced by SACRE. Its aims to develop pupils’ religious literacy so they can hold balanced and well-informed conversation about religious and non-religious world views. The Cumbria Syllabus reminds curriculum designers to be curious and open to studying the wisdom and beauty of religion and worldviews and appreciate that Religion isn’t fixed but is living, dynamic, changing and evolving throughout the world.

It was decided to change the name of the subject in 2020 to Worldviews and Religion from Religious Education. There were two reasons for this and the first being that we felt that the status of the subject was low amongst some students and that many teachers and parents remembered their own personal experiences of teaching and learning in RE and unfortunately these were not overwhelmingly positive. Secondly, we did want our ‘teaching about religion’ curriculum to acknowledge that this subject would be dealing with a collection of attitudes, values, stories and expectations about the diverse world around us. We feel that it is important that children understand that there are both religious worldviews and non-religious worldviews - both equally valid.

Following the 2020 Ofsted, senior leaders (head teacher and Class 1 teacher) worked on developing a curriculum. Basically, we researched planned, ‘free’ units on a range of religious topics, checking their appropriateness for different ages and the basic content. The focus was on the ‘what’ and much less about the ‘how’ and ‘why.’ We created a 2-year cycle and after each year tweaks were made. Some topics that were less popular and less enjoyable were dropped. When it came to starting the second of the two-year cycle, teachers were encouraged to make the content better and to personalise it much more. Many of our topics came from Twinkl PlanIt units (award winning) which were good on coverage and content but were very predictable e.g. working through a PowerPoint followed by often a written activity. For other units, it was felt that Plan Bee were better and added more variety of follow-up activities and more adaptation.

 In terms of a multi-discipline approach, these units allowed children theological thinking and to look at the subject through a human science lens. However, there wasn’t enough magic and awe and wonder in our Bolton World Views Curriculum; not one pupil had named it in their top three favourite subjects (aut 23) or named a topic as memorable learning. It needed to be more exciting and more philosophical thinking was needed. There was an ambition to add more high-quality discussion and rich debate and reflection. Children needed time to wonder about the big questions and generate more questions themselves. We needed to look more at how the Worldview and Religion jigsaw fitted together. We needed to be certain that the RE curriculum was coherently planned and sequenced towards sufficient and relevant knowledge about the main religions and worldviews. 

In summer 2024, time was allocated to make the curriculum more magical and memorable following some training on Curriculum Development (Primary Huh and Mary Myatt). The school subscribed to Mary Myatt’s Teachers’ Collection.  The subject leader (headteacher) began by reviewing the existing curriculum and surveying children’s views about the topics. Units that hadn’t gone as well or where there was felt to be some duplications were rejected and work on building a new curriculum was started. For teaching and learning, there was an ambition to move away from ‘PowerPoint and activity’ and start using more memorable fictional texts to explore this important subject.

Topics are usually allocated 5 - 6 sessions of approximately one hour and are carefully sequenced. It is important that this is flexible and that the experience for the children is the key decider. In other words, it’s fine to have a longer or shorter topic, if that makes more sense to the learner. A variety of teaching methods are encouraged, and children must have opportunities for high-quality discussion and learning from each other. Throughout both key stages, emphasis on personal growth and personal development is uppermost. Each unit caters for ‘all’ students and includes some kind of relevant end of unit assessment to enable teachers to check that children have reached the intended outcomes and so that we can make a judgement about each child’s learning progress or offer support going forward. Each unit taught is tailored to the experiences and needs of the different cohorts of Bolton pupils and aims to draw upon and make links to any current or community or global events where possible.

It is important that adults delivering the WV&R ensure that they take care with balance and use phrases like, ‘Some Muslims pray five times each day,’ or ‘Some Muslims fast in daylight hours during Ramadan,’ so that our children appreciate belief and faith is unique and we should ensure that we are not presenting all religious people as fundamentalists. Another consideration for some adults is to avoid saying, ‘We believe that Jesus is the son of God’ rather than phrasing, ‘Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God.’ It’s good to share your personal views and beliefs so long as you are presenting them as one of many alternatives and not facts.

In Early Years - Pupils begin to explore religious and non-religious worldviews in terms of special people, special times, special places, special books and special objects.  Pupils explore religious and non-religious stories which raise interesting questions. They are introduced to specialist words and use their senses in exploring religious and non-religious beliefs, practices and forms of expression. Often this will be through themes or topics that frequently change.

In KS1, children in YA have three topics that have been posed as questions: ‘Who are refugees?’ ‘What is Compassion?’ and ‘Why is Eid most exciting?’ The topics are focused around three Mary Myatt texts – Autumn term ‘Refugee’ by Anne Booth and Sam Usher, In the Spring, ‘Seeds of Compassion’ by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and ‘The Most Exciting Eid’ by Zeba Talkhani and Abeeha Tariq, in the final term.

‘Refugee’ is an interesting retelling of the Christmas Story with a unique perspective. It is a powerful and evocative picture book, which tells the Christmas story and what follows. The message for our pupils couldn't be more relevant; the text reminds us that the holy family were refugees. In this unit, children will look at the Christmas story with fresh eyes and think about how people in need or crisis were treated, then and now. For some of our children, this will be the first in-depth study of Christmas and will help them to understand and make sense of Christmas celebrations, events and rituals in school and home. They will also appreciate and explore places of safety for them and how they could make a new child welcome in their school or community. Topics that deepen their understanding of Christianity follow in YB when they look at Easter and further in Y3/4 and Y5/6. See two-year planner.

‘Seeds of Compassion’ is a beautiful text and was chosen because Buddhism is the third religion that we would like our students to know well before they leave primary but mainly because it deals with how we might all bring more kindness to our world. It is powerful because the Dalai Lama addresses children directly, sharing lessons of peace and compassion. It is set in Tibet in a small village and the book reveals how his mother was his first great teacher. Our children could find out about the life of the Dalai Lama and begin to cement their first understanding of Buddhism. They will touch on the four Sublime or Godly states: Loving kindness (metta), Compassion (karuna) Sympathetic joy (mudita) Equanimity (upekkha). They will be encouraged to think about who has influenced them and the values that have been given to them from family members. Using the idea of a seed, they can explore how the planting of a ‘value’ might grow and how it might impact and spread to others. The unit could take them to exploring compassion in their own lives and to explore compassion in other religions. The children will touch on Buddhism again through the ‘What is pilgrimage?’ in Y3/4 Year A and in detail in Y5/6 ‘What do we know about the life of the Buddha?’ Year B.

‘The Most Exciting Eid,’ text is a delightful way of introducing aspects of Islam to our youngest students and help them to realise how special the festival of Eid-al-Fitr is for Muslims, rather like the build up to Christmas, for Christians. The theme is that the character Safa is so excited because ‘there is just one more sleep before Eid!’ It outlines all the preparations and the special moments with loved ones that many Muslims will experience. The text also has a non-fiction page about Eid traditions. Activities could include things like diary writing from the perspective of Safa, completing a fact file about Eid, similarities and differences to Eid and Christmas, along with high quality discussion about the text. Students could create a role play about a family’s preparations for Eid or retell the story of Safa. Watching a video clip of a Muslim family during Eid would also be insightful. It’s important that early on, children understand that there are believers from many different faiths and to give them chance to get into the shoes of the characters of people from different faiths. Their studies in this unit will lead well into the units in Y3/4 (year A) and Y5/6 (year A) that deepen their understanding of Islam further and also this topic links to ‘How can food be Special’ in Y3/4 (year B).

In Year B in Y1/2 there are three topics: ‘What special Religious places are there?’, ‘What is Easter?’ and ‘What do Muslims Celebrate?’  The places of worship unit and the unit on Islam are based on ‘Plan Bee’ medium term plans. ‘What is Easter?’ builds around a Mary Myatt text.

In the autumn, the children will explore places that are special to them and think about what makes something ‘special.’ They then move onto places that are special for believers: Christian, Muslim and Buddhist. These topics link well to Year A. They will visit All Saints Memorial Church (Anglican Parish Church) and hopefully have a guided tour from Revd Stephen Tudway who regularly visits the school for assembly and collective worship. Showing video links from Mosques and Viharas/ Temples will help to make this more memorable. This is a good place to introduce the idea of denominations and explore the children’s own experiences of visiting churches, chapels or cathedrals. In Y5/6 they will visit York Minster as well as their regular church experiences e.g. carol service. This topic also links to What is Christianity in Y3/4 (A) where children explore special places such as Canterbury Cathedral, Lourdes and the Eternal City (Rome) and the unit on pilgrimage that explores other special places for Muslims, Buddhists and Christians.

‘What is Easter?’ in the spring term, they will have an opportunity to make sense of Easter. They will begin work on who Christians believe Jesus is and deal with some fundamentals about salvation and resurrection, age-appropriately. The story is told through the donkey and each page’s illustrations will initiate questions about the story. It is suggested to read it through and then over the unit go back to each key event in detail. Activities could include sequencing and retelling, researching more about what Christians do and why on Holy Saturday, Easter Day, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and to also, through drama, recreate scenes. There is a suggestion of how to handle the crucifixion scene in role-play. Children could complete a drawing related to the Easter story and write a caption to capture the meaning of Easter e.g. ‘Hosanna! Jesus is risen!’

‘What do Muslims Celebrate?’ – in the summer term (Year B) the unit covers the Islamic New Year and Ashura a Muslim festival. It marks the parting of the Red Sea by Moses and the salvation of the Israelites (Sunni Islam) and for Shia Muslims, it is a day of mourning for the grandson of the prophet Muhammad. The unit also covers what Muslims do for (Mawlid) Muhammad’s birthday which they discover is a ‘quiet’ affair. Children can think about why this might be. The unit introduces them to the importance of Muhammad in the Muslim faith and paves the way for deeper study later in Y3/4 and Y5/6. They will also be exposed to the fact that there are different ‘kinds’ of Muslims, a little bit like there are Catholics or Protestants in Christianity. Children in this unit will be informed about Hajj, (Islamic pilgrimage) which is revisited in Y3/4 in pilgrimage when it is looked at alongside other pilgrimages. The children will also get the opportunity to look at Ramadan and Eid-al-Fitr which is looked at in more depth in Year A.

 In Y3/4 in Year A, children will study three topics posed as questions: ‘What is Christianity?’, ‘What is pilgrimage?’ and ‘Why do some people wear Religious Clothing?’ The first two topics are adapted from PlanIt (Twinkl) and the third is based around a Mary Myatt text.

‘What is Christianity?’ covers a lot of important knowledge about what it means to be Christian and central beliefs such as the importance of Christ, the holy trinity, Christian symbolism and its meaning. It also builds on Christian festivals, two of which children have explored in Y1 and 2. One lesson also focuses on the bible which is looked at in depth in YB. The unit also builds on special places for Christians in Y1/2 and explores how Bethlehem, Nazareth and Jerusalem are significant as well as Lourdes, Canterbury and the Eternal City. Children will know much more about Christianity and begin to develop their understanding in what it might mean to be a practicing Christian today.

‘What is pilgrimage?’ in the spring leads on from the Christianity topic as well as looking in more detail at Christian pilgrimage, Islamic and Buddhist, this is a chance to expose children to other religions e.g. Hinduism and Judaism. In the session about hajj, children will understand that pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam. When looking at Christian pilgrimage, rather than duplicating from the lesson on special places in the previous unit, children will focus on places linked to saints where pilgrims visit such as Santiago de Compostela (in Spain) or Mount Sinai (in Egypt). In this topic children will understand how deeply important a pilgrimage can be to a believer. When Imran visits in the summer term, he talks about how important hajj is and what a life-changing spiritual experience it was for him. This unit will allow the children to understand the depths of faith that take people to ‘holy’ places, and they will also see that some places in our world are very important to people of different faiths for different reasons. There are great opportunities to link to geography in this topic and deepen their sense of the world.

‘Why do some people wear religious Clothing?’ - This topic links to a Mary Myatt Teachers’ Collection text ‘Not Now Noor’ by Farhana Islam. It is a great text which explores Noor’s curiosity about wearing headscarves (hijab). It is a fun way of approaching rules around religious clothing as Noor has amusing ideas about the reasons for wearing it e.g. her mum is a spy or to hide snacks for later. In this unit, there will be an opportunity to explore dress rules and codes in other religions and to think about choice and people’s outward expressions of faith. The unit will be a good foundation for the topic in Y5/6 about Muhammad. Children will be able to cite the hijab as a head covering worn by many Muslim females as a part of their religious and personal identity and be aware of the wide variety of colours, styles and ways that the hijab can be worn. Children will be able to discuss more widely the fact that personal and religious identity is expressed by all people in the choices they make about their appearance. Through this unit, they should have a deepened value of respect, acceptance and understanding of the choices made by different people.

In Year B, the three topics are ‘What is special about the bible?’, ‘What do we know about Jesus,’ and ‘How can food be special?’ The first one is based on a PlanIt Twinkl topic and the other two are based on Plan Bee units. ‘What is special about the bible?’ covers what makes something sacred, the bible authors, stories, songs, psalms and how a Christian might use the bible today and what it means to them. This takes a good look at the Christian holy book and the children have an opportunity to navigate the bible by looking up chapters and verses. The school has a set of bibles that are accessible. Children are encouraged to bring in bibles that they might have at home. It is important to impress how significant the bible is to Christians and how it is made up and divided. Children are encouraged to think of it more as a library. Understanding who wrote it and whose voice it is can be a difficult but important concept. It’s a great opportunity to explore what children know about other holy texts and introduce them to the idea that other religions have books that are just as sacred to them as the bible is likely to be to a Christian.

‘What do we know about Jesus?’ follows on perfectly from the autumn topic. Children will be encouraged to use the bible to find out what people said about Jesus, including his enemies and discuss some of the symbolic language around the ‘good shepherd’ and ‘bread of life.’ There is a fascinating first lesson where children explore what Jesus might have looked like through religious art and they can think about why there are so many different representations of him and what that tells us. There is an option here to pique their curiosity with the debate around the mystery of the shroud of Turin. Children will be encouraged to articulate what they think about Jesus based on their knowledge and learning through the topic.

‘How can Food be special’ is a topic that facilitates looking at religions beyond Christianity, Islam and Buddhism but also it adds to their existing knowledge in our main three. Everyone loves food and it’s a chance to explore some of the myths and confusions about religious foods and what can and cannot be eaten. For our Bolton children, fasting and food restrictions are not something that they have to think about in their own lives. This topic reminds again about sacrifices that people make and expressions of faith. The power of fasting is covered in this unit. One fun activity is for the children to draw their favourite meal and then think about each of the main religions and whether it could be eaten. As with any topic in this subject, it’s important to make sure that when teaching, we avoid saying that all Jews follow this rule, or all Hindus follow that practice. We must remember that faith can be very different for individuals and not assume that all Muslims for example are strict and devout. It’s also important that children don’t have the impression that one religion is better than another because you can eat burgers according to the rules. Children will be encouraged to explore the reasons why for example a cow is venerated or why many Buddhists are vegetarian and how it links to their faith. Tasting some of the foods mentioned will be a memorable activity.

Year Y5/6: In Year A the children will study these questions: ‘What religious beliefs are there in Our Community?’ ‘Why is prayer important?’ and ‘Why is Muhammad important to Muslims?’

It’s important that the children get an understanding of religion in their local community and the role that it plays and how belonging to a group can be positive and give an important sense of belonging. Along with exploring the faiths in Cumbria, they will find out about how it might be challenging for a person of faith to fit into a community because a person of faith is also likely to be part of other community groups that are non-religious. They will consider what it would be like to be in those people’s shoes. In this topic there will be a chance to explore inspirational people such as Mo Farrah (Muslim) and what they have done for their religious communities and also non-religious figures such as Daniel Radcliffe and what shaped and influenced his charity work. There will be an appreciation in this topic for how hard it can be to live up to some religious expectations and similarly how rewarding it can be to be part of a faith community. Children will know more about religion in a local context and have an appreciation of what it means to be part of a religious group. It would be relevant to touch on radicalisation and explain that not all groups or ideas are positive and why, age-appropriately.

In the spring, children will begin by examining Muslim prayer through a text from the Mary Myatt collection ‘The Hundredth Name’ by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim. Children have already explored in Y1/2 about what Muslims celebrate and in Y3/4 why the hijab is worn, hajj and about Islamic food rules in Y3/4 and now they can build on further with Muslim prayer. In the following term, they will deepen their knowledge with the unit on Muhammad. The book is set in the middle East and tells the warm story of a bond between father and son, and the son’s favourite camel. It explores their devotion to their faith and the power that prayer has in their daily life. The reader is left wondering if the camel knows the one hundredth name for Allah after Salah prays with all his strength. In the previous topic, when thinking about Mo Farrah the children will have discussed him praying before and after races. They will explore the fifth pillar and what that means for many Muslims in their daily life. There will be an opportunity to look at Christian prayer and Buddhist prayer and any other religions that the children might be interested to pursue. They can think about times when they might have used prayer themselves and if they know any prayers such as the Lord’s Prayer and what the words mean to Christians.

In the summer term, ‘Why is Muhammad important to Muslim?’ looks at the prophet Muhammad PBUH, rather like the study of Jesus in Y3/4. They find out about Muhammad’s life and his significance to Muslims. They explore what he was like and how he impacted on world history. In this unit they get to explore the Quran and explore Muhammad’s role as Allah’s messenger. During this topic, Imran (Muslim learner centre) visits the children and this helps to bring the unit to life. This will be a good place to explain that most Sunni Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets and messengers should be prohibited and explain why. The children will think about who their role-models are, just as Muhammad is a key role-model to many Muslims (or Jesus is to Christians). This unit adds to the children’s understanding of key religious figures.

In Year B, the three questions are ‘What do we know about the Life of the Buddha?’, ’What do Stories from the Bible tell us?’’ and ’What is Humanism?’’ The first one is based around a Mary Myatt book from The Teachers’ Collection, the second one is derived from a Plan Bee unit and the third a unit from Tes designed by a RE subject leader.

‘What do we know about the Life of the Buddha?’ builds on the children’s prior study of key religious figures (Jesus and Muhammad). It also explores the core beliefs of Buddhism and links back to ‘The Seeds of Compassion’ in Y1/2. Their understanding of Buddhism will have already been enhanced through pilgrimage and special foods study in Y3/4 and in religious places in Y1/2. An important aspect of this topic is the visit to the Manjushri Kadampa Meditation Centre in Ulverston and spending time with a practicing Buddhist or monk. This links back effectively to their study of special religious places in Y1/2 and their visit to York Minster. In this unit, there are lots of opportunities to ask questions and engage in personal reflection on the choices the Buddha makes and also to think about his father’s motives and actions. Children can ponder about why Siddhartha was so affected by the four things that he witnesses when he leaves the palace and dig into what ‘suffering’ is. The children will consider his life in abject poverty contrasted with enormous wealth and what the Buddha was seeking. We can explore what we think ‘enlightenment’ is and how that goal influences Buddhists today. Exploring the four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Pathway will ensure that children build their subject knowledge and understanding of Buddhism.

‘What do Stories from the Bible tell us?’ allows children to discover more about the actual content in the bible (building on from their study in Y3/4). As well as appreciating that the bible contains stories, this unit will tell the story of the bible itself. Our children will see that many of the stories are interlinked (with the key figures) and understand bible chronology from Genesis to The Second Coming, predicted in Revelation. In this unit they think about the meaning and themes in Ruth and Naomi and with Daniel they will explore religious persecution, then and now. There is a chance to look at the New Testament and the parables. Often children hold misconceptions about stories that they have heard in assemblies like The Good Samaritan and don’t know that the bible tells us, that these are ‘stories’ that Jesus told to his followers. Through this learning they can understand the life of Jesus better and build on from prior study. Finally, the children are introduced to John the Baptist and will explore his relationship with Jesus and the importance baptism holds to Christianity. They will explore their ideas about when and why people choose to be baptised. Children often enjoy telling their own baptism stories or non-religious naming celebrations.

‘What is Humanism?’ was added for the second two-year cycle. It’s a great topic for demonstrating to children that people can have powerful and common beliefs that are non-religious. In this topic they will explore the difference between humanism and atheism and find out about the core beliefs of Humanists. They can do research on famous humanists, past and present, and engage in activities like producing an information leaflet on humanism for their parents/ family or a persuasive argument about joining a humanist society. The first session digs into what a worldview is and asks the children to think about how their perspective of the world is evolving and they will consider what is influencing them and the lens they look through. It is good to contrast this with thinking about a third world child. Looking at the Humanist UK website can be a good place to move onto, so children can explore Humanist services and ceremonies. The ambition is that after this unit the children are aware of the similarities between humanism and say Christianity or Islam because they will appreciate that all these groups consider life to be important and want to treat people with warmth and respect and essentially do good. They can reflect on the groups that they belong to and what their hopes for the future are. They will understand that their views about the world and the lens they look through can be very different for individuals and hopefully this will lead to more empathy and compassion.

Oracy: The school is committed to developing good oracy skills throughout the curriculum. World Views and Religion is the perfect vehicle to realise this. Each lesson should be rich in debate and enquiry. It is important to ensure that all children are fully engaged, and teachers are very specific about the talk that they encourage in the worldviews lessons and don’t just leave it open to chance. Thinking about the partners that children talk with is very important, especially for our disadvantaged students and ‘listening in’ and ‘prompting’ is an important role for adults. Because they are well-informed, when they leave in Y6, all our students will be able to talk confidently on a range of important topics, with respect and tolerance towards people with alternative and differing views. The children will have a growing vocabulary of terminology linked to this subject and demonstrate understanding when using it.

Outcomes: Our WV&R curriculum should lead to children having a better understanding of the religious and non-religious worldviews that make up the UK and in our world. Their learning in the subject reinforces our British Values and our School Values. Through WV&R, our children should feel empowered to understand they have a place in the world and that their decisions and beliefs are valid, and they can make an impact on the future and ultimately in their community and the world. The WV&R curriculum promotes inquisitive minds, respect, tolerance and understanding.

Teachers represent this subject well and nurture inquisitive reflective pupils. They keep themselves up to date with developments in the subject and are careful and sensitive with their delivery and their personal opinions/ beliefs.

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