Religious Education
We create a strong, nurturing, Christian school community, in which all pupils are valued and encouraged to embrace a love of learning. Our Christian Values enable our school community to flourish in a safe, peaceful, secure and happy environment, giving every child the confidence and enthusiasm to become life-long learners. We strive to create resilient, independent and articulate learners who are resilient and aspire to be the best they can. Through our value of love and understanding of God, our school community demonstrates compassion, kindness, consideration and to cherish our world and everyone in it.
RE at The Walsh Schools
Intent
We teach RE so children learn to:
- appreciate the distinctive nature of religion and the contribution of religious and spiritual insights and values to the individual’s search for meaning in life
- learn about Christianity God, Jesus Christ, the Church, the Bible, Christian ways of life
- learn about other faiths represented in the classroom and wider world and show respect for all.
- develop interest in and enthusiasm for RE to enhance their understanding of themselves, others and the natural world to help form their own spiritual, moral, social and cultural education and personal values and beliefs
- develop the ability to make reasoned, reflective, informed and creative responses to religious and moral issues
- recognise religions’ influence on their culture and community life
- reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are mainly Christian, but to take account of other religions represented and to celebrate diversity.
- start laying sound foundations for future development of religious understanding, spiritual insight and moral conviction
- understand ourselves and our place in the world
Implementation
At The Walsh Schools RE is taught accordance with the Surrey Agreed Syllabus 2023-2028 to all pupils, recognising the school’s special character as a Church of England (Voluntary Controlled) School. It is taught alongside the school’s aims and ethos, developing the strong links between Religious Education and the Relationship and Sex Education, in ways which are appropriate for pupils aged 4-11. To help pupils to develop a positive attitude towards other people, respecting their right to hold different beliefs from their own. Our children are taught RE in units of work, in whole Pause Days, through collective worship and regularly during other curriculum areas.
Impact
Through our teaching of Religious Education and the School’s ethos, we want our children to be able to make links to their lives and that of others, understand and respect different religions so everyone can live and work alongside one another with no prejudice and make good decisions within their lives using the skills and information they have learnt about. We also hope for the children to carry our school values through their lives of Peace, Fellowship and Resilience to underpin their moral, spiritual and social decisions
Religious Education Curriculum
Surrey Syllabus for Religious Education
Progression of Skills
Juniors
SPIRITUALLY
Spiritual Development
Spiritual development encompasses our children’s personal growth, values, and understanding of themselves and their place in the world, it can be difficult to define as it varies from each person and is a personal experience and often changes over a persons lifetime. We believe spirituality is our relationship with ourselves; our mind, body and soul (spirit), our relationship with each other, with God (transcendence) and with our world, nature and the environment .
Spiritual development is about awe and wonder regarding the big questions of about the meaning and purpose of life which affect everyone. Spirituality is different from being religious or having faith, a person can be spiritual without being religious.
In keeping with our Christian Vision and recognising that we are all God’s children and are spiritual beings. We believe that spiritual development should influence all areas of education and life and we aim to integrate this in all aspects of our curriculum and life at school enabling all of our children and adults to flourish.
We use the ‘Windows, Mirrors and Doors’ approach (developed by Liz Mills) which has helped us to develop our thinking about spiritual development across our whole curriculum.
Windows 
Giving children opportunities to become aware of the world in new ways. Learning about life in it’s fullness, this includes both the things that amaze us and challenge us. To wonder about life’s wows and ows. Through our curriculum we have lessons with awe and wonder through a variety of stimuli photos, videos, music, artefacts, current events and real life stories etc
Mirrors
To meditate on life’s big questions and to consider some possible answers. Learning from life by exploring their own insights and perspectives and those of others.
Through high quality RE children are challenged to reflect on their learning about religion to help them learn from religion, regardless of whether they have a specific faith.
Doors
Giving children opportunities to respond to all of this; to do something creative as a means of expressing, applying and further developing their thoughts and convictions. Learning to live by putting into action what they are coming to believe and value. They may hear of a local issue (ie road safety) or an international event and request an action ie raising money, writing to … This can be done through school council, faith team, safeguarding ambassadors, but all children know they have the opportunity to share their ideas and know they will be listened to.