R.E

RE Curriculum Vision
2024

Our curriculum and endeavour is focused on connecting people with each other, with the school, with their community, with the world and what they are learning. When learning is connected, it is retained and can grow.

Nurturing seeds of learning  

Growing our minds to flourish 

Thriving as unique individuals  
 

Bayton C.E Primary School is situated in the very rural outskirts of Worcestershire, surrounded by fields bursting with crop that we witness growing and thriving each year.  In September, it is planted; the soil is worked down carefully and slowly, seeds are given the nurture that they need to germinate. Throughout the year, the crops begin to grow; they are maintained with the essential elements that will help them to flourish. Then finally, they are thriving and ready for harvest. Just like the cycle of arable land, here at Bayton, we aim to give our pupils the opportunity to GROW; just as God wants us to.  

“Planted in the house of the Lord, they shall flourish in the courts of our God” Psalm 92: 12-14

We live this vision wholeheartedly in all that we do. Bayton CE Primary School is a unique and creative hub of excellence where high standards of work and achievement oscillate effectively with passion and pride. The ‘Bayton Way’ is at the heart of curriculum enabling us to implement our three core values:

At Bayton CE Primary School we teach the Early Years Foundation Stage and National Curriculum plus our own bespoke strands. We have designed our curriculum specifically to the needs of our school and pupils. The organisation of our curriculum is built upon balancing the need for excellent core skills in Reading, Writing, Maths and RE with personal development and foundation subjects. All aspects have been carefully woven together and interconnected to ensure that the curriculum received by the pupils every day is holistic, coherent and well thought through.

Nurturing

Living wholeheartedly like Jesus, striving for full maturity and completeness in our lives. Planting seeds of values that support us to become flourishing children and adults of God. Developing our attributes to begin to grow our respect, integrity. humility, responsibility and empathy.   

We want to nurture our pupils and adults to grow into people who are polite, respectful, grateful and who thrive putting others before themselves. Our RE curriculum enables learners to be confident in asking the Big Questions in life, faith and religion and be active in seeking the answers. RE at Bayton is relevant, diverse and supports children in deciding and being confident in what they believe in whilst having a nurturing understanding of the beliefs of others too.

As a Church of England school, we use the Big Frieze to gather a conceptual understanding of the bible and use this as a lens to look into life and beyond, whilst putting our vision and values at the forefront of the decisions they make both in and out of the classroom. Restorative conversations allow pupils to reflect on their personal choices and guide them. We know that God values all children and our pupils have awareness of their rights and responsibilities, which drives our approach to anti-bullying, mental health and discouraging stereotyping.

Collective Worship allows us to reflect and gain personal knowledge on worldviews: asking and answering questions about feelings, reasoning and rationale behind the texts children are exposed to. Our school bible story ‘The Parable of the Sower’ is studied through Godly play, led by local clergy Reverend Sallie and Reverend Julia. We begin each day with a positive affirmation to promote thinking spiritually to manifest conclusive thoughts towards the day ahead. Inclusion is the golden thread that runs through our curriculum. All learners flourish and support one another.

Growing

Enabling pupils to become responsible for learning more and remembering more, creating a change in long-term memory. Gaining knowledge and skills to broaden academic and spiritual greatness.  Being inspired by The Parable of the Sower after learning what happens to each seed that falls or is planted. “But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:23

The RE Curriculum is challenging, accurate and well-sequenced through a two-year cycle of learning. RE is a core subject here at Bayton Primary School that enables children to flourish academically using the Statement of Entitlement as our guide. Our theologically rigorous curriculum enables children to achieve a secure knowledge and understanding of a variety of religions so that they may become successful individuals.  

During the course of their study at our school, children are prepared to live in a complex world: a multi-religious and multi-secular society. They study Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism and will compare and contrast how these faiths live both in Britain and around the world. Children gain substantive knowledge through factual aspects and terminology about these religions and can then use this to expand their disciplinary knowledge by enquiring, debating and analysing sacred texts. This is sequenced effectively from Early Years to Year Six and spirals in knowledge and skills.  

We look through the three lenses of the RE Curriculum. These are balanced effectively:
Theology lessons are guided by Hermeneutics which allow all pupils to dig deep into meanings of stories from both the modern and ancient world. Children are exposed to different interpretations of texts at their appropriate age-related level.
Human and Social Science study focuses on the way we see things and how this can change between time and place.
Philosophy intertwines all of these concepts together and allows us to always be open-minded. Asking those big questions to gain personal knowledge and become comfortable in themselves: why do I think this? What is the reason for this?

Thriving

Having the wisdom to know that we can make a difference in our school community and beyond, reflecting on the growth we’ve made this year and upholding our spiritual and academic knowledge to take forward to new experiences with God to guide us. 

Children have the opportunity to engage with experiences with God whilst visiting our local church for Cultural Celebrations and Christian Events. Our strengthening relationship with the clergy enables children to feel connected to the local community both in church through worship and when they visit school to support RE or in a Governing role.

A wealth of trips and experiences to Christian and other  places of worship allows pupils to have a clear understanding and spiritual link with other faiths and their practises.

Our elected Pupil Parliament team leads the opportunities for courageous advocacy through effective leadership of the student body. They aspire to work together as pupils to make a difference to the community to enable all to flourish and thrive. The Parliament promotes awareness of pupil rights and responsibilities: challenging stereotypes, looking after our physical and mental health and responding to bullying.

Our Jigsaw PSHE Curriculum intrinsically links with the expectations of our Religious Teaching and Learning. Children are exposed to diversity within our world today and taught to have tolerance and mutual respect for other faiths alongside being confident in their own personal beliefs. Our pupils will leave Bayton with a strong and clear rationale for why they believe what they believe but also with an openness and willingness to change their opinion if they choose.