R.E. teaching at Horsforth Newlaithes Primary School aims to give children an understanding of the identity and diversity of the local and wider community, which will enable them to grow up, to live and to work alongside people of all beliefs and cultures. We want our children to not only learn about the world’s faiths, beliefs and teachings but also learn from them. They should understand how their actions, towards their environment and others, has an impact. Through discussion and debate, our children will learn to listen to the viewpoints of others; that not everyone has the same thoughts and beliefs and how to tolerate ideas that are different from our own. They will be given the opportunity to reflect on their learning through discussions and debate.

At Horsforth Newlaithes Primary School teachers plan using the Leeds Agreed Syllabus. This ensures that there is progression throughout the school. From Early Years to year 6, the R.E. curriculum is led by a series of key questions to spark curiosity and provoke discussion and debate. Each year groups questions build on the knowledge gained from their predecessors ensuring themes are revisited and built upon as they progress through the school.
Religious Education is generally taught on a weekly basis but is sometimes delivered through a class topic or class community. Teachers may develop their own key questions linked to the themes in the syllabus, using the threshold concepts: to understand beliefs and teachings, understand practises and lifestyles, understand how beliefs are conveyed, reflect on learning and understanding and to understand values. Our knowledge categories which underpin the RE curriculum and are threaded throughout are Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism and Islam. Where appropriate, these will link with other curriculum subjects and learning. Lessons are planned and delivered in a variety of ways ensuring that all children can access and participate in lessons. Interactive, practical activities encourage the children to discuss their ideas and extend their understanding of difficult concepts and challenging questions.

We aim for all children at Newlaithes to be have an understanding and be tolerant of different faiths and beliefs and to use this knowledge to reach the expected standard in RE at the end of each year. Our curriculum ensures that children develop an interest in and a love of the subject which enables them to be effective learners throughout their journey at Newlaithes and fully prepared for the next stage of their RE education.

We have developed our RE curriculum based on the National Curriculum, identified the key skills and knowledge which we want children to learn and consequently make judgements against this criteria during and at the end of the year enabling us to measure the impact teaching and learning has. The majority of assessment which takes place is formative assessment allowing teachers to adapt their planning to match the needs of the children. 

The RE subject leader monitors the impact of the RE curriculum through protected monitoring time during which they complete a range of activities: lesson observations; scrutiny of planning and work; speaking to staff and children and analysing assessment data (introduced summer 2022). This process is quality assured by the Senior Leadership Team and agreed actions are added to subject leader action plans.