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Religious Education
Parents have the right to withdraw their children from religious education or collective worship. Any parent or carer who wishes to exercise this right should contact the school via the office to make an appointment with the Principal.
Please visit the Curriculum Maps page for details of curriculum progression in Religious Education from Reception to Year 6.
RE at Eastwick - Intent
The RE curriculum at Eastwick meets the requirements of the National Curriculum, the Surrey Agreed Syllabus 2023-2028 and the school’s Curriculum Intent. Therefore, it prepares children to be ‘Ready for Everything’ in their futures in terms of:
- Success in the next stage of their education and beyond: by demonstrating an appreciation of the nature of religion and belief; developing knowledge and understanding of Christianity the other principal religions and beliefs represented in the UK, both through their history and their contemporary diverse expressions
- their ability to navigate life’s personal Challenge: by appreciating the important contribution of religious, non-religious and spiritual insights and values to the individual’s search for meaning in life, therefore enhancing their own spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
- understanding their place in communities at global, national and local levels and seize the Opportunity of the future: by developing the ability to make reasoned, informed, inclusive and creative responses to religious and moral issues; recognising the influence of worldviews, beliefs, values and traditions on the individual, on culture and on communities throughout the world
RE at Eastwick - Implementation
- In Reception, pupils are taught elements of religious education that prepare them for the Year 1 curriculum.
- Our curriculum in Years 1-6 uses units from the Surrey Agreed Syllabus 2023-28. During the 2025-26 academic year, we will be introducing units from the Jigsaw RE scheme of work, in line with the Surrey Agreed Syllabus 2023-28.
- Knowledge is built progressively throughout Key Stages 1 and 2. For each unit, the following is identified:
- ‘knowledge end points’ (‘I know (that)...’ or ‘I know how to…’ outcomes that children are expected to master by the end of the unit)
- ‘substantive knowledge strands’ (key themes and vocabulary that form the basis of children’s mental mind maps or schemas, which enable pupils to recall and build on prior knowledge)
- ‘disciplinary knowledge’, which is taught implicitly and enables children to ‘walk in the expert’s shoes’.
- Pupils revisit the substantive knowledge strands as they progress through the school. Each time a strand is revisited, prior knowledge is recalled before it is covered with greater complexity or in a different context, therefore increasing children’s breadth and depth of knowledge.
- Across Key Stages 1 and 2, pupils are taught six units per year. This equates to one unit per half term.
- Provision is made for all pupils, including those with SEND, by teachers providing suitable access arrangements as part of their ‘Quality First Teaching’ offer, adapting resources and activities to meet individual children’s needs.
RE at Eastwick - Impact
- The RE subject leaders, in conjunction with senior leaders and others, carry out monitoring of provision. This takes the form of pupil voice, lesson observation and work scrutiny.
- We know that teaching is impactful on children’s progress when:
- children demonstrate that they have built progressively complex ‘schemas’ in their long-term memory for each of the substantive knowledge strands. This is demonstrated when they can recall prior knowledge and learning, and master the knowledge in each progressive step in the curriculum because they have mastered the knowledge gained in previous steps and built on it
- children show increasing mastery of disciplinary knowledge as they progress through the curriculum
- children therefore show that they ‘know more and remember more’ after each unit of learning.