Religious Education

Religious education at St Peter’s explores how individuals and communities make meaning and sense of their lives through the major religions of the world and world views. 

It enables pupils to know about, understand and respond to the important and ultimate questions of life. Religious education is taught in such a way that it inspires pupils to explore, develop and affirm their own faith if they choose and to have respect for the faith, beliefs and values of others.  Parents have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of RE. See the RE policy for more details. 

Intent

As a Church of England school the Governing Body have adopted the Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus 2023. The Oxfordshire Agreed Syllabus reflects the requirements in the Education Acts of 1996, 1998 and 2002. These are that an agreed syllabus must reflect that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. We have worked alongside our RE advisor to tailor the locally agreed syllabus to our specific context, using the scheme 'Understanding Christianity' to support resourcing of lessons. 

St Peter's Curriculum Overview  

Implementation

When teaching RE at St Peter's, we aim to allow pupils time and space to explore big ideas and concepts and their own responses to it. We strive to ensure meaningful and contextual learning, with concepts and big ideas building over time and being revisited often to develop deep learning or core knowledge. Thoughts and ideas are largely expressed through artwork, drama, spoken activities and real life projects. R.E is taught using videos, artefacts, visitors and experiences. This also allows for the development of 'ways of knowing' in our RE curriculum.  Parents have the right to withdraw their child from part or all of R.E. Please speak to the headteacher to discuss this. 

Impact

 Their biblical literacy is amazing, the quality of teaching and learning in RE is very good.

Siams, 2018

Pupils seem to enjoy RE. Y5/6 pupils were very articulate about what they are learning and are able to talk about what religion is and the ways that religions are different. They made links between religion and culture but also know that not everyone follows a religion. KS1 and Reception were knowledgeable about the Easter story.                                 

                      (RE ODBE Advisor report,  2025)