At Gilbertstone we follow the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education which is designed to promote children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The Birmingham approach is designed to be inclusive for all children across our super-diverse city, enabling each one to be respected and understood.

Intent

• The intent of Birmingham’s character-driven approach is to encourage the development of 24 dispositions or values.
• The dispositions are equally applicable to, and inclusive of, the religious, those who have an established non-religious world view and those classing themselves as ‘nones’
• The dispositions encourage pupils to think about, and act upon a growing understanding of their own faith or viewpoint, whilst acknowledging the views of others.
• The syllabus includes the nine religious traditions recorded to have significant representation within Birmingham: Bahἁ’I, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Rastafari, Sikhism, and established non-religious world views such as Agnosticism, Atheism, Humanism, Secularism

Implementation

RE at Gilbertstone is taught using a learning model which breaks the dispositions into 4 tangible, interconnected aspects and are explored through key questions. They are:

• Learning from experience
• Learning about religious traditions and non-religious world views
• Learning from faith and non-religious world views
• Learning to Discern

We aim to meet the guidance from the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus of:

Reception and Key Stage 1: 36 hours per year

Key Stage 2: 45 hours per year

By teaching about different beliefs and faiths we aim to promote healthy discussions and debate in order to deepen children’s understanding of themselves, their peers and the world around them.

Educational visits to places of worship within the community provide first hand experience to further enhance children’s understanding of different religions.  

The 24 moral dispositions are also explored more widely across the curriculum through PATHs lessons and also through whole-school collective worship.

Impact

Children at Gilbertstone enjoy learning about other religions and why people choose or choose not to follow a religion. The lessons support children’s knowledge and understanding and helps them to appreciate differences around them. Through RE children develop an understanding of different cultures and ways of life which is invaluable in a diverse world.

RE and collective worship are intended for all pupils, however, parents have the right to withdraw their child from all