Our vision for Religious Education at Hatherley Infant School is to provide opportunities for pupils to reflect on their own beliefs and values, to confidently seek guidance when faced with moral dilemmas and to use their understanding of different cultures and religions to understand themselves and the world around them.
The Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus is used to inform the planning of RE. We aim to give the children an understanding of the beliefs of both Christianity and Islam and an awareness of other religions and their teachings. The syllabus reflects that we live in a multi-cultural community and all faiths are to be respected and valued. Within the teaching programme of RE children are given first hand experiences of places of worship and religious practice through visits to local places of worship, visitors in school and artefacts.
The role of RE plays an integral part in children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
Everyone who works in school is responsible for promoting spiritual, moral, social and cultural values to our children.
SMSC is promoted not only through all of the subjects of the curriculum but also through the ethos of our school. We create the ethos by teaching and modelling positive attitudes and values and by giving the children opportunities to experience and develop these attitudes for themselves.
The spiritual is concerned with developing the non-material aspects of life, focusing on personal insight, values, meaning and purpose. Beliefs that help provide perspective on life may be rooted in a religion, but equally may not. Creativity and imagination is important, as is a sense of fascination, awe and wonder. At Hatherley this is achieved through aspects of the curriculum such as art, music, geography and history.
The moral element is largely about choices, behaviour and how you live your life. It's also about personal and social values, understanding the reasons for them and airing and understanding disagreements. School assemblies focus on these themes through the SEAL topics. Also Learning Gems and Mindfulness in the classrooms help children to learn to make the right decisions by solving problems, being helpful and learning when and how to be calm.
Social development shows pupils working together effectively, relating well to adults and participating in the local community. This element of SMSC includes a significant area of personal growth, ranging from engagement with society's institutions to the skills for successful personal relationships. The children learn through The Pink Curriculum about how to keep safe, including the internet; people who help us, and how to be a kind and caring citizen.
Cultural development is about understanding and feeling comfortable in a variety of cultures. At Hatherley Infant School we have a diverse community which helps to learn and value different cultures. We also learn about celebrations around the world such as Chinese New Year, Eid, Diwali, Christmas and Easter. We visit the local mosque and church giving children to opportunity to understand different beliefs. Valuing cultural diversity and challenging racism is important.