At Roebuck Academy we aim to develop deep, critical thinkers, who are open-minded about religion and worldviews and therefore, we have chosen to follow Kapow Primary Religion and Worldviews curriculum. The Kapow curriculum focuses on religion and world views being personal and diverse. It aims to reflect the changing nature of religion and worldviews in modern Britain and help children to understand that religion and worldviews are a lived experience for people and communities. We believe that it enables our children to be respectful and continue to develop their understanding of the different religions and views that make up the world that surrounds us as well as providing opportunities for them to reflect upon their own world view.

Intent of Religion and world View curriculum

At Roebuck, our intent is to develop learners who not only are deep thinkers but leaners who are also open-minded about the world around them. This curriculum is relevant to our children, reflecting diversity and preparing them for life in modern Britain. Through this curriculum, our aim is for every child to secure a deep understanding of concepts in order to be able to make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions, learn to respect and appreciate worldviews that are different to their own and consider their personal preconceptions, responses and views. Through our lessons we want our children to secure a deep understanding of the different world views that make up modern Britain as well as make connections, ask and respond to challenging questions and take into account that their world views different to their own.  By revisiting key ‘big questions’ and building on prior knowledge, pupils will learn about how religion and worldviews are lived experiences across the world, consider the impact of worldviews on society and have opportunities to consider their personal worldview. Children will build their conceptual knowledge through studying religions and worldviews locally, nationally, and globally in this progressive curriculum, enabling them to make links and connections between worldviews, develop disciplinary skills and build on their understanding of their positionality in relation to their learning

Within our Religion and World View lessons, we use a variety of teaching methods to engage all learners starting in Key Stage 1 right up to the end of KS2. These include visitors coming in and giving first hand experiences, workshops, trips, practical sessions and role play. We do not have formal religion and world views sessions for EYFS but instead  the children will begin to develop their world views knowledge through working towards  ‘Understanding the world’ Development matters statements and Early learning goals. We have different world views embedded within the environment such as within the book corner, role play corner or through focusing on different celebrations as they occur during the year. At Roebuck Academy, we teach our children to follow the 3RS and we aim to deliver a curriculum that is underpinned on our D.R.E.A.M.S values.

Kapow Primary’s Religion and Worldview scheme of work meets government guidance, which states that RE 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’. The world views covered include; Christian, Buddhism, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Humanism, Jewish.

Implementation

The Kapow Primary Religion and World  Views scheme has three strands that run through it; substantive knowledge (conceptual and worldviews related), disciplinary knowledge, and personal knowledge. These strands are interwoven across all units to create lessons that build children’s conceptual knowledge and understanding of religion and worldviews (substantive knowledge) and use a range of disciplinary lenses.

Children will also be equipped to explore and express their preconceptions, personal worldviews and positionality (personal knowledge) through varied and engaged learning experiences. The Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews scheme follows the spiral curriculum model, where units and lessons are carefully sequenced so that previous conceptual knowledge is returned to and built upon. Children progress by developing and deepening their knowledge and understanding of substantive and disciplinary concepts by experiencing them in a range of contexts.

Each unit includes overarching ‘big questions’, which will be revisited in progressive ways throughout the course of the curriculum. This allows children to apply the breadth and depth of their learning across various concepts.

At Roebuck we expect teachers to adapt the lessons provided by Kapow to meet the needs of their current cohort. Guidance to do this is provided in the planning alongside teachers using their own judgment to ensure that children are accessing the learning and making progress. There is also support in providing strong and challenge where needed. Knowledge organisers support pupils in developing conceptual knowledge and schemata by summarising the

key concepts covered in a unit and linking these to examples covered. These are stuck in the front of the children’s book at the start of each topic for the children to refer back to throughout the sequence of lessons.

At Roebuck academy we strive to implement our RE curriculum through the use of workshops, visitors welcomed to teach our children about first-hand experience of their faith, parent facilitated workshops for our children and trips to raise the profile of our subject within the school.

Impact

By implementing the Kapow Primary Religion and worldviews curriculum, pupils will be equipped with a range of disciplinary skills and knowledge to enable them to succeed. They will be prepared for life in modern Britain, being able to interact with others from different religious and non-religious viewpoints in a respectful, knowledgeable and open-minded way. We believe that the children at Roebuck Academy will be able to make connections and feel confident to explore and discuss their personal world view. The children will be able to respond to religious, philosophical and ethical questions.

The impact of Kapow Primary’s scheme can be constantly monitored through both formative and summative assessment opportunities. Each lesson includes guidance to support teachers in assessing pupils against the learning objectives. Furthermore, each unit has a unit quiz and a knowledge catcher, which can be used at the end of the unit to provide a summative assessment. We expect that teachers use these tools to monitor the progress of their children and use the information to feed into future lessons filling gaps and addressing misconceptions.