We believe that our core Christian values of love, truth, courage, and respect are at the heart of everything we do at school. They influence our RE curriculum and the way we teach our children about Christianity as a living faith. We believe that it is vital for all our children to learn from, and about, other world religions, so that they can understand the world around them. We encourage our pupils to question what they encounter in their daily lives, and to reflect on their own beliefs, values, and experiences. Most of all, through stories, discussion, visits, drama, and art, we want our children to develop a respect and sensitivity for diversity, valuing everyone as individuals no matter what their beliefs or religious traditions.
At Great Rollright, we adhere to the C of E Statement of Entitlement and follow the Oxford Diocesan Locally Agreed syllabus. We use the Diocesan Scheme of Work. We plan and teach units across a two-year cycle, ensuring that children re-visit topics to elicit an increasingly sophisticated response.
Each unit is studied through a big question, e.g. Why is Easter so important to Christians? Guidance for content and activities can be sourced from the above as well as using texts, artefacts and video clips. We have carefully curated RE artefact boxes in school and a well-stocked section of the library containing useful and inspirational reference books. Each class has its own worship box which can be used for class assemblies. We are fostering child-led worship, directly involving groups of children in planning and presenting their own ideas about key aspects of our school community. Learning is further enhanced with trips to places of worship in our local area, our benefice church, as well as further afield, to Christchurch Cathedral and the Oxford synagogue.
As a church school, we also evaluate whether pupils are demonstrating our core spiritual and moral values by their attitudes and behaviour in Religious Education lessons. We triangulate evidence to ensure are pupils have a love for gaining knowledge which will help them to develop their world view as informed global citizens. That they exhibit respect by recognising that people across the world have differences through their cultures, traditions, and beliefs which should be treated with dignity. That they are able to demonstrate courage by sharing your own opinions in front of the class, particularly to reflect on their own spirituality and religious voice. That they are recognise that people can believe in different truths, based on their individual world view, and how to engage respectfully even when these truths differ.
Long Term Planning
Progression Documents
Our shared approach to worship
We believe that for the children and the whole school community, sharing collective worship provides a way to come together, pause and reflect on the Christian heart of our school. As a staff,we feel it is really important that not only should the children contribute to acts of worship but also, be directly involved in their planning and take the lead with their own ideas. The children’s presentation of themes, such as the role of the Good Shepherd throughout our curriculum, have been hugely successful and spoken very directly to all ages of children and adults in school. Groups of pupils have used drama, music, readings and prayer to communicate their message and with initial adult guidance, have worked independently.
You can read the Oxfordshire locally agreed syllabus here:
You can read the Church of England’s ‘Statement of Entitlement’ here:
You can read our RE policy here: