“RE enables pupils to ask big questions, explore different worldviews and understand the diverse society in which they live.”

Religious Education at Captains Close Primary School

Belonging  •  Ambition  •  Equity

Religious Education (RE) helps pupils understand themselves, other people and the diverse world in which they live. Through high-quality RE, children encounter religious and nonreligious worldviews, explore important questions about meaning, belief and identity, and learn to discuss different perspectives with curiosity and respect.

Our curriculum is shaped by the Discovery Trust DNA and follows the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 2026-2031. We use Kapow Primary resources to support engaging, well-sequenced teaching, with units and lessons selected and adapted so that they meet the requirements and progression of the local agreed syllabus.

Curriculum Intent

Our intent for RE is to ensure all pupils:

• Develop secure knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and non-religious worldviews.
• Ask thoughtful questions about meaning, purpose, truth, identity, values and belonging.
• Understand how beliefs and worldviews influence people’s lives, choices, practices and communities.
• Use evidence, sources of wisdom and authority, artefacts, stories and lived experience to deepen understanding.
• Compare ideas and viewpoints carefully, recognising diversity within and between worldviews.
• Express their own ideas clearly while listening to and respecting the views of others.
• Develop the knowledge and dialogue skills needed to participate positively in modern Britain.
• Experience equity through adaptive teaching and appropriate support.

Curriculum Implementation

RE is taught through a carefully sequenced curriculum that combines systematic study of individual religions and worldviews with thematic opportunities to compare ideas and make connections. Teachers make purposeful use of Kapow Primary lesson materials, videos, stories, enquiry questions and assessment opportunities, mapped to the Leicestershire syllabus rather than used as a stand-alone scheme.

The Leicestershire Teaching and Learning Approach Across units, pupils are supported to:

• Make sense of beliefs: identify and understand core beliefs, concepts, teachings and sources of authority.

Understand the impact: explore how beliefs and worldviews may influence individuals, communities, worship, celebrations and ways of living.

• Make connections: compare ideas, evaluate questions and connect learning with pupils’ wider understanding of the world.

Religion and Worldviews

Pupils learn that worldviews may be religious or non-religious and that people may understand, express and practise a worldview in different ways. Teaching presents diversity carefully and avoids suggesting that every member of a religion or worldview believes or behaves in exactly the same way.

Kapow Primary Resources

Kapow Primary supports teaching through structured enquiries, teacher guidance, subject knowledge support, vocabulary, practical activities and assessment opportunities. Staff adapt these resources to reflect the Leicestershire key questions, required content, local context and the needs of pupils at Captains Close.

Teaching Across the School

• EYFS: children explore beliefs, celebrations, special people, places, stories and communities through developmentally appropriate experiences.
• Key Stage 1: pupils begin to build secure knowledge of Christianity and other religious and non-religious worldviews through stories, practices and key questions.
• Key Stage 2: pupils deepen and broaden their knowledge, use a wider range of sources, explore diversity within traditions and make increasingly thoughtful comparisons and evaluations.

Curriculum Content

Across their time at Captains Close, pupils encounter Christianity and a range of other religious and non-religious worldviews, in line with the Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus. Planned learning may include:

• Beliefs about God, ultimate reality and what it means to be human.
• Sacred texts, stories and sources of wisdom and authority.
• Worship, prayer, festivals, rites of passage and significant places.
• Identity, belonging, family, community and diversity.
• Justice, fairness, service, responsibility and care for the world.
• Questions about life, death, suffering, hope, meaning and purpose.
• Humanism and other non-religious perspectives.

Curriculum Impact

We evaluate the impact of RE through:

• Pupils’ developing knowledge and use of subject-specific vocabulary.
• Learning in books and other recorded outcomes.
• Pupil voice and the quality of classroom dialogue.
• Retrieval, reflection and end-of-unit assessment opportunities.
• Teachers’ assessment against the planned knowledge and outcomes.
• Curriculum monitoring, including work scrutiny and discussion with pupils.

By the end of Year 6, we want pupils to be able to:

Explain important beliefs, concepts and practices from the worldviews studied.

• Use examples and evidence to show how worldviews can influence people and communities.
• Recognise diversity within and between religious and non-religious worldviews.
• Compare viewpoints and make reasoned connections.
• Ask perceptive questions and communicate ideas respectfully and clearly.

Protected Characteristics in RE

RE contributes to an inclusive school culture by enabling pupils to encounter diversity accurately and respectfully. Teaching supports pupils to challenge prejudice and stereotyping, value human dignity and understand that people hold a wide range of beliefs and worldviews.

• Respect for religion or belief, including religious and non-religious worldviews.
• Positive representation of different cultures, communities and family experiences.
• Careful discussion of equality, fairness, identity, prejudice and discrimination.
• Full access to learning for pupils with SEND through appropriate adaptation and support.

British Values in RE

• Democracy: listening to different views, taking part in discussion and giving reasons for opinions.
• Rule of Law: exploring how beliefs, teachings, values and laws can influence communities and choices.
• Individual Liberty: developing informed personal viewpoints while respecting the freedom of others.
• Mutual Respect: engaging thoughtfully with beliefs and practices that may differ from our own.
• Tolerance of Different Faiths and Beliefs: building accurate knowledge and challenging stereotypes or prejudice.

Long-Term Curriculum Map

Our long-term curriculum map shows how the Leicestershire key questions and required worldviews are sequenced from EYFS to Year 6. It also identifies where Kapow Primary units and resources support delivery. The full curriculum map can be found here.

Progression Documents

Our progression documents show how learning builds across the school, including:

• Knowledge of religious and non-religious worldviews.
• Understanding of beliefs, practices and lived experience.
• Use and interpretation of sources of wisdom and authority.
• Comparison, reasoning, reflection and dialogue.
• Subject-specific vocabulary.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is taught explicitly, revisited regularly and used in meaningful contexts. Pupils learn:

                       Tier 2 vocabulary for discussion, comparison, reasoning and evaluation.

Tier 3 vocabulary linked to particular religions, non-religious worldviews, beliefs, practices and concepts.

SEND and Equity

All pupils are entitled to access a rich and ambitious RE curriculum. Teachers remove barriers without reducing the intellectual ambition of the subject through:

• Adaptive teaching and carefully chosen scaffolds.
• Visuals, artefacts, stories, film and first-hand experiences.
• Pre-teaching and revisiting important vocabulary.
• Alternative ways to record and communicate understanding.
• Chunked instructions, retrieval practice and guided discussion.
• Consideration of sensory, communication and regulation needs.

Enrichment and Wider Opportunities

Where appropriate, RE is enriched through:

• Visitors who can share authentic lived experience.
• Visits or virtual visits to places of worship.
• Assemblies, festivals and opportunities for reflection.
• Use of artefacts, sacred texts, art, music and stories.
• Links with local communities and wider curriculum learning.

Right of Withdrawal

Parents and carers have the right to withdraw their child from all or part of Religious Education. We encourage families considering withdrawal to speak with the Headteacher so that the content and purpose of the curriculum can be discussed and appropriate arrangements considered.

How to Find Out More

Parents and carers can request further information about our Religious Education curriculum by contacting the school office.

Supporting documents for this page may include:

• RE long-term curriculum map.
• RE knowledge and skills progression document.
• RE policy.
• Leicestershire Agreed Syllabus information.