At Dereham Junior Academy, we believe high-quality RE will support pupils’ religious literacy. In the context of the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus and our own beliefs, being religiously literate means that pupils will have the ability to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and worldviews. This is why we call RE, ‘Religion and Worldviews’ at our school.

We want our pupils to be able to make sense of religion and worldviews around them and begin to understand the complex world in which they live. We want them to reflect on its awe and wonder and appreciate difference. Our pupils will become free thinkers and critical participants in discussion, who can make academically informed judgments about important matters of religion and belief.

Therefore, Religious and World Views at Dereham Church of England Junior Academy, uses an enquiry based approach to learning. We believe this contributes to pupils thinking creatively and develops the courage needed to comment confidently on theological and philosophical concepts and social studies within religion and belief. Our children are encouraged to respect the views of those that may be different to their own, and trust that whatever they think and contribute will be met with kindness.

A range of teaching strategies are used to ensure learning is challenging and relevant including the use of art, music, thinking skills, artefacts and stories. We want our pupils to reflect upon religion and views around the world from a calm and considered viewpoint, and collectively aspire to be outward looking in their actions and influence.

Religion and World Views is taught within discreet blocks over the academic.

To see a ‘curriculum map’ of what our R&W weeks cover across the school, click here.

For a more detailed overview of what each week covers, explore the year group ‘Curriculum – Topic and R&W’ overviews in the column to the left. The red blocks detail what each R&W work covers in more detail.

R & WV	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Year 6
Religion and World Views is taught in 1 week blocks, 4 times in the academic year. Much of the curriculum is ‘collapsed’ to allow pupils to immerse themselves in the ‘big question’. The one week blocks are taught oin the half terms coloured green, above.