We are currently working with the Discovery RE scheme enabling Religious Education to be delivered in Portland that meets the agreed syllabus aims by:

• Including knowledge and reference to religious and non-religious beliefs and world views, practices and ways of life.

• Develop knowledge and understanding of all members that make up our rich and diverse community.

• As part of the syllabus at each Key Stage, visits to local places of worship are encouraged, as are visits by members of the local churches and faith communities. We also use online opportunities for live learning from a diverse group of people. We recently took part in an assembly about Ramadan, given by an Imran live from Manchester.

• Develop understanding of concepts and mastery of skills to make sense of religion and belief at an appropriate level of challenge for their age.

• Develop positive attitudes and values and to reflect and relate their learning in RE to their own experience.

• Have the opportunity to learn that there are those who do not hold religious beliefs and have their own philosophical perspectives.

The syllabus has been created in a cyclical format to enable children to revisit and build on their prior knowledge of the different beliefs and practices taught across the school. The syllabus also allows for teachers to be flexible and adapt the term in which units are taught in their year group, to allow for cross-curricular links or involvement with parents or other members of the community.

We promote RE and Collective Worship, develop the good teaching of Religious Education in schools and support community cohesion. At Portland, we are committed to providing our children with an interesting and positive learning environment, in which they have the opportunity to develop their knowledge and understanding of religions while contributing to their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
 

Implementation

RE is taught in a weekly topic block each half-term, planned by the teacher to link it with key dates and religious festivals, providing opportunities to celebrate festivals and religions with greater relevance and consistency. Work is recorded in topic books and can be evidenced by a variety of outcomes suggested in the scheme of work; written piece, artwork, photo and pupil voice - we teach our pupils that their voices matter.

Religious education is taught in our school:

• It is open and objective, it does not seek to urge religious beliefs. It respects young people's views, and it does not compromise the integrity of their own religious position by promoting one tradition over another.
• Endeavours to promote a positive attitude toward people, respecting their right to hold different beliefs from their own.
• Promotes the values and attitudes necessary for citizenship in a multi-faith and multi-racial society through developing understanding of, respect for, and dialogue with people of different beliefs, practices, races and cultures.
• Recognises similarities and differences in commitment, self-understanding and the search for truth. Respecting and valuing these for the common good.
• It is not the same as collective worship, which has its own place in the educational life of the school – together with RE it can contribute to an informed, reflective, compassionate and caring school and community.
• Promotes community cohesion through linking with other non-Christian faiths.
• Recognises and celebrates the range of cultures and diversity of the school through workshops, assemblies and shared experiences of staff, children and people from the local community.
 

Impact

At Co-op Academy Portland, we seek to ensure that all pupils in our school are educated to develop spiritually, academically, emotionally and morally to enable them to better understand themselves and others and to cope with the opportunities, challenges and responsibilities of living in a rapidly changing, multicultural world. Regular assemblies and celebrations of work taught and learnt will help to celebrate the diversity of the school community and promote positive images of people in the wider community, including their beliefs, traditions, culture, language and history.
 

We are currently planning and developing a new scheme for September 2024 that endeavours to meet the needs of all our pupils, which is more reflective of our diverse and rich culture, and the beliefs of our school community. We feel that our children and their family and carers should be able to see themselves, and be represented within our curricula.

Mrs Smith is our RE subject leader.