Religious Education
As a Church School, RE has a very high profile within our curriculum at Acton CEVC Primary School. We echo the aims of the Church of England Statement of Entitlement (2016) by providing Religious Education which is rich and varied, enabling learners to acquire a thorough knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith. We also provide a wide range of opportunities for learners to understand and to make links between the beliefs, practices and value systems of a range of faiths and world views. We use an enquiry based approach, and links with the Christian Values of the school and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development are intrinsic to our RE curriculum.
Christianity is the majority study in RE. We follow the Suffolk Agreed Syllabus and we use 'The Emmanuel Project' as the framework for our RE teaching .
At our school, our children:
- Learn through creative approaches, developing higher level skills such as enquiry, analysis, interpretation, evaluation and reflection to deepen their understanding of the impact of religion on the world;
- Learn about other religions and world views, nurturing respect for them;
- Are compassionate towards others and use their growing understanding to develop our school as a trusting and inclusive community;
- Develop an understanding of Christianity as a living faith that influences the lives of people worldwide and as the religion that has most shaped British culture and heritage;
- Develop their own spiritual/philosophical convictions, exploring and enriching their own beliefs and values.
We offer a rich and varied range of teaching approaches to achieve these ends, always striving to challenge every one of our pupils to make the maximum progress regardless of their starting point, with an understanding that different levels of support may be required to help them achieve their goals.
Inter-Faith week 2021
Acton CEVC Primary School celebrated 'Inter-Faith Week 2021' from the 19th-23rd November. We were inspired by the Anti-Bullying Week (which coincided with Inter-Faith Week) theme of ‘One Kind Word’ and looked at how kindness is shown through words and actions in each faith. We started each day with a whole school assembly introducing the faith and sharing its key beliefs and ideas. Then each class enjoyed completing an activity linked to the faith of the day. On Monday, we explored the Christian faith, learning about how kindness is shown through charity. On Tuesday, we learnt about the Islamic faith. Within our assembly we looked at the Qu'ran and a prayer mat and spoke about the importance of obeying Allah and the importance of prayer. Each class learnt about the five pillars of Islam and specifically focused on Zakat and charity giving. Some classes made 'Zakat' boxes while others created their own five pillars including their own core beliefs. On Wednesday, the focus was on Hinduism. We discussed the festival of Raksha Bandhan and made red and gold bracelets to give to our sibling or a friend. On Thursday, we found out about Judaism. Some classes created Tzedakah boxes, and some learnt about the ladder of charity. On Friday, Sikhism was the focus and we learnt all about the Langar hall and the Langar meal. We designed our own vegetarian langar meal which could be shared with everyone. After school, all of the work from the week was displayed on gallery boards outside to share with our families all that we had learnt and created.
Faith Council
Faith Council is made up of children in Key Stage Two. The children apply to be part of Faith Council explaining the skills they have and how they would like to contribute. They act out Bible stories in assembly in front of the whole school every fortnight. Children act as the narrators and characters from the story, as well as creating the PowerPoint, finding costumes and reading the introduction and prayer. Our second Faith Council team are children from Year 5 and 6. They go into each class during assembly time once a fortnight and read a Bible story to their class as part of our worship. The children then discuss the stories and help the younger children to explore the key themes and values.
World Religion Day
We celebrated World Religion Day with visitors, activities and a special assembly. Ruth Ridge from our Open the Book Team talked to everyone about how we all share part of a bigger picture, through the story of The Blind Men and the Elephant, we welcomed visitors from the main world faiths to talk about their beliefs in practice and West End in Schools led dance workshops around the two day theme of 'Who is my Neighbour', 'The Golden Rule' and teamwork and support for each other.
Year 3 & 4 R.E. Crosses Exhibition
As part of our R.E. unit 'Christianity: Symbolic expression', Year 3 and Year 4 worked together to create an exhibition of crosses made from natural materials. The children carefully considered their choices of materials to represent different parts of Christianity. Twelve small stones were chosen to represent Jesus' disciples, whilst red leaves were included to show Jesus' bloodshed. Another group chose to use thorns as a reminder of the thorny crown placed on Jesus' head as he walked to his crucifixion. The children gave thoughtful responses, and produced an inspiring exhibition of crosses.
