Religious Education (RE) is an important element in the broad and balanced curriculum we provide at Leap Federation. Through our RE curriculum we provide opportunities to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of world religions, other world views including British Values, and reflect on the challenging questions that it provokes.  It is our intent to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage pupils, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions, explore different religious beliefs, values and traditions and develop a more rigorous understanding of the numerous religious traditions, beliefs and practices that are followed in our multi-cultural society. The aims of Religious Education at LEAP are: 

• To develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the six major religions and consider how the beliefs of others impact on their lives and the lives of others. 
• To encourage children to ask and reflect on challenging questions. 
• To provide opportunities for personal reflection where children can explore their own beliefs (not necessarily religious). 
• To encourage children to appreciate and respect the different cultures in today’s society. 
• To celebrate and embrace the diverse cultures in Hackney. 

Religious Education at LEAP schools meets the requirements of our pupils who are members of local, national and global communities and it celebrates the diverse nature of our borough. 

Hackney SACRE 

At LEAP our RE curriculum is designed in line with Hackney SACRE (Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education) schemes of work, which include assessment, differentiation, resources, and are created to support teachers in monitoring pupil progress whilst inclusively teaching the subject. The Hackney SACRE promotes, supports and encourages good practice in the teaching of Religious Education (RE) in Hackney Schools. They seek to ensure that all pupils in Hackney schools 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.   

National Curriculum 

The RE curriculum forms an important part of our school’s spiritual, moral and social teaching. Our schools use the LEAP RE Curriculum to ensure we offer a broad and balanced curriculum that builds on knowledge and skills. 

 

Curriculum overview 

The LEAP RE Curriculum teaches the six main world faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism). It also encourages the consideration of non-religious world views. These are staggered throughout the key stages and RE is taught for 3 weeks a year in each year group. Every year our diverse community is celebrated in one evening called ‘International Evening’. On this night the community come together to celebrate world food, music, clothes, traditions and more. Our schools also put on spectacular Nativity performances at the end of Autumn term. Furthermore, each year group performs one religious assembly covering the six major religions. 

 

 

 

 

 

The long and medium term plans ensure that there is progression throughout the school and that children are building upon knowledge learnt in previous years. Our curriculum content is arranged so that ideas and processes become more challenging over time and demonstrates clear progression. In class, pupils have the opportunity to learn through various online presentations and videos, fiction and non-fiction books, real artefacts and objects. Children have ample opportunity to articulate their ideas about religion, beliefs and spirituality through class discussions and assemblies. 

A  PDF of  Grasmere's RE Curriculum overview can be found at the bottom of this page. 

Cultural Capital 

Children at LEAP have the opportunity to visit various places of worship and meet people from various religious and belief communities. These include visits to a church, Sikh temple, mosque etc. This enables children to further enhance their understanding of world religions, beliefs and practices. 

Rich, Relevant and Representative: The LEAP Empowerment Curriculum 

Hackney’s diverse and rich community provides our classrooms with a range of religions and non-religious beliefs.  We provide opportunities for every child to share their experiences and ideas about their faith and ensure that each child’s faith and beliefs has the platform to be represented and acknowledged.  We recognise that there are denominations within religions such as Christianity and understand there are sensitive differences between different branches of a religion such as Methodist, Baptist, Greek Orthodox and Presbyterian etc.  As a result, we ensure that ethnic minority religions are represented fairly within our RE curriculum. 

Fundamental British Values 

At LEAP, we actively promote the Fundamental British Values and RE is a fantastic way to address ‘Mutual Respect and Tolerance.’  Our children learn about and learn from many religions. In particular, we believe that our RE curriculum helps children to understand each other’s faiths and encourages tolerance. We aim to explore multiple identities and communities, with the aim for young people to come to an informed and empathetic understanding of different groups that will promote cohesion and integration. Our RE curriculum challenges pupils to be increasingly respectful and to celebrate diversity of different cultures, faiths and beliefs. 

Religious Education at Home 

Being a diverse, multi-cultural borough provides our children with a great opportunity to discover more about Religious Education. Hackney houses the oldest building which used to be part of a church and dates back to the 13th century. The building is called St Augustine’s Tower. Here you will find religious artefacts and relics that are still in use and the tower is open to the public every last Sunday of the month. Hackney also has many beautiful Mosques, Churches and Gurdwaras in nearby boroughs, which are open to the public. At LEAP we actively encourage children to continue their research at home. Below are some websites you might find useful. 

https://www.staugustinestower.org/visit-us 

https://lookup.london/hackney-church-tower/ 

https://hackneymd.co.uk/listing/visit-a-hackney-mosque/ 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zmyb4wx 

https://www.natre.org.uk/