Religious Education
What is the purpose of Religion?
“The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.”
– Dalai Lama
RE is a statutory subject, distinct from our Church of England status.
At Brill School RE creates an enriched culture, providing opportunities and challenges for pupils to develop deeper thinking. It enriches the children’s life skills explored in PSHE. It also enables pupils to develop transferable skills such as listening, effective communication and reflection.
Building confidence in a nurturing environment so that each child is confident to engage in difficult questions enables our children to thrive as they move up to secondary school and become part of a more diverse environment.
RE BLOG
What is the meaning of Christmas?
office on: RE BLOG
This week, year 3 have begun a new focus in RE. We are exploring the big question of whether Christmas has lost its true meaning. We have been thinking carefully about what Christmas means to us and why is means so much? We shared lots of ideas, lots of us agreed it means we get to see our family more and spend lots of time with them. We also agreed it means we get to eat lots of yummy food... even chocolate for breakfast!
Hooray for Harvest!
office on: RE BLOG
This week, the whole school visited the church for our annual harvest festival. The children in Year 4 had prepared poems and songs for the children and parents. We were able to give thanks for our food and sing songs as a whole school. It was a joy to be all together in the church and feel our sense of community!
Diwali!
office on: RE BLOG
Year 3 have been learning all about Diwali this half term! We were lucky enough to have a beautiful Puja Tray brought in by one of our class and were able to learn more about this brilliant festival of light!
Prayer Space
office on: RE BLOG
This week we have all been lucky enough to visit the church and enjoy the brilliant prayer space that has been set up. Each class was able to take part in the 4 fabulous activities. We thought about our individuality and created a crown, we thought about forgiveness and watched our worries disappear in a vase of water, we watched a bubble tube and relaxed whilst we thought about our own prayers and wishes, and we thought about other places in the world that we could pray for. It was an incredibly experience that all the children enjoyed along with the staff.
Year 4's representation of God
office on: RE BLOG
Year 4 have been thinking carefully about why symbols and representations of God are important. They chatted about how they are universal and that anyone can understand them, no matter where they are from or what language they speak. They then though about how they could create their own representations of God by thinking about what God means to them.
How is RE taught at Brill School?
We ask big questions' starting from the children’s perspective, extending to our school experience and then deepening our knowledge through Christianity around the world and other world religions. These questions explore how different people respond to life’s key events and ways of making a difference in our lives.
We learn about the beliefs, stories and traditions from Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism and include non-religious viewpoints.
Some big questions overlap with PSHE, Literacy work, Humanities and the Creative Curriculum.
Importantly children learn to reflect on what they think and to respect different views.
We enrich the learning in school with visitors and trips to Brill Church, Bayeux cathedral on our French Trip, a Hindu temple in London and the Oxford Synagogue.
Children are encouraged to make links between school values and RE in reflective areas of the classroom. We enrich our ability to reflect in Prayer Space - a reflective interactive week.
"It let me relax and think about nature and all the things God made in this world.’"Pupil voice
Children develop their sense of wonder through changing seasons in the beautiful natural surroundings of Forest School.
Brill pupils’ view of RE is a positive one; they feel secure enough within a nurturing environment to engage and express themselves fully in lessons, regardless of ability. Pupils gain self-confidence and develop a thirst for learning to enable them to reach their potential. Assessment within RE encompasses many of the life skills we aim to give a Brill Child.
The Oxford Diocesan Scheme of work ensures a progression of learning.
