Religious Education

Welcome to the R.E area of our website!

The new subject leader for R.E at St James' is Mrs Blackburn. 

Our Christian Vision for R.E.

At St James' all children are encouraged to question, respectfully, all aspects of their life and the paths they will choose.  We are journeying through our time at St James’ together, following the guidance and teachings of God, using our school values and SKATs.

We ask big questions of ourselves and of others and we look to the teachings of God to help guide and formulate our answers.

Our children learn to be respectful and knowledgeable about faiths other than Christianity, giving them the understanding that they will need to live amongst all religions and cultures happily and respectfully.

Snapshot of R.E

During the Autumn term, we will be asking some big questions in Reception class about the world around us and special people in our lives, including those who help us.  KS1 will be looking at Harvest (including the Jewish festival of Sukkot) also exploring the Bible and Holy books from other faiths.  We will also soon, be spending lots of time thinking about Christmas and the Nativity. 

KS2 are also looking at Harvest and revisiting the Jewish festival of Sukkot, investigating expressing faith through art, prayer and meditation, looking at Holy books from all faiths, Christmas traditions around the world, life Journeys (including pilgrimages within non-Christian faiths and the impact we can have on change in today's society.

During the Spring term, children across school will all be focusing on Easter.  Teaching Easter across the school enables us to be able to monitor progression throughout.  Along side our Easter topic, the children will be studying the creation story, prayer, people of faith and how we can make a change in the world we live.  We will be looking at faiths, including Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs, considering their ideas and beliefs surrounding these areas.

Over the summer term, our children will continue to explore Christianity whilst making connections with world faiths such as, Islam, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu.

EYFS, Yr2 and Yr4 will explore the church and places of worship from world faiths. Year 1 will be exploring baptism and naming ceremonies. Year 3 will look at rules for living and make comparisons across religions.  Year 5 and 6 have some big topics this term, looking at loss, death and Christian hope and God.

Wow we are going to be busy!!!!

All our children continue to impress us with their knowledge and understanding of religion.  Their desire to share their experiences of their own beliefs and religions is also enriching all our learning.

Please continue to check out our class pages where the children's amazing work is displayed.

 The Important thing about RE

A Poem By Esther, Esmai, Daniel Lily Mae, Oscar, Christie Mrs B and Mrs W 

The important thing about RE is respecting different faiths and beliefs 

RE is fun 

RE is not right or wrong 

It is learning about people and change 

RE is sharing individual thoughts and belonging 

Its being heard

How everyone has a voice which we celebrate 

expressing our  views respectfully

about God, about spirituality and its place in the world

RE is time to think 

But the important thing about RE is respecting different faiths and beliefs. 

Our Learning 2023-24

Good News  24.11.23

In year 2,  we have been exploring the good news that the birth of Jesus brought to people around the world.  We shared our own good news in class and were asked to help Mrs Jacques with the good news section of our Friday worship.  It was lots of fun and we felt really special being able to celebrate the good news of others.

Interfaith Week - 12-19th November

St James' will be spending Interfaith Week exploring the world faiths.  We will be taking part in lots of research and discussion and will be making links throughout with Christianity or between faiths as they arise.

THE AIMS OF THE WEEK ARE TO:

• Strengthen good inter faith relations at all levels
• Increase awareness of the different and distinct faith communities in the UK, in particular celebrating and building on the contribution which their members make to their neighbourhoods and to wider society
• Increase understanding between people of religious and non-religious beliefs

Reception Class - Diwali

Clever Cub wanted to find out about a festival that his friend was celebrating. It is called Diwali. Diwali is known as the Festival of Light and it is celebrated by Hindus in Autumn to celebrate a new year. Reception Class learnt that Hindus draw bright Rangoli patterns on the floor, near the front door to encourage the Goddess Lakshmi to go into their homes.

Reception Class enjoyed painting Rangoli patterns.

Year 3 - Exploring World Faiths

Year 3 used their interfaith week lesson to independently explore world faiths and create posters which they then shared with the class.

The Golden Rule - Year 2 and Year 6

Year 2 and Year 6 explored 'The Golden Rule'.  They discussed the similarities and differences between the rules for different religions and then created posters to show their understanding.

Year 4 - Interfaith Research Project

Year 4 split into groups to investigate and research world faiths.  They used different resources (such as books and I pads) to gather the information and then presented their findings to the class on posters they had created.

Year 4 are lucky to have children of faiths in addition to christianity and these children happily and confidently shared their knowledge.

Year 4 Re-enactment of David and Goliath!

 We studied “David and Goliath” in RE. We summarised the key points of the story in a comic strip drawing. Once we had established the most important people and what happens from the beginning to the end we started a drama piece. We worked with Miss Fitz who taught us the drama skills needed to turn our comic strip into a short performance. We performed as each character and discussed what emotions they might show. We worked in groups to add movement and dialogue to our performance. We then added props and costumes to our drama pieces to make the performances more believable. We performed our finishes pieces in groups to the rest of the class.

Our Learning 2022-23

Year 4 Bible Detectives

Year 4 are also looking at 'The Church' right from it's very beginning with the stories of Peter and the other disciples continuing to spread the word of God after Jesus' death and resurrection.  We created power point presentations about places of worship around the world.

Change The World

The spring term sees a bit of a shake up of our RE curriculum, with a few units being taught that haven't been before.  However, year 6 have been looking at their 'Change the World' unit which they are really enjoying.  They have discussed who has tried to implement change and why and in turn how they themselves can have an impact on the world we live in today.  

The children have researched influential people from around the world and rewrote the Martin Luther King's  'I Have a Dream' speech.

Year 6 - Advent

Year 6 have created poems based on the lessons they have learned during Advent.

I have added a few of them below for you to enjoy.

Key to Life 2022

On Wednesday 22nd June, year 2 and year 5 were invited to attend an immersive RE experience at Clayton house.  We explored the life of Jesus, through a range of interactive activities and crafts.

We all had a fantastic time and learned lots about Jesus' and His life and His miracles.

Thank you to all involved.

2021 Children's RE Conference

On Tuesday 9th November 2021, Mrs. Wilton, Ayo and Lola from year 6, attended the Children's RE Conference at Blackburn Cathedral.  The theme for the day was 'What is the message of the Knife Angel?'  We spent the day with children from other schools from across the Diocese, taking part in 3 different workshops.  The final workshop involved us actually going to see the sculpture.  It was amazing and so big!  If you haven't had chance to see the Knife Angel yet we would highly recommend you take the time to visit.

Lola and Ayo put together a short presentation to tell the other pupils all about their day.