Religious Education
INTENT
Religious Education (RE) at Sussex Road is central to our school’s core values of being Ready, Responsible, and Respectful. Through thoughtful discussions and reflective activities, we aim to nurture an ethos of mutual respect, tolerance, and open-mindedness, preparing our pupils for life in a diverse and interconnected society.
We promote British Values alongside other key areas of learning, including PSHE, to ensure that our pupils understand their rights and responsibilities as citizens of the UK. By celebrating cultural differences and religious diversity within our school and the wider Kent community, we encourage children to engage with and appreciate different traditions. Pupils are given opportunities to reflect on their own beliefs and ways of living, ensuring that all children develop a sense of inclusion and become welcoming, compassionate members of our community.
Through our RE curriculum, we aspire to equip our pupils with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to become thoughtful, respectful, and responsible citizens in an ever-changing world.
IMPLEMENTATION
At Sussex Road, we follow the Kent Religious Education Syllabus, ensuring that our curriculum is broad, inclusive, and up-to-date. Teachers actively promote interfaith understanding, helping pupils appreciate that they live in a multifaith society. Through carefully planned and engaging weekly lessons, we make RE meaningful, inspiring, and relevant, equipping pupils with the knowledge, skills, and values needed to navigate an increasingly diverse world.
As outlined in the Kent Syllabus, our pupils continuously develop three core concepts:
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To know about and understand a range of religious and non-religious worldviews
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To express ideas and insights about the nature, significance, and impact of religious and non-religious worldviews
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To gain and apply the skills needed to engage seriously with religious and non-religious worldviews
The Kent Syllabus also acknowledges the diversity within religious traditions, both geographically and historically. It highlights the importance of recognizing that members of religious traditions may hold personal worldviews that differ from one another. This concept is also reflected in how pupils engage with their own personal worldviews in the RE classroom.
In our RE curriculum, we explore the following religions and worldviews in depth, through lessons and assemblies:
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Christianity
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Islam
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Judaism
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Hinduism
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Non-religious worldviews
IMPACT
Religious Education at Sussex Road provides our pupils with opportunities to encounter a wide range of religions and worldviews, promoting understanding and respect for diversity. Our approach to teaching RE helps pupils embed learning into their long-term memory, allowing them to connect key concepts and ideas over time. Fundamentally, RE at Sussex Road encourages pupils to explore and reflect on their own beliefs and views, fostering personal growth and respect for the perspectives of others.
Information for Parents: Withdrawal from Religious Education
Every maintained school in England must provide a basic curriculum (RE, sex education and the National Curriculum). This includes provision for RE for all registered pupils at the school (including those in the sixth form), except for those withdrawn by their parents (or withdrawing themselves if they are aged 18 or over) in accordance with Schedule 19 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
The use of the right to withdraw should be at the instigation of parents (or pupils themselves if they are aged 18 or over), and it should be made clear whether it is from the whole of the subject or specific parts of it. No reasons need be given.
Parents have the right to choose whether or not to withdraw their child from RE without influence from the school, although a school should ensure parents or carers are informed of this right and are aware of the educational objectives and content of the RE syllabus. In this way, parents can make an informed decision. Where parents have requested that their child is withdrawn, their right must be respected, and where RE is integrated in the curriculum, the school will need to discuss the arrangements with the parents or carers to explore how the child’s withdrawal can be best accommodated. If pupils are withdrawn from RE, schools have a duty to supervise them, though not to provide additional teaching or to incur extra cost. Pupils will usually remain on school premises. The school may also wish to review such a request each year, in discussion with the parents.
However, the right of withdrawal does not extend to other areas of the curriculum when, as may happen on occasion, spontaneous questions on religious matters are raised by pupils or there are issues related to religion that arise in other subjects such as history or citizenship.
Where a pupil has been withdrawn, the law provides for alternative arrangements to be made for RE of the kind the parent wants the pupil to receive. This RE could be provided at the school in question, or the pupil could be sent to another school where suitable RE is provided if this is reasonably convenient. If neither approach is practicable, outside arrangements can be made to provide the pupil with the kind of RE that the parent wants, and the pupil may be withdrawn from school for a reasonable period of time to allow them to attend this external RE.
Outside arrangements for RE are allowed as long as the LA is satisfied that any interference with the pupil’s attendance at school resulting from the withdrawal will affect only the start or end of a school session.
If the school is a secondary school and parents have withdrawn a pupil from RE provided at the school and asked for alternative RE to be provided in accordance with the tenets of a particular religion or denomination, then the LA must either:
- provide facilities for the alternative RE to be given at the school unless there are special circumstances which would make it unreasonable to do so; or
- agree to outside arrangements being made as long as no financial burden falls on the LA or school as a result of these arrangements.
Schools must not, through their organisation and management of the subject either make it difficult for parents to exercise this right; seek to encourage pupils to withdraw or make it impossible for them to receive Religious Education as part of their basic curricular entitlement.