At RMJS we aim to equip our children with the knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and world views. We follow the Nottinghamshire Agreed Syllabus (SACRE) where children explore five main religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism.  Through investigating world religions and significant human questions about life, children develop the skills and confidence to discuss, evaluate and justify their views and personal opinions.  Religious Education (RE) helps form the basis of our school ethos (REACH), which promotes Respect and Equality as well as being an important part of our SMSC curriculum across the school.  We want children to understand their own values, beliefs and ideas whilst having a mutual respect and tolerance for others in the school and local community and in a multi-faith society as adults.

Our RE curriculum is derived from three key elements: Believing, Living and Thinking because we know that it is important for children to understand that people believe, think and live in different ways based on religious or non-religious beliefs held.  We have identified clear, progressive disciplinary and substantive knowledge, skills and vocabulary which are carefully planned for each year group.  These enable children to build on prior knowledge, embed conceptual ideas and use key vocabulary to support their discussions as they journey through the school.  As children progress, as well as exploring key religions in detail, they are also challenged, through enquiry-based questions, to investigate and compare themes across several religions.  This ensures a deeper understanding of concepts, the application of previous knowledge and development of personal views. 

We ensure that RE provision is fully inclusive by using a range of strategies to ensure all children, whatever their individual need, can access the learning.  The RE curriculum is fully supported by the PSHE/Jigsaw framework, particularly the unit ‘Celebrating Differences’, which reinforces the value of respecting and celebrating differences between people globally.  Our teaching of British Values also develops the learning of individual rights in society, mutual respect and tolerance of others, regardless of background or beliefs.

We aim to equip our children with the knowledge and understanding of their own identity, values and beliefs, as well as appreciating those of others.  Our children will be able to engage in rich, knowledgeable discussions and debates about challenging questions in life.  At RMJS, we recognise the necessity of a broad RE curriculum given the profile of our catchment area and we seek out opportunities to show the broad diversity of Nottinghamshire, the UK and the wider world.  Our RE curriculum fully prepares children for their KS3 journey and beyond. Our ambition is for children to leave the school with a confident, proud sense of their own identity, values and beliefs whilst being able to discuss and celebrate those of others, helping them to become positive, values driven citizens in a modern world.