Religious Education
At the Skylark Federation, our Religious Education (RE) curriculum is designed to help children build a rich "schema"—a mental framework that allows them to organise, process, and store complex concepts about the world’s religions and belief systems
Our Approach: Building a Picture of Faith
We recognise that RE is a "horizontal" subject; knowledge isn't always hierarchical, but it is deeply interconnected
Years R, 1 & 2: Hinduism and Christianity
Years 3 & 4: Judaism and Christianity
Years 5 & 6: Islam and Christianity
By focusing on these faiths in stages, students can "pin" new knowledge to their existing frameworks, eventually forming a comprehensive understanding of global religions and beliefs
The "Golden Threads" of Learning
To make sense of disparate facts, we use Golden Threads. These are disciplinary concepts that unite different units of learning, allowing children to reuse and reapply what they have learned across different faiths
Our curriculum is woven together by these core themes:
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Belonging
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Love
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Community
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Specialness
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Journeys
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Symbols
The Power of Inquiry: Each unit is driven by a Key Question (KQ)
How We Teach
Our teachers use practical strategies to ensure these connections are clear for every child:
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Cyclical Learning: We use a cyclical approach to revisit concepts, making links between new information and prior learning obvious
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Concept Mapping: Concepts are mapped across the entire curriculum to ensure no topic exists in isolation
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Reflective Practice: We constantly ask, "What did we learn about this thread in a previous religion?" before applying it to a new one
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By bridging substantive knowledge (the facts) with disciplinary knowledge (the big ideas), we prepare our students to navigate a world of diverse beliefs with empathy and insight