At Hauxton we believe that knowledge is key to understanding the world outside of school, to be critical thinkers and to understand other cultures, beliefs and backgrounds.
In order to assure that our curriculum is high quality and meaningful for our children, we are following the Opening Worlds Curriculum, written in association with the Haringey Education Partnership. The units of study are from years 3 - 6.
In Reception, year 1 and year 2 the units of study introduce the children to the main religions of the world and their key practises and festivals.
"I remember learning about a specific festival of lights"
Reception child talking about Diwali
We believe that there needs to be a balance between knowledge and skills-based learning. One can not apply the disciplinary aspects of RE without first having knowledge - and one can't extrapolote new knowledge or philosophies without having learned the disciplinary skills. We refer to these as substansive content and disciplinary content.
Substansive Content is the information and knowledge that we learn in a lesson - stories, accounts, source material - and the vocabulary that enable to the children to move within their knowledge through reading, writing and discussion.
"At the Synagogue, men wear hats and women wear scarves, just like Muslims do"
Year 2 child 2022
"I am linking Judaism to what I know from Islam"
Year 3 child 2022
Disciplinary Content is understanding how to recognise different philosophical or theological views and ideas and to understand why these matter to themselves and to others. The children are introduced to the skills of enquiry, argument and debate; to understand that communication is both speaking and listening to and understanding others. By showing the children how religious communities have built great art, architecture and music and changed our standards of artistic achievement, we are all inspired.
"Learning RE helps me with my friends because [one] is Hindu and now I understand what she means when she refers to stories she knows or is telling me things about Hinduism"
Year 4 child 2022