Our fabulous RE lead is Mrs Fletcher-Newbold!

‘The study of religious and non-religious world views is a core component of a rounded academic education. This has long been recognised as essential in Britain. Indeed, one could argue that it is more important now than ever. Young people today are growing up in a world where there is increasing awareness of the diversity of religious and non-religious world views and they will need to live and work well with people with very different outlooks from their own.’

Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus, 2020- 2025.

Religious Education Intent

At Croft Infant School, we believe that Religious Education plays a significant role in the personal development of children and young people. It provides the opportunity for pupils to explore and encounter different beliefs and lifestyles and has a key role to play in fostering respect and social cohesion. RE has an important role to play when promoting pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and our aim is to encourage children to explore their own beliefs and those of others, through a culture of tolerance and respect. Children are encouraged to ask and answer challenging questions including beliefs about God, issues of right and wrong and comparisons between different world religions. Religious Education does not attempt to impose beliefs upon the children, but to give them a wider experience and knowledge of cultural differences within our diverse nation, and throughout our big and beautiful world.

Religious Education Implementation

At Croft Infant School, Religious Education is taught using the Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus 2020 – 2025. As a core part of the curriculum all pupils must be taught RE. However, parents have the right to withdraw their children from the subject after discussion with the Head teacher if they wish to provide their own Religious Education for their child.

The Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus states that pupils in all Key stages pupils must primarily be taught about Christianity. Pupils in Key Stage 1 must also study one other religion in depth. At Croft Infant School pupils will also learn about Judaism. Pupils will also learn about major festivals and traditions of other religions as appropriate both during RE lessons, topic lessons and during Assemblies throughout the school year.

In Key Stage 1, the expectation is that 36 hours of RE will be taught per year, which is taught in weekly sessions of approximately 50 minutes. In Reception, RE is closely linked into learning as part of Personal, Social and Emotion Development, Understanding the World, Communication and Language and Expressive Arts and Design. Daily collective worship is not included in the teaching time for RE. RE is taught by individual class teachers using long and medium term planning based on units from the Derbyshire Agreed Syllabus along with other supporting resources.

At Croft Infant School, RE is taught to all children, whatever their ability and individual needs. RE is part of our commitment to provide a broad and balanced curriculum to all children. Our teaching of RE, as with other areas of the curriculum, aims to provide learning opportunities that enable all pupils to make good progress. Planning and resources are tailored to enable all pupils to achieve, and all staff are committed to meet the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs, and children who have English as an additional language. Teachers aim to make lessons as practical and engaging as possible to motivate and engage all learners, and use a variety of resources to support the teaching of RE, including books, practical and online resources, music and regular visits to our local church throughout the school year to enhance the RE curriculum. At Croft Infant School we are committed to establishing strong links with our local Parish Church of St Martin. We contribute frequently to, and are published in, the Parish newsletter, which is in turn regularly shared with our parents and the local community.

All children are encouraged to discuss their thoughts and express themselves clearly and with confidence. Pupils are also taught to interpret art and music during RE lessons. We teach pupils about the values and beliefs that underpin individual choices of behaviour, also covering a number of issues that are also addressed as part of our Life Learning (PSRHE) curriculum by promoting tolerance and understanding of other people and appreciation of what it means to be a responsible citizen and positive member of the community. This enables the children to develop their understanding of the fundamental British Values and helping to prepare them for life in modern Britain.

Religious Education Impact

At Croft Infant School, the impact of our RE curriculum is measured in a variety of ways, including learning experiences and discussions with children during lessons, frequent conversations with individuals and groups of children in all year groups about their RE learning, and work in ‘Learning Journey’ books.

The children at Croft Infant School enjoy learning about different religions and comparing the similarities and differences between them. They enjoy their learning about RE inside the classroom during direct teaching inputs and in their own independent learning, where they continue to develop and build upon their prior learning independently as part of continuous and enhanced provision. The children also enjoy learning about RE outside of the classroom, including visits to our local church of St Martin in Alfreton. Through their RE learning, the children become confident learners with the ability to ask and answer questions about the beliefs of themselves and others. Children are able to talk about, and make links between, their own lives and those of others in their community and in their big and beautiful world, developing a high level of respect and understanding of other people’s religions and ways of life.

Click on the PDF file below to see Croft Infant School's RE learning mentioned in St Martin's Church magazine!

🐕‍🦺Exciting Guide Dogs charity news!🦮

In Year 2 the children have been learning about charities as part of their RE learning. The Year 2s raised an incredible £401 for Guide Dogs as a result of their cake sale, which has meant that all three Year 2 classes have been able to sponsor their own Guide Dog puppy!

Purple Class have sponsored... Hazel!
Blue Class have sponsored... Frank!
Pink Class have sponsored... Walter!

A huge thank you to everyone who supported our cake sale, you have made this incredible donation to such an important charity possible!
🌈 ❤️💛🩷💚💜💙🧡

In RE the Year 2s have learned about what happened on Good Friday and tried triple chocolate hot cross buns! The know that the cross on the buns symbolises the cross on which Jesus died on Good Friday.

Year 2 have been learning about the days leading up to Easter, and have been acting out Palm Sunday 🫏🌴

Year 2 have learned about Shrove Tuesday and how Christians traditionally used up ingredients such as flour, eggs and milk in preparation for the 40 days of Lent running up to Easter 🐣 ✝️ ⛪️

The children drew and labelled their own pancake design with a topping, before following instructions to make their own pancakes 🥞 🥛🥚 🍫🍋🍯

In RE Y2 have been learning about charities and decided to raise money for Guide Dogs, in the form of a cake sale! They visited the local secondary school- David Nieper Academy- to use their food room to make a range of different things including flapjack, cupcakes, rice and cornflake crispy cakes. That afternoon they invited all of the parents of Croft Infant School to attend their cake sale where they raised £400 for Guide Dogs!

The Year 2s have been learning about the story of the Good Samaritan. Using their class Bible, they worked as a group to retell the story using drama and props independently, and then performed the story to the rest of their class.

Year 2 have been practising retelling the story of the first Christmas using nativity characters kindly donated from St Martin’s Church ⛪️👶🏼🐑🤴🏽🐄 🌟 🫏