Belton All Saints Church of England Primary School

Here at Belton All Saints, we teach Religious Education by meeting the requirements of the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus, supported by the materials from Understanding Christianity. Our aim is to engage, encourage, inspire and challenge children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to explore ‘big’ questions as well as preparing them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life.

We believe that all children, through developing and deepening their understanding of Christianity and other religious and non-religious world views, should leave our school being able to reflect on and express their own beliefs and values including engaging with ‘big’ questions whilst at the same time recognise and celebrate cultural diversity showing sensitivity and respect for other people’s beliefs. Religious Education at our school enables our pupils to grow spiritually, morally, socially and culturally. It is taught progressively throughout our school, ensuring knowledge and skills are built upon. Links are made with other curriculum areas, particularly PSHE and our core Christian values are embedded within along with British Values which enable children to participate positively within an ever-changing society and world.

On our last week of term before we broke up for Christmas, we reflected on the different symbols in the Christmas story.  We thought about how the Christmas star led the wise men to Jesus and how that brought hope. We then created our own star and added our hopes and dreams for the future. We created angels and reflected on how they brought good news which led us to think about people in our lives who are encouraging and help to make us feel safe but also about people who we could be encouraging to. We considered why bells are rung on Christmas morning in order to celebrate the birth of Jesus and linked this to us being thankful for our own lives over the last year; thankful for things at school and at home. Finally, we considered candles and that they are used as a Christmas decoration because Jesus described himself as the light of the world. We reflected on how candle light pushes back the darkness in a room. As we looked at the candle, we reflected on the fact, that for Christians, God’s love is like a light and that the darkness cannot put out God’s love and light