In this Church of England Voluntary Aided School, the Governing Body as a whole is responsible for determining the nature of Religious Education. At Lancaster Christ Church School the Religious Education provided conforms to the rites, practices and doctrines of the Church of England as laid down in the Trust Deed.

RE plays a major part in promoting the Christian aims, values and ethos of our school. Jesus is the very centre of our family at Lancaster Christ Church and we aim to be imitators of God – living our lives in the way we know He would want us to live them. This is reflected in our Mission Statement.

As a school we have adopted ‘Questful RE’, the syllabus produced by the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education which reflects the National Framework for RE.

We supplement the Agreed Syllabus with materials from ‘Understanding Christianity’, which aims to:

• enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living world faith, by exploring core theological concepts
• enable pupils to develop knowledge and skills in making sense of biblical texts and understanding their impact in the lives of Christians
• develop pupils’ abilities to connect, critically reflect upon, evaluate and apply their learning to their own growing understanding of religion and belief (particularly Christianity), of themselves, the world and human experience

Intent of Religious Education

The intent of Religious Education at our school is drawn from the National Society for Educations’ Statement of Entitlement of Religious Education for Church of England Schools. That is, that in a Church school, RE should enable pupils to:

• Engage meaningfully and critically with learning which helps them to make sense of the multi-religious and multi-secular world in which they live.
• Know about and understand Christianity as a diverse global living faith through the exploration of beliefs and practices, using approaches which engage with biblical text and key sources of authority.
• Gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and non-religious worldviews, appreciating the complexity, diversity, continuity and change that exists within those worldviews being studied.
• Grapple with questions of meaning and purpose raised by human existence and experience.
• Understand the concept of religion and recognise its continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals, communities and societies in different times, cultures and places.
• Develop disciplinary knowledge which equips pupils to be religiously literate.
• Explore their personal worldviews; their own religious or non-religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking.

(RE statement of entitlement: The Church of England Education Office 2026)

The RE Curriculum

Our Religious Education curriculum maintains a balanced approach of learning about Religion and learning from Religion.

        We learn about:

• God who reveals the truth about Himself and humanity through creation, the giving of the law, his action in history and through the prophets;
• God who reveals Himself ultimately in Jesus His Son, living among us and dying and rising for us;
• God who reveals Himself through His Spirit working in the living faith of the Church experienced through scripture, tradition and reason.

        We learn from:

• an empathetic response to the Christian faith and a critical engagement with it;
• responding personally to the transforming power of Jesus Christ;
• developing a vision for life that transcends materialism and recognises the reality of the spiritual realm;
• understanding ourselves and others, celebrating our shared humanity and breadth of human achievement;
• examples of Christian living which give priority to the claims of justice, mercy, holiness and love.

“RE provides opportunities for spiritual development and personal reflection. On a quest to discover more about religion and world views pupils will discover more about themselves. As RE develops children’s knowledge and understanding of the nature of religion and belief, it provokes challenging questions about meaning and purpose, truth and values, identity and belonging. Pupils will experience, explore and encounter a wide range of creative and challenging multi-sensory activities that will help them to discover the answers to fundamental questions such as these: –

• Who am I and what does it mean to be me?
• In what ways do/can I relate to others?
• How/where can I encounter God?
• How can I make a positive contribution to the world in which I live?
• What values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviour are important to me?
• What does it mean to have faith?
• Who/what influences and inspires me?

Through an open investigative enquiry approach the pupils will be given the sense of being on a quest of discovery. A key feature of the syllabus is the large number of questions included in each unit. The purpose of these questions is to give pupils opportunity to investigate, reflect, evaluate and make meaning. In doing so they will discover more about themselves, their relationships with others, their relationship with the world around them and their relationship with God. The questions set the route through the curriculum content.

The curriculum content is a balance of the three essential disciplines of quality RE, Theology, Philosophy and Human Social Science. This means pupils will look at concepts through a theological lens, exploring what people of faith believe. Alongside this pupils will explore questions and answers raised in relation to the lived reality and impact of religion and world views on people’s lives. They will also think like philosophers, and be equipped with the skills that will enable them to make sense of life’s experiences.”

 (Blackburn Diocese Board of Education, 2026)

Programmes of Study and Planning

• The Programme of Study for RE will maintain a balance between Learning about Religions and Learning from Religions
• There will be clear learning outcomes for all units of work, based on the appropriate expectations as set out in the RE syllabus
• The Programme of Study will ensure that there is continuity and progression for pupils and opportunities for assessment in both Learning about Religions and Learning from Religions
• A range of teaching and learning activities will ensure that pupils learn effectively and with interest
• RE will be taught as a discrete subject though cross-curricular links may be made as appropriate
• A range of visitors will be invited to support the teaching of RE, and where possible, there will be planned visits to places of worship
• In this school the faiths taught in RE at KS1 are Christianity, Islam and Judaism, and at KS2 Christianity, Sikhism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.
• We aim to supplement weekly lessons with whole school RE theme days during the year, including our annual ‘Multi-faith’ week.

Curriculum Time

The Foundation Stage and Key Stages 1 and 2 have allocated 10% of curriculum time to RE each week for the teaching of RE. This equates to around 1 hour per week in the Foundation Stage and key stage 1 and 1 hour and 10 minutes per week in key stage 2.

The units covered each year are set out in the Blackburn Diocesan Board of Education Agreed Syllabus. Approximately 60 – 70% of time given to Religious Education will be devoted to the teaching of Christianity, with aspects of other word faiths studied for the remaining 30 - 40% of curriculum time allocation. Christian teaching is also delivered in Collective Worship which takes place each day.