“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
— Aristotle
Welcome to RE at Gwladys Street
At Gwladys Street, our Religious Education (RE) curriculum is all about helping your child understand the wonderful, diverse world they are growing up in, while helping them discover their own personal values and voice.
INTENT
Our Goals for Your Child
We want to give our pupils the tools they need to be thoughtful, kind and responsible citizens. Our curriculum is designed to:
- Build Worldly Understanding: Help children learn about Christianity and the other major religions in our own country and those of others so they can make sense of the world around them.
- Encourage Big Thinkers: Teach children how to ask great questions, debate kindly, use their imagination and reflect on their own experiences.
- Support Personal Growth: Help children understand how beliefs shape the way people live, allowing them to make their own informed choices about moral issues.
- Connect to Daily Life: We link RE directly with our PSHE (Personal, Social, Health, and Economic) lessons to build strong social awareness and promote positive British values.
KEY THEMES
What Your Child Will Explore
We look at big ideas through themes that make sense to children:
- Belonging & Identity: Looking at how different communities form, celebrate and look after each other.
- The Golden Rule: Discovering how kindness, fairness and empathy are at the heart of different traditions.
- Stories & Wisdom: Using famous stories from holy books, folklore and philosophy to talk about right and wrong.
- Big Questions: Welcoming children’s natural curiosity about life, creation and ethics.
- Signs & Symbols: Investigating the meaning behind different art, artefacts and sacred spaces.
- The Big Picture: Ultimately, we use RE to open windows into other people’s lives. By learning about different faiths, we build a bridge of respect, help children grow their own values, and learn how to live happily together.
IMPLEMENTATION
How We Bring Learning to Life
As a community primary school, Gwladys Street CP & Nursery School delivers Religious Education in accordance with the legal requirements of the Liverpool Locally Agreed Syllabus.
- Connected Learning:In Key Stage 2 (Years 3–6), we use a fantastic program called Opening Worlds, which links RE directly to their History and Geography topics. For Key Stage 1 (Years 1 & 2) and EYFS (Reception/Nursery), we use the Kapow scheme, which beautifully matches what they are already learning in their other subjects. Our Subject Leader makes sure that what your child learns in infants (Key Stage 1) connects perfectly with what they learn as they get older (Key Stage 2). We continually build on what children already know so your child’s understanding grows deeper every year.
- Hands-on Experiences: We encourage curiosity and prioritize first-hand, real-world learning experiences for the children.
- Celebrations & Visitors: We host whole-school assemblies throughout the year to celebrate different religious festivals and stories, and we regularly invite guest speakers into school to share their traditions.
- Valuing Every Voice: We deeply value the diverse backgrounds of all our school families. We love building strong links between home, school, and local faith communities, and we welcome everyone to share their unique experiences with us.
IMPACT
What This Means for Your Child
By the time they leave Gwladys Street, you will see the results of this learning in how they interact with the world:
- Curiosity & Enjoyment: Our children genuinely enjoy learning about different religions and exploring why people choose—or choose not—to follow a faith.
- Real-world Connections: Pupils are brilliant at making links between their own lives and the lives of others, both here in our local neighbourhood and across the globe.
- Cultural Awareness: Your child will develop a deep, practical understanding of different cultures and ways of life.
- Ready for the Future: We equip our pupils with the empathy, respect and open-mindedness they need to navigate and thrive in our ever-changing world. They develop active listening skills and are confident in expressing their ideas and opinions.
