Pittington Primary School

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Religious Education at Pittington

Autumn Term

EYFS Understanding of The World

Nursery explore the celebration of Harvest and Harvest Festival and talk about the importance of the crops which farmers grow and gather. The children look at different fruit and vegetables and paint their favourites. We enjoy having a fruit and vegetable role play shop too.

We also learn about the Hindu festival of Diwali, sometimes called the festival of light. We read the story of ‘Rama and Sita’ and discover the origins of the festival. The children enjoy exploring the new story sack to retell the story and we made Diwali window decorations with coloured cellophane. We also explore the shapes used in Rangoli patterns.

We look at the Christmas story together using books and video clips and listen to some traditional Christmas carols to help with our understanding.

Reception learn about the Jewish religion and some of the important things that Jewish children like to celebrate. We watch a video clip about a Jewish family preparing for Shabbat. Shabbat is a Jewish holiday of rest which begins each week on Friday evening and lasts until Sunday. There are lots of preparations that take place before Shabbat - it is like preparing for a visit from the King! The house is cleaned from top to bottom and all the cooking for the weekend has to be done before Friday evening.

We also explore the Torah and look at the scripture (which is read from right to left). And we greet people with ‘Shallom’.

Reception talk about Christianity and the birth of Jesus. We read the traditional Bible story of the birth of Christ.

Year 1

Year 1 learn about the Christmas story and think about why gifts are given at Christmas.

Year 2

Year 2 have been learning about why the Bible is special to Christians. They have learned that it was written over 2000 years ago and that it is a gathering of special books. The children know that the New Testament is all about Jesus and have shared and read stories together.

Year 3

In the closing months of the Autumn Term, Year 3 re-visit the Christian faith and focus on the period of Advent and its importance at this time of year when Christians reflect on the significance of the Nativity. We make links to scripture and look again at the Bible, with a focus on the prophets from the books in the Old Testament. A visit by the local Reverend help us better understand the reason why this time is of great importance to followers of the Christian faith.

Year 4

Year 4 find out about the Bible. They consider what they know about the Bible and why it is important to Christians.

Year 4

In Year 4 we have explored how religious people show how they care for others. This has included examining what is meant by a good deed, and exploring how the Christian and Sikh religions show that they care for others. Rev Liz came into school to chat to us about her beliefs. We also extended out learning by considering climate change and how we all, regardless of our faith, should do our bit to help the environment.

We have also explored why Christians call ‘Jesus the Light of the World’ and investigated the range of symbols and imagery used by artists to depict this.

Year 5

Year 5 have been furthering our knowledge and understanding of Judaism and we have explored ways in which Jewish beliefs can be expressed in the home. This has included learning about the Mezuzah, Kiddush cups and Shabbat. We have explored the significance of Shabbat within Judaism and how it is observed by Jewish families. Recently, we have also explored the differences between traditions and rituals. This has included exploring Puja within Hinduism.

As Christmas approached, Y5 explored the key themes of Christmas.

Year 6

Autumn Term started with Y6 thinking about different faiths in our local area. We also thought carefully about whether you can always tell which faith a person belongs to by their appearance. This was taken into our unit about Islam. Children were shown this picture and they had to say which of the people shown were Muslim (you couldn't tell by the colour of their skin or what they were wearing).

Our Y6 Christmas unit was to investigate the birth narratives. We found out that the story of Jesus being born can only be found in Luke and Matthew’s Gospel. We compared the stories and put them in a Venn Diagram.

Take a look at our modern versions of Jesus’ ‘I Am’ statements from the Bible.

Spring Term

EYFS

In Nursery, the children have been learning about the Bible. We talked about how it is a special book and has lots of stories about Jesus. The children have also been enjoying a range of stories which Jesus told from our book ‘Favourite Stories from the Bible’. We have enjoyed reading ‘The Lost Sheep’ and ‘The House on the Rock’. We enjoyed also learning a song about the wise man who built his house upon the rock.

Some of the children were able to tell us that they went to church and know about Jesus and the Bible. It was nice to hear their stories and ideas. We read the Easter story together and used the new story sack to help us to understand the significance of this story to Christians.

This term, Reception have reflected upon Holy Books such as the Torah and the Bible. Most recently we have been learning about the Christian celebration of Easter. We made paper crosses which traditionally would be made from palm leaves.

The children discussed the meaning of new life and reflected upon the many traditions celebrated by lots of faiths during Easter time…chocolate eggs were mentioned a lot!

Year 1

Year 1 learned about the Easter story. We talked about why Good Friday is such a sad day for Christians and Easter Sunday is a happy day for Christians. We watched a version of the Easter story from the children’s Bible and then we sequenced the story into the correct order.

Year 2

Y2 have been talked about Christianity in R.E. The children have talked about what they might see in a church and role played a baptism. There are lots of symbols that the children are used to seeing all around but did not necessarily realise come from the Christian faith so it has been interesting discussing these further.

We have also been discussing the story of Easter. The children now recognise lots of the symbols of Easter. The easiest to remember is perhaps the cross as we made hot cross buns and talked about their symbolism! They did have crosses on before cooking, we promise!

Year 4

Year 4 have been learning about the significance of Lent for Christians. They have familiarised themselves with the parable of Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness and resisting temptation from the Devil. They have also explored the different parables from the Bible and the deeper messages behind them; often finding that they hold a valuable message for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Y4 have been learning about Christianity and focussed on who Christians believe Jesus is. Building upon work which we did in Y1, we looked at parables and explored what they tell us about what Jesus taught. We also explored some of the miracles performed by Jesus and the meaning behind them. We enjoyed performing our own version of the feeding of the 5,000 then reflected upon the meaning of the miracle and discussed our feelings about miracles. We had a wide range of views.

We also learnt about lent and looked at the story of Jesus in the desert and discussed the idea of temptation.

Year 5

Year 5 explore Christian beliefs about God. This includes exploring the symbols of God found within the Christian faith and also learning about the Holy Trinity and other aspects of God. The children share stories from the Bible and looked for evidence of the different aspects of God being seen within these.

Here is a poem written by a Y5 child to explain from a Christian point of view that just because you can’t see God, it doesn’t mean that He is not there.

Wind is soaring through the air; you can’t see it but you know it is there.

Atoms make up everything; you can’t see them but you know they are there.

Thoughts are in my head; you can’t see them but you know they are there.

Sounds are in my ears; you can’t see them but you know they are there.

Oxygen is what you breathe; you can’t see it but you know it is there.

Bacteria is in my body; I can’t see it but I know it is there.

Year 6

Y6 have been talking about our personal beliefs and have discussed how important it is to respect everyone’s beliefs. We imagined what we thought God would look like and drew symbols to represent what God means to Christians.

As a class we thought about what our perfect world would look like and read the story of Adam and Eve. We learnt that there are many stories in the Old Testament about people who chose to disobey God and decoded some of the vocabulary used in them.

We have also been learning about why people from faiths care for the environment. To do this, we studied some of the creation stories and looked at why people from different faiths have a sense of responsibility to care for God’s world. We also looked at the Big Bang theory. To end the topic, we created an image of a world which we would like to see in the future. We drew around our feet to represent our carbon footprint and copied the native American saying of ‘We do not inherit their Earth, we borrow it from our children.’

EYFS

EYFS have read the story of Noah’s Ark in our group session and discussed how Noah helped the animals by letting them come on to his ark. We also talked about what a flood is and how these can affect both people and animals.

Year 1

Year 1 have read stories about Jesus and the 12 disciples. The children know about the miracles Jesus performed and why Christians think He is very special. The children learnt about Holy Week and why Easter is an important celebration for Christians. We know why the cross is a significant symbol and we thought of some words to describe what the cross means to Christians.

Year 2

This term, Y2 have been learning about what it means to belong in Christianity. We have discussed the different families and groups which we belong to and are important to us. We learnt about how being Christened is important to Christians and what it means to be welcomed into the church.

We enjoyed our visit from Reverend Heather and Reverend Liz, who came to talk to us about Christianity and we enjoyed participating in our own Christening service.

Early Years

In EYFS we have been learning about a Hindu festival called Diwali which many Hindu’s will celebrate in November. We watched a video clip about a little girl who helped her family prepare for the celebration. She visited a Hindu temple, made some special traditional sweets and watched a firework display. We looked at a story about a prince called Raam and a princess called Sita and discovered how lamps were lit to guide them home.

We looked closely at diva lamps that are lit during the celebration. We investigated Rangoli patterns (the colourful shape decorations used) and attempted to decorate big diva lamps.

We enjoyed listening to traditional Hindi music too. We finished off exploring the celebration by lighting our lamps outside and making our own individual wishes to give thanks for the things that are important to us.

Key Stage 1

Year 1 have been learning about Christian churches this term and the children can name the things they would expect to find inside. We compared lots of different churches from around the world, looking for similarities and differences.

We also read the Christmas story and we created freeze frames of the key events in the story. We used the freeze frame images to retell the story of the birth of Jesus. We know the importance of giving gifts at Christmas and how special gifts can make us and others feel.

Year 2 have been very busy in the Autumn Term! Firstly, we started off by exploring the Bible.

Then we decided to find out more about our local saint: St Cuthbert.

Year 2 played an important part in the Christingle service by making Christingles.

Key Stage 2

Year 3 concluded the autumn term learning about the nativity and creating an advent calendar that uses images to depict the Christian story. Before this, we learnt about the Hindu faith and how they worship both in the home and in a mandir. We also explored objects associated with prayer. The children found learning about the many forms of Brahman particularly interesting.

We have also explored why Christians call ‘Jesus the Light of the World’ and investigated the range of symbols and imagery used by artists to depict this.

Summer Term

EYFS

Nursery find out all about Christenings. We talk about our own christenings and share our own special pictures of when we were christened. We learn about the use of holy water, a font and the importance of Godparents too. We look at some of our Christening gowns and the special parties we have with all of our families and friends as well as christening cakes and special keepsakes such as bracelets.

Nursery also really enjoy learning all about the Hindu festival of Raksha Bandhan. We learn that this festival celebrated the love and special bond between siblings. We talk about how our brothers and sisters are very special to us. We find out about the special Rakhi bracelet sisters give their brothers as a symbol of their love and enjoy making our own bracelets to give to someone special.

Reception have been thinking about their special places.

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

As part of their bridging unit in preparation for secondary school, Year 6 pose challenging questions about Christianity based on what they already know. Here are some fabulous thoughtful examples:

How do people know God’s gender?

Because of Adam and Eve, are we all related to each other?

If God created the world, who created God?

How would we know about Jesus and God if the Bible didn’t exist?

Why was Mary chosen to be Jesus’ mother?

If heaven and hell do exist, is there ever rest?

If Judas loved Jesus, why did he betray him?

If Christianity did not emerge, would our country be mainly Jewish?

How can God never die because every living thing dies, and if God isn’t living or dead, what is God?