Pathways School

At Pathways, we believe that it is important for all our students to learn from and about religion, so that they can understand the world around them; Our carefully designed Religious Education curriculum aims to enable our students to acquire the core knowledge and understanding of practices of religions and worldviews which shape their history and culture and also guide their own development; 

Our Religious Education teaching has its roots in our British values of tolerance and mutual respect ensuring that our students are aware of their rights and responsibilities as UK citizens; While integrating in a diverse, multicultural, contemporary UK, we want our students to be sufficiently confident in their own beliefs and values that they can respect the religious and cultural differences of others and contribute to a cohesive and compassionate society; We want our students to identify common themes in different faiths, and appreciate and celebrate the co-existence, acceptance and tolerance of all faiths at our school and in our local community

We want our students to appreciate the ways in which religious beliefs shape life and behaviour, develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues and enhance their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development; Our students are encouraged to consider the impact of faith on people’s lives both at a personal level and in the global context, and to understand some of the geopolitical realities of the latter; We aim to provide all our students with wonderful opportunities to reflect, ask big questions about the world and consider their own values, beliefs and experiences; Ultimately, our Religious Education curriculum aims to encourage reflection, creativity, imagination, enquiry, debate, discussion and independence. 

We have carefully designed our RE curriculum so that it introduces some key facts about the major religions in KS2 and then revisits each religion in KS3 and KS4 to explore the teachings of each faith in more detail and/or build on more philosophical understanding 

Inspired by the Barking and Dagenham SACRE syllabus, we ensure that: 

• KS2 explores the connection between faith, followers and the societies around them. This is through the discussion of key ideas which is followed up by guided student research 

• KS3 investigates the relationship between each major faith group, how religion and societal factors may impact upon self worth, identity and personal relationships 

• KS4 analyses the impact  and effect of religion on the individual and explores the the role of religion on modern day society including morality and ethics