Curriculum Vision
Our Religious Education (RE) curriculum is academically rigorous and personally inspiring. It gives students substantive content and concepts in theology, ethics and philosophy to enable them to grasp the complexity of our multi-religious, multi-secular world. Our curriculum develops all students to be both religiously and emotionally literate citizen of the world, equipped with empathy, critical thinking and powerful curiosity who are able to adapt to the ever-changing world around them.
All students develop:
Substantive – all students have knowledge about various religious and non-religious traditions
We have an expectation of excellence for all of our students and we believe all students at Walthamstow Academy should be informed about and understand a range of religions and worldviews. We empower them to excellently describe, explain and analyse beliefs and practices and recognise the diversity which exists within and between communities they are apart of. Our RE curriculum provides pupils with detailed content that is connected with the concepts and ideas that they experience to develop their fluency in theological, philosophical and ethical literacy. We have designed our curriculum for depth of study to indicate a range of religious and non-religious ways of living. Our curriculum is well-sequenced and prepares pupils with the prior knowledge (including content, concepts and vocabulary) they need for subsequent topics. We are ambitious for, and have high expectations of, all of our pupils and know that every student can experience success in RE.
Ways of knowing – all students learn "how to know" about religion and non-religion
We instil ambition in our students so they are able to identify, investigate and respond to questions posed, and responses offered by sources of wisdom found in religions and worldviews. We take pride in our students ability to appreciate and appraise the nature, significance and impact of different ways of life and ways of expressing meaning. Our consistent use of explicit direct instruction and attention to application of religious literacy means our students gain and deploy the skills needed to confidently engage with religions and worldviews, so that they can find out about and investigate key concepts and questions of belonging, meaning, purpose and truth; they achieve this through systematic retrieval practice. We aim for our students to know how and when to apply critical thinking methods such as decoding to respond to the Big Questions in our ever changing world.
Personal knowledge – all students build an awareness of their own presuppositions and values about what they study
Our curriculum approach enables students at Walthamstow Academy, regardless of prior or current attainment and skill, to have the skills to explain reasonably their ideas about how beliefs, practices and forms of expression influence individuals and communities. Our RE curriculum engages, inspires and challenges pupils, equipping them with the ability to independently express, with increasing discernment, their personal reflections and critical responses to questions and teachings about identity, diversity, meaning and value, including ethical issues. We empower students to appreciate and appraise varied dimensions of religion and worldviews. Our students have the confidence to articulate beliefs and shared values clearly in order to demonstrate their knowledge on why they may be important in their own and other people’s lives therefore supporting their ability to be empathic to others around them.
Our curriculum reflets our communities which makes RE essential to everyday life and all forms of employment. Our curriculum aims to equip our students with, for example, the strong moral code and the confidence to engage with and lead people from all backgrounds and to in turn become fulfilled impactful individuals in our society.