green hippo Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 (edited) Hi all, I teach a Nursery class in a Catholic school which follows the 'Here I am' R.E. scheme. This scheme indicates that R.E. should take up 10% of the curriculum (this is not including daily prayers or assemblies!). Could anyone who is in a similar situation to me describe how they include the r.e. within their weekly timetable? E.g. through circle-time/focused activities/class quiet-time and how often - daily/weekly/fortnightly. Thanks in advance Green Hippo xx Edited May 17, 2009 by green hippo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Are you using the term R.E. in it's original sense of religious education, or in the modern secondary school sense which is more PSE based? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 I dont know of any secondary schools that dont teach RE as religious education Cait. And its a compulsory GCE. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 (edited) When my children did it it was called RE but was definitely more like citizenship for example Edited May 17, 2009 by Cait Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katekit Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 we use RE Vision 2000 - we have just been focusing on Baptism - Welcome to God's Family etc. Been into church a few times, had carpet sessions, made a display, lots of role play, watched a photo shoot of a family baptism (with the scheme) made pretend candles, went into church and baptised a 'baby' (doll) children were parents, God parents, priest, photographers, family and friends and then we came back to nursery and had a party with a REAL Baptism cake made by one of the mums. Made a list of important words which came into CLL etc. we try to cover the 'subjects' through the different areas of learning. we invite parents in to join in with songs and prayers, visit the senior citizens club (in the hall) and go to see our toddler group. seems to be working quite well as children were playing Baptisms in te playground the other day!Also 'write' prayers and make our own prayer books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 we use RE Vision 2000 - we have just been focusing on Baptism - Welcome to God's Family etc. Been into church a few times, had carpet sessions, made a display, lots of role play, watched a photo shoot of a family baptism (with the scheme) made pretend candles, went into church and baptised a 'baby' (doll) children were parents, God parents, priest, photographers, family and friends and then we came back to nursery and had a party with a REAL Baptism cake made by one of the mums. Made a list of important words which came into CLL etc. we try to cover the 'subjects' through the different areas of learning. we invite parents in to join in with songs and prayers, visit the senior citizens club (in the hall) and go to see our toddler group. seems to be working quite well as children were playing Baptisms in te playground the other day!Also 'write' prayers and make our own prayer books. That sounds lovely, how fantastic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquieL Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 RE is religious education in the fullest sense of the word. Each LA will have a locally Agreed Syllabus which has to be taught, and this is education about religions and learning from them, including their affect on World History and discussions about morality. Christianity is the primary religion taught, and then there is usually one other at KS1 and then at least another added at KS2. These will be chosen from the six major world religions. Cait's example from Christian Aid would be learning from religion in practice, and this would provide a cross-curricular link to Citizenship, which is also taught in schools. There are guidelines from QCA for content at each Key Stage. As Susan says RE is taught in all schools, although some GCSE's call it Religious Studies. Denominational schools are exempt from the local Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education's Agreed Syllabus, and have their own syllabus from their diocese or religious leaders. I think the whole thing is under review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 (edited) We're an RC pre-school but to be honest we dont follow any RE scheme as such. Just maybe talk about and visit the church more then other groups would, say a few prayers. talk a lot (at this time of year) about communionsas so many of them have older siiblings or cousins doing this. We go and visit the sacristy and our priest shows the children all his different costumes etc. We perform a strctly nativity play at Xmas (no snowman in ours!!) and always say a prayer before going home. LOL! None of which is probaby the slightest help sorry! When did RE become a compulsory GCSE subject? I have two who went to RC high schools and yes, it is a compulsory subject there and compulsory GCSE but the other two were at a state high school and one dropped RE in Yr 10 when she went into her chosen options and although the other did RE as a GCSE it was a chosen subject. However they are in their 20's now so it could be that this has changed. What they did all have to do was PSHE, this is compulsory and the RE that is taught in the state schools was very different to what the two in RC schools were taught. Edited May 17, 2009 by lynned55 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted May 18, 2009 Author Share Posted May 18, 2009 Thanks for all your replies - sorry don't know anything about secondary school R.E. apart from the fact that it changed from R.E. to R.S. (Religious studies) when I was at school! Katekit - we also use Re-vision 2000 alongside the 'Here I am' scheme and have also done Baptism but not in such great depth! We baptised a doll and I found a short video on-line which of course didn't work when I needed it!!! It sounds like you spend quite a lot of time doing r.e. related things? - I also try to combine it with other A.O.L when I can. Could you tell me what you do daily and weekly e.g. class prayer/reflection time/small group focused activity/circle time. Sorry for all questions just trying to establish some sort of routine/timetable to ensure that I'm doing enough! Thanks Green Hippo xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katekit Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 Thanks for all your replies - sorry don't know anything about secondary school R.E. apart from the fact that it changed from R.E. to R.S. (Religious studies) when I was at school!Katekit - we also use Re-vision 2000 alongside the 'Here I am' scheme and have also done Baptism but not in such great depth! We baptised a doll and I found a short video on-line which of course didn't work when I needed it!!! It sounds like you spend quite a lot of time doing r.e. related things? - I also try to combine it with other A.O.L when I can. Could you tell me what you do daily and weekly e.g. class prayer/reflection time/small group focused activity/circle time. Sorry for all questions just trying to establish some sort of routine/timetable to ensure that I'm doing enough! Thanks Green Hippo xx Hi we say prayers at lunch and home time, we stay for school assembly on a Friday and we usually make a prayer book when neccesary - God's Wonderful World, Welcome, Saying Thank you etc. We have a school prayer that we know and we have decided to teach the children The Hail Mary and Our Father (I think it as pointed out about the children knowing more traditional prayers in the past). We go into Mass every half term and the children are really good. We feel that our RE has really taken off in the past few years although it always the same areas, I think we just decided to 'go for it' and it has been quite enjoyable. We sometimes have problems with the RE Vision CD, but there are some nice 'powerpoints' about a family outing and a baptism which we use as starting points for the new areas. I think bringing aspects into different A.O.L has helped to support the learning e.g. the children enjoy playing Pirates and often roll paper to make telescopes that's where we got the inspiration to make the Baptism candles! We have just had our OFSTED and our RE inspection and were graded as outstanding. We did a FS assembly on the day and used Farmer Duck as our inspiration. When we have carpet time, we spend time discussing RE/PSE aspects and then maybe do a story and finish with prayers or a favourite song. hope that is of some help. Cath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondie Posted May 18, 2009 Share Posted May 18, 2009 my sons school stopped re being compulsory a few years ago as a gcse - i thin it was a good idea as most children didnt want this subject so was a waste of their time -sorry dont mean to upset anyone there x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 Thanks again katekit for your reply. Sorry to keep asking questions but do you have a set time each week to do a whole class r.e. session and/or focused activity? Thanks Green Hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katekit Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Thanks again katekit for your reply. Sorry to keep asking questions but do you have a set time each week to do a whole class r.e. session and/or focused activity? Thanks Green Hippo x We have two sessions on the carpet of about 20mins each just before lunch and just before hometime. We sometimes would watch the Powerpoint if we are having snack altogether - like being at the pictures! we would use the 20min sessions if we were doing anything specific - it might be RE, phonics, number rhymes etc but then do spin off things at activity time and link it to other AOL. Eg we made a large display of Baptism words using felt pens and coloured paper but that would be on the planning as RE and CLL - vocabulary building, painting pictures of people who love us would be put down under CD or Gods Wonderful World would be linked to working in the garden, tidying up - KUW/Citizenship etc. We say prayers together and encourage the children to make their own up. hope this helps Cath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted May 19, 2009 Author Share Posted May 19, 2009 Thanks for replying again katekit - yes it does help! Think I pretty much do the same - do at least a wc carpet session linked with r.e. weekly and a small group activity every 2-3 weeks which is always linked with other a.o.l. Think we will say some more prayers together and will encourage them to make up their own - will be doing this for our class assembly! We also sing songs from a Hymns cd! Thanks - you've really helped Green Hippo xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katekit Posted May 19, 2009 Share Posted May 19, 2009 Thanks for replying again katekit - yes it does help! Think I pretty much do the same - do at least a wc carpet session linked with r.e. weekly and a small group activity every 2-3 weeks which is always linked with other a.o.l. Think we will say some more prayers together and will encourage them to make up their own - will be doing this for our class assembly! We also sing songs from a Hymns cd!Thanks - you've really helped Green Hippo xx Green Hippo, If you need anyhing else just ask I'll be pleased to help I have had my share of help from the Forum. I was looking at our RE Inspection report before and he said 'teachers bring RE lessons to life through drama and effective age related experiences' year 2 have just had a week of parents going into class (in groups) to have 'breakfast with Jesus' - sardines and bread! went down well! made it a bit more 'real' for the children and got the parents in which is good for home/school relationships and builds the 'working together partnership' - we are all God's family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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