Religion and Worldviews

At Brookfield, we are proud of our richly diverse community, made up of families with a wide range of beliefs, traditions, and cultural backgrounds. Our Religions and Worldviews curriculum reflects and celebrates this diversity, while also deepening children’s understanding in two key ways:

• What children can learn about religious and non-religious worldviews

• What children can learn from religious and non-religious worldviews

When learning about religion and worldviews, children gain a secure knowledge and understanding of the teachings, practices, and life stories of different organised faiths, as well as non-religious perspectives. They are encouraged to reflect on their own beliefs, values, and ways of seeing the world.

When learning from religion and worldviews, children explore how faith and belief can shape a sense of identity and belonging. They engage with some of life’s big questions and consider how moral values and a sense of responsibility can arise from both belief and lived experience.

All of our units of learning successfully balance these two strands, with equal emphasis placed on both. The principal religions that are studied and discussed during these sessions are Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Our full curriculum map can be found here:

Parental right to withdraw their child from RE

Parents have the right to choose whether or not to withdraw their child from RE, without influence from the school. The Headteacher will always seek to discuss this decision with parents, with a view to sharing the educational objectives and content of the RE syllabus. In this way, parents can make an informed decision.

Where parents have requested that their child is withdrawn, their right must be respected, and where RE is integrated in the curriculum, the school will need to discuss the arrangements with the parents to explore how the child’s withdrawal can be best accommodated. If pupils are withdrawn from RE, the school has a duty to supervise them, though not to provide additional teaching or to incur extra cost. Pupils will usually remain on school premises.