Curriculum Mapping of Religion, Values and Ethics

Go to:

• Context
• Why did you choose this focus?
• What changes did you make?
• What was the impact of the changes?
• What influenced you?
• Top three takeaways

Charles Williams Church in Wales Primary School is situated in the heart of Caerleon in the northern outskirts of the city of Newport.

The school was established in 1724 following a bequest made by its namesake, Charles Williams. The school continues to work closely with the Charles Williams Charitable Trust, with members of the Trust sitting on the governing body.

Charles Williams is larger than average with classrooms occupying a number of separate buildings on site. Currently, there are just over 500 children on roll, and we are pleased to welcome children from Caerleon, outlying villages and other areas of Newport.

There are some split classes across the school. The number of children entitled to free school meals is well below the national average. Very few children speak English as an additional language.

The focus of the project was to produce a Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) curriculum map in line with the Curriculum for Wales, which acknowledges the four core purposes and supports the pupils to become more objective, critical learners who are exposed to the diverse world that they live in.

With the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales 2022, it was necessary for us to reflect on the RVE that was currently in place at our school and consider what changes needed to be made in order for us to implement the new curriculum.

On reflection, it highlighted that we needed a more pluralistic approach when teaching RVE and to provide greater opportunities for the pupils to be inquisitive in their learning. We also felt that as a school, we needed to implement a greater variety of ways to capture our learning.

Things for us to consider included:

• Ensuring that the delivery and teaching of RVE enabled pupils to become more objective and to develop their thinking skills
• Ensuring that the RVE within our school was pluralistic, including non-philosophical convictions within our local community, as well as the wider community and global platform
• Widening our pupils’ knowledge, skills and experiences within RVE
• Encouraging enquiry and investigation into religious and non-religious philosophical convictions within society on a local, national and global platform
• Developing the skills for life-long learning and interest, preparing our pupils for life beyond the school setting

When designing our RVE curriculum, we made sure that all aspects of RVE were linked and the resources we used to support the teaching of RVE weren’t separate identities. We needed to ensure that the RVE sub lenses were included and where possible linked to the contexts for learning.

We also unpicked the ‘What Matters Statements’ within the Humanities Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE), ensuring that RVE still kept its status, particularly important in a church school such as ours. The use of Values in our school had always been a priority but had previously been wholly Christian based. We felt that these values could be developed further by looking at what other religions felt about these values. When producing the curriculum map we also needed to ensure that the document was progressive, particularly when learning about major festivals, such as Christmas and Easter.

In addition to the RVE curriculum map, progression maps have also been produced for significant times in the Christian calendar to begin with, but this will be developed further and used when looking at other faiths. Due to our school having a small number of ethnic minorities, it was really important that our pupils learnt about other faiths. Each year group now has a different faith to study within the academic year.

Since the implementation of the RVE curriculum map, staff are more confident in the delivery of RVE and have something to work from. When capturing RVE, teachers are using a greater variety of resources, including videos, freeze framing, artwork, surveys, pic collage, interviews etc.

Pupils seem to be enjoying the variety of ways to record their learning and the different ways that RVE is being delivered. Planning and monitoring of RVE shows that we are beginning to think more about the pluralism within RVE and when listening to learners, pupils are more confident to share what they think and give their opinion.

Teachers have changed their way of questioning, ensuring that what they say is far more open-ended and allowing pupils to think for themselves, developing different viewpoints.

The RVE Network was really beneficial in talking to other colleagues and sharing what has been done in different school settings. Attending Prayer Spaces in Schools training provided us with a range of ideas as to how we might incorporate pluralism within our setting and a ‘Spiritual Garden’ is our next step, providing a safe space for pupils to develop their spirituality.

Godly Play training has made us think of the way that RVE can be delivered, especially providing pupils with opportunities to be curious and ask questions, as well as responding to what they have heard by leading their own follow-up to learning. The diocese and Church in Wales website was useful in providing an example of an RVE curriculum map to work from.

1. Ensure that when teaching RVE pupils are given opportunities to make their own judgements and give their own opinions
2. Ensure that there is progression within RVE
3. The importance of equipping pupils for their role in later life as citizens of Wales and the wider world