Subject in the Spotlight - RE

Week 1 - 3rd January 2023

At The Gates, RE units are based on an enquiry question and what the children learn in the unit helps them to answer those questions.

KS1's enquiry question for this half term is 'Who is Jewish and how do they live?'. Children began this unit by discussing what they already know about Judaism. This week focused on recognising religious materials and asking religious questions. Children used a painting of a Jewish family celebrating Shabbat, some Jewish objects and photographs to develop these skills. They made observations, shared ideas and asked questions about what they could see.

'How do festivals and worship show what matters to Muslims?' is the enquiry question for those children in LKS2. Their unit began by reviewing what they had learnt about Islam so far. During this discussion, children used some excellent religious vocabulary! Children then went on to look at what is important to Muslims and focused on the Five Pillars of Islam.

The children in UKS2 are answering the question 'Was Jesus the Messiah?'. This unit links to the core concept 'Incarnation' in the Christian 'big story'. At this point in their RE journey, children have studied each of the core concepts so for their first lesson, children were asked to sequence the core concepts and provide a short summary for each.

Week 4 - 30th January 2023

Over the past few weeks, the children in KS1 have been continuing their Judaism unit to answer the question 'Who is Jewish and how do they live?'. They looked at the Jewish creation story and created some beautiful artwork based on this. They then looked at how this story related to Shabbat, exploring the Jewish belief that God rested on the seventh day. The children found it really interesting learning about different rules on Shabbat, particularly that some Jewish people don't use any electronic devices!

Our LKS2 children continued their Islam topic by looking at the second Pillar of Islam, Salah (Prayer). They learnt how Muslims prepare for prayer and the different prayer positions. They have also spent time taking a virtual tour around a Mosque, identifying the key features.

The children in UKS2 have been continuing their Incarnation Unit. They considered what sort of Messiah Jewish people would have been expecting 2000 years ago and created wanted posters. They had an interesting discussion whether the real meaning of Christmas has been lost. They reflected on and then ranked what they thought was most important to Christians at Christmas, then they ranked what was important to themselves to compare. It has been really interesting to see the different ideas children have had over this unit.