Discover Religious Education
Aspire Religious Education Programme
At Aspire, we want to make RE as accessible as possible to all children across the school, regardless of pathway. We do this by weaving key events and concepts through the curriculum for children to engage with, explore and then discover fully.
There is a long term plan which has a cycle of Big Questions as'drivers' to consider each year throughout a child's life, such as:
- Why do we celebrate?
- Why is food important in religion?
- What do religious stories teach us?
- What can we learn from sacred books and symbols?
- Which places and objects are special and why?
- How and why do we celebrate sacred times?
- Which people are special and why?
Big Questions
The Big Questions are non-denominational and give scope to learn at a depth which suits the children in each class. Within the driver, different religions can be considered in terms of the Big Question and comparisons made.
As a school, we expose all children to events within Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism, Islam and Buddhism which celebrate themes such as diversity, new beginnings and community together.
Parents have the right to withdraw their children from our RE programme. If you would like to do this, please contact school.
SMSC Statement
At Aspire School we are proud to embed Social, Moral, Cultural and Spiritual provision into the fabric of our practice.
Our ethos of 'Individual for All, Aspirational for Everyone' works harmoniously in conjunction with the way that a strong SMSC provision is incorporated into our school for the benefit of all of the Aspire community.
Our demonstration of British Values is threaded throughout our curriculum and displayed proudly to ensure that all pupils feel and know that their education is grounded in these principles.
The School Council, made up of a selection of pupils from across the key stages have been voted in by their peers based on their merit, conduct and contributions they have shared. They meet weekly and ensure that the pupil voice is clearly heard amongst the staff and wider community to establish a robust interconnection where the pupil voice is not just heard, but respected and considered in all decision making.
Opportunities for Social, Moral, Cultural and Spiritual Development
At Aspire School we always want to make certain that our pupils are exposed to a rich and broad curriculum that in turn supports their development and wellbeing. These opportunities award our pupils the chance to develop holistically and are set in place to incorporate both the curriculum and personal development.
A taste of the opportunities afforded to our pupils include:
- Forest School /OPAL
- Live animals on site
- Singing assemblies
- Makaton Choir
- Awards ceremonies
- Whole school reward systems which encourage respect and and achievement
- Off-site visits to places of worship
- School Council
- Swimming Lessons
- A wide range of therapies
- After school clubs
- Sport trips
- Suggestion boxes available to all pupils
Wider coverage of SMSC throughout the school
Aspire School is a specialist provision designed uniquely for the pupils which we cater for, whose central needs are with either ASD or Speech & Language.
Throughout the school we are co-developing displays to reinforce both the school ethos as well as British Values. The celebration of these are demonstrated throughout what we do at Aspire.
The British Values are:
- Democracy
- The rule of law
- Individual liberty
- Mutual respect
- Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
Each one of these values is as important as the other and that is the approach we have taken to ensure that they are all equally embodied throughout the school.
Democracy
Democracy is best represented by our School Council. The members of this are elected by their peers based on a variety of factors. We have a new election each term and every child across both the key stages are afforded the opportunity to put themselves forward.
Each week at our School Council meetings, we regularly vote on matters such as playground equipment, allotment and wildlife gardens, new learning opportunities, as well as a variety of other topics.
The School Council have represented both their peers and the school itself, they have met with new members of staff and have worked together to ensure that all pupils have equal opportunities to contribute through the design and installation of new suggestion boxes.
The Rule of Law
Ensuring our pupils feel both safe and secure is fundamental to us at Aspire. With a robust behaviour policy, admin lead for Class Dojo and a whole school reward based behaviour management system, we make sure our pupils understand and respect our rules and both encourage and award positive behaviours.
The use of a reward trolley which allows pupils to accrue tokens through positive behaviours to earn prizes ensures that there is a clear and consistent approach to behaviour management which helps pupils manage their feelings and have respect for our agreed ways of working.
Individual Liberty
Individuality is key to us at Aspire and is highlighted in our ethos 'Individual for All, Aspirational for Everyone'. We work to encourage pupils to develop their self-esteem, make positive contributions to their environment and understand the benefits of making the right choices.
Examples of empowering our pupils includes working as a team to go litter picking in our local area. This made a great positive impact to our local environment and allowed our pupils to be recognised for the caring and considerate young people that they are.
Being supported in making the right choices through our Team Teach approach, as well as actively working towards creating an environment which works for everyone through developing understanding of both themselves and their peers, gives our pupils the power to make valuable impacts on the lives of the members of our school community.
Mutual Respect
Encouraging favourable communications amongst our pupils is a key part of their development at Aspire. This is encouraged through embedding mutual respect both into our curriculum, and our interactions with each other.
Our curriculum affords pupils the opportunities to learn about and explore a wide array of different cultures and religions. As pupils develop further up into Key Stage 2, they are taught about a wider range of inclusivity with same-sex relationships, mental health and a wide range of other matters.
This embedding of such subjects into our curriculum allows us to widen the cultural exposure which our young people have. The inclusive nature of the staff also allows excellent modelling of respecting others to take place daily, ensuring that differences can be put aside and the attributes of someone are defined by the personality and kindness which they demonstrate rather than anything else.
Tolerance
At Aspire we embrace differences and individuality. It is absolutely at the core of everything that we do. We promote awareness of differences through our classroom and corridor displays and ensure that we all respect the views and perspectives of others through quality teaching.
By developing a curriculum across the school which incorporates a wide range of high quality texts, different faiths, as well as a number of other matters which could be prone to prejudices, we are able to effectively model and teach tolerance through sharing knowledge around the views of others. By allowing our pupils to understand the views held by others, they are then able to make informed decisions which are not misguided through misinformation.