RE
RE at The Bay
Our Theologically Rooted Christian Vision
We aim to provide a high quality of education, based on the principles and practice of the Church of England, in a challenging, stimulating and caring environment for children of all faiths and none.
'Therefore encourage one another and build one another up.'
1 Thessalonians 5:11
Introduction
Religious Education prepares children for living as global citizens within a multicultural society. It promotes respect and empathy and develops pupils’ awareness of themselves and others by helping to make sense of how different beliefs and world views impact their own lives, and the lives of others. Religious Education enables children to explore, debate and reflect upon some of the most fundamental questions asked by people about God and life itself.
Intent
- It is our intent that pupils at the Bay receive a broad, rich Religious Education curriculum. The curriculum will follow the locally agreed Hampshire syllabus ‘The Living Difference IV’. By the end of KS2, pupils will have a good age-related knowledge and understanding of 4 major world religions – Christianity, the Jewish faith, Hindu faith and Islam.
- It is our intent that pupils’ understanding of Christianity and other world faiths will foster positive attitudes towards diversity, between people of the same and different faiths, and those of no faith.
- It is our intent that pupils have confidence to explore and develop their own religious and spiritual thoughts and beliefs.
- As a Church of England school, it is our intent that we maintain Church of England traditions and celebrate key Christian dates such as Harvest, Christmas and Easter. The school will continue to build on its strong links with the church and local clergy.
- As a Church of England school, it is our intent that children are familiar with a wide range of Biblical teachings and stories.
- It is our intent that the school’s Christian values of Love, Courage, Truth, Respect and Friendship continue to be embedded within the ethos of the school.
- It is our intent that pupils can safely and openly discuss the big questions about life and God.
- It is our intent that Religious Education makes an important contribution in promoting respect and tolerance in a multicultural diverse world. It provides a key context to promote the shared British values of Democracy, Rule of Law, Individual Liberty and Mutual Respect for, and tolerance of, those with different faiths and beliefs.
- It is our intent to continue to foster and provide opportunities for pupils to deepen their understanding of their own personal spiritual development and growth.
Implementation
The Religious Education Curriculum explores concepts around a skills based cycle of enquiry. These 5 enquiry skills are ‘communicate’, ‘apply’, ‘inquire’, ‘contexutalise’ and ‘evaluate’. The cycle of enquiry allows pupils the opportunity to respond to concepts in relation to their own experiences and beliefs, as well as in relation to the religion being studied. Christianity is studied at the Bay. By the time pupils reach the end of Key Stage 2, they will have also studied three other major world religions.
In Reception, Year 1 and Year 2, pupils explore Christianity and the Jewish faith. In Years 3 and 4 pupils explore Christianity and the Hindu faith and in Years 5 and 6 Christianity and Islam. The Year 6 pupils also learn about Humanism.
R.E. weeks are held each half term so pupils have the time to learn about, and debate, concepts in depth. The following minimum time is devoted to Religious Education.
EYFS: 36 hours per year / 6 hours per half-term
Key Stage 1: 36 hours per year / 6 hours per half-term
Key Stage 2: 45 hours per year / 7.5 hours per half-term
Impact
The teaching of Religious Education promotes respect, understanding, tolerance and harmony between people of different beliefs, cultures and worldviews including those with no faith.
It enables children to flourish as individuals inspiring pupils to explore and develop their own beliefs and values, and encouraging them to debate big questions about their life, world, faith and spirituality.
Students have stated that Religious Education, Collective Worship and the school values provide them with opportunities to learn about, and develop their understanding of others and encourages people to be respectful, kind and considerate of others.
Religious Education is monitored through teacher assessment, pupil voice, book- looks and lesson visits. Every half term, a different part of the cycle of enquiry is assessed through progressive age-related expectations as advised by the locally agreed syllabus – They Living Difference IV.
What pupils say about RE at The Bay:
“I like learning about different religions so we can understand each other. When we understand and respect each other, it helps us to all live in peace.”
“We can hear about each other’s points of view. I like discussions and hearing about what other people think. We do a lot of that.”
“I like learning about God and Jesus and I like learning about other religions.”
“We do lots of fun things in R.E.”
“God created everyone equally and values everyone.”
“I love talking about the big questions.”
Curriculum Information
Click herefor RE Curriculum Overview
Click here for Collective Worship Overview
Click here to read the ‘Living Difference IV’ booklet with the agreed syllabus for for Hampshire, the
Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton
Click here to view the Christ Church visits for 2024-25
Bible Craft Club
Children from Key Stage have the opportunity to take part in a Bible craft school as an after-school activity.
The children learnt about the fruits of the spirit and listened to related Bible stories.
Here are some of the children with things they made at the club.
Christian Events and Celebrations
Christmas arrived at The Bay primary site last week with lots of festive activities and learning.
We are so proud of all of the children who took part in our Reception Nativity Sing-a-long, Key Stage 1 Christmas Concert and Key Stage 2 Christmas Carol Service. They were all wonderful celebrations telling the story of Christmas through songs. It was lovely to share all of their hard work with parents and carers.
The Key Stage 1 Christmas Concert was an amazing show; the children did a superb job remembering so many songs.
Our Reception children put on a spectacular performance of the traditional nativity through songs. They were incredibly confident and made their teachers and families so proud.
Pupils from Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 performed a selection of Christmas songs to a packed St. John’s church on Wednesday evening. Year 5 pupils did their readings eloquently and it was clear they had practised for perfection! We were so proud of all of the children and it was lovely to see so many proud parents and carers beaming in the audience. They were joined by the secondary choir to finish the concert.
Latest News
October 2025
In Year 4, we created Diwali sweets. We did this using biscuits, coconut, milk, chocolate powder and golden syrup. At times, we got quite messy but discussed how this would be a positive bonding experience for families who celebrate Diwali by making their food together. We also were able to discuss other elements of Diwali that are important such as cleaning together and making decorations such as our Diwali lamps that we made yesterday. When we thought about APPLY for our cycle of inquiry, we talked as a class about how it is good to apply the Diwali concepts of sharing, caring, feeding and being generous to one another. The children agreed that the Hindu religion has a similar understanding of goodness to themselves and that they would like to take on some of the positive attributes of the faith. Most of the children said that the main aspect of Diwali that they would like to emulate is generosity.
June 2025
This week in Reception we have been working with the topic of ‘Special Places’ in RE. We discussed how we all have our own special places that we feel safe and calm in and how some people consider the church to be their safe space.
We also have had the opportunity to go a visit Reverend Mark at Christ Church, where we got to discover and learn things about the church. We saw why some people see the church as a special place and some of us said that we are excited to go back.
June 2025
Year 3 had the opportunity to learn lots of information about Hinduism from a practising Hindu. The children had the chance to do lots of activities linked to Rangoli art, food tasting and folk dancing. They all very much enjoyed doing the activities!
April 2025
Year 1-6 classes visited Christ Church for our Easter service, led by Year 4. The children did some beautiful singing, clear narration and gave us a reminder of the meaning of Easter. Well done everyone. Reception children performed a sing-a-long to parents and carers in the hall.
We celebrated some awesome Easter Bonnets and Easter Gardens made by the children. Thank you to our Flourish workers Neil and Chloe who had the tricky job of judging the entries.
April 2025
A group of Year 6 pupils meet each week for our Global Citizens Club. They discuss local and global issues of interest and then make plans to make a difference for a cause they feel strongly about. The pupils heard about the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary Bear Appeal and decided to do something to help. They made posters and held a ‘name the bear’ competition after school. Over £150 was raised for the bears and the child who chose the winning name, won the bear. The Wildheart Sanctuary gratefully received the funds raised when the group visited the sanctuary with their contributions. The children looked at the new bear enclosure and asked questions about the project. Thank you to all those who helped raise funds by guessing the name of the bear.
March 2025
Messy Church is a weekly activity group run by Flourish workers Chloe and Neil at the primary site. Children and their families come together in the hall after school to do crafts, re-enact bible stories and enjoy a hearty home cooked meal. Messy Church has been very popular since the first session in November.
February 2025
At the secondary site, pupils who study Geography from Years 9 and 10 attended an insightful talk by Ruth. She shared information about climate change and the real world impact of this on the poorest people in the world, using an example from Tanzania. She highlighted how climate change can impact the poorest; by not having enough crops to sell, families go without money, children go hungry, parents cannot afford school fees and may even sell their daughters for marriage, because they simply cannot afford to feed the whole family.
At the primary site, Ruth met with the Eco-Champions, a group of Year 6 pupils who aim to help the environment through activities at school such as picking up litter, recycling paper, and turning lights off. They recently held an assembly for all pupils in the school to encourage them to look after the environment. Ruth asked the group about all of the initiatives they do and was impressed with the way they use their role to inspire others.
All pupils in Years 5 and 6 listened to Ruth share the importance of looking after our beautiful planet and the reason why it is so important.
December 2024
Christmas arrived at The Bay this week with lots of festive activities and learning. We are so proud of all of the children who took part in our Reception Nativity Sing-a-long ‘A Wriggly Nativity.’ Key Stage 1 Christmas Nativity and the Key Stage 2 Christmas Carol Service. They were all wonderful celebrations telling the story of Christmas through songs. It was lovely to share all of their hard work with parents and carers.
November 2024
Messy Church - a huge success!
Click here to read more about Messy Church held on 27th November.
October 2024
Year 6 pupils led the annual Harvest Festival at Christ Church this afternoon. They spoke about the significance of Harvest and read verses from the bible.
Year 1 painted pictures of combine harvesters, which they proudly held up for everyone to see.
All the children across the school from Year 1 to Year 6 sang with great enthusiasm.
Remembering 80 years since D-Day
Year 6 pupils represented The Bay CE School at Pentecost Sunday service on 19th May at Christ Church, remembering 80 years since D-Day. Lexi S, Layla-Mai C and Harry W read a poem during the service. They also took part in the unveiling of HMS Sandown bel plaque and information panel and helped to plant a remembrance rose.
Collective Worship
We are very fortunate that members of the local clergy, or our flourish workers, visit our primary site on Wednesdays to lead our worship. Some virtual examples of worships led by Reverend Mark can be found here:
Please click on the links below to watch the collective worship.
Tolerance
Kindness
Generosity
Responsibility
May 2024
Collective worship assemblies (Primary)
Patience - click here
Compassion and Caring - click here
Respect - click here
April 2024
The children on the primary site made banners to depict the Easter story. These were displayed at Christ Church over the Easter period.
March 2024
Year 1-6 classes visited Christ Church for our Easter service, led by Year 4. The children did some beautiful singing, clear narration and gave us a reminder of the meaning of Easter. Well done everyone. This video shows some of the songs and was filmed during the rehearsal last week.
Happy Easter to our school community.
September 2024
Bible Club
At Bible club last week, the children planted daffodil bulbs in the living cross at the entrance to the school. They learnt about the story of Creation and talked about the need to look after our world. They hope their daffodils will bloom and make people smile at the beginning of Spring.
October 2023
Harvest sing-a-long
Click here to view the fabulous Harvest sing-a-long video.
January 2023
In RE, Year 5 are learning about the importance of community. They have been looking at the Muslim and Christian religion and how both religions have a strong sense of community. They roll-played the intricate method of Muslim prayer and compared it to how Christians pray.
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Year 6 House Captains and Vice Captains leading Collective acts of Worship across the school. This worship focused on our school value – courage.
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