RE Intent

As a church school our Christian values are the bedrock of all learning and day-to-day lived experiences. We value our faith and as such recognise the importance of educating to value, understand and accept the religious beliefs, attitudes and practices of world citizens of faith and those who follow secular philosophy. Our children experience at least one hour of Religious Education every week following a planned amalgamation of the Understanding Christianity scheme and the Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Our curriculum promotes the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our children and develops specific knowledge and skills derived from the practices of theology, philosophy and human and social science, such as:

• Acquiring, building and applying their knowledge and understanding of beliefs, lifestyles and religions
• Developing the ability to ask and respond to questions including ‘big questions’  
• Exploring ethical decision making  
• Responding thoughtfully and critically to learning and expressing their learning in a range of ways e.g. through drama or art
• Developing powers of personal reflection

At Knightlow the process of learning in Religious Education lessons is underpinned by our Building Learning Power philosophies. As a Church of England School the balance of our curriculum reflects that of learning about the Christian faith, but Knightlow children will explore the Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh faiths, the Buddhist Tradition and Humanism through their time at Knightlow, building knowledge and skills through a spiral style curriculum. Knightlow’s Religious Education curriculum is enhanced through a wealth of first hand learning experiences including visits to a range of places of worship in the local and wider community. We also welcome visitors from a range of religious and cultural backgrounds into school to work with the children on broadening their knowledge and understanding.

Visits to Places of Worship

Re-connecting with All Saints' Church is such an important focus for us this year. We have missed our services, celebrations and the opportunity to meet with our valued church community members.

Each class took it in turns to visit the church, remembering that for many of our Key Stage 1 children it was the first time they has ever visited and that the rest of our children had not visited for 18 months due to the pandemic.

In the church they re-learnt about the key architectural features and religious artifacts, as well as discovering some of the history of the church and why it is such an important part of village life.

Importantly they learnt about the church as a place of Christian worship to help contextualise our planned whole school Harvest and Welcome services later in the term.

All Saints' is at the heart of our Knightlow Family. 

Year 3 and 5 visited St Edith's and St Joseph's churches in the village of Monks Kirby to learn all about how both church communities mark events during Holy Week and to compare their similarities and differences. During the visit the children were in awe of both of the buildings and the religious artefacts they contained and they questioned Reverend Fox and Father Matthew keenly in order to deepen their understanding of how Christians worship there, particularly at Easter time. 

The children and staff are very grateful to both churches for a brilliant morning's learning! Thank you!

Reverence Week 

‘Knightlow Treasures’ …The light of God’s love gleaming through.

Bi-annually we celebrate a very special Reverence week as the Knightlow Family.

During this particular week we focus on our Building Learning Power disposition of Reverence. The week gives time for all members of The Knightlow Family to understand more deeply the capacities of: Worship, Respect, Awe, Wonder and Grace.

To launch our most recent special week each family was invited to create a Tally of Treasures - capturing and documenting the many treasures in their lives. It was a wonderful opportunity for us all to see God's wonders everywhere.

The children reflected on specific bible stories and created glorious mosaics in response, capturing key Christian Values in their art work and living them in the way that they worked together as whole class groups.

Reverend Ali, Karen and Douglas transformed our library into a prayer space where the children were immersed in learning about the treasure that is The Lord's Prayer through Godly Play.  They also used the space during break and lunchtimes to come and reflect and pray at the various prayer stations.

A highlight of the week was creating over 500 prayer cards for every household in the Stretton - On - Dunsmore community. The whole school participated in a Walking Worship, praying for our the streets, homes and people in our village; delivering each card with love and appreciation for the 'treasures' that are the members of our wider school family.

The children also worked collaboratively to design and create class worship boxes, planning their content carefully so that they could be utilised during class worship with the children taking control and leading their own worship time during the academic year.

Finally our week concluded in an incredible whole school Wild Worship, where we are quite sure the children's glorious voices could be heard from outer space. 

Year 6 Retreat

Each year our wonderful church leaders organised and led a special retreat day for our Year 6 pupils during their final weeks at Knightlow.   The day presented the opportunity for our children to reflect on the memories, experiences and achievements of their primary years and focus on the next part of their life journey. The seed pattern of a labyrinth was introduced to the children as a way that they could structure their reflections of thanks, hopes, dreams and prayers. 

Key Stage One Wedding

Our Reception Class and Key Stage One Classes learn about the importance and significance of the wedding ceremony and what it might include. This year we have held our own wedding ceremony to enhance our learning. It was a wonderful experience in our local church overseen by Rev. Phil who explained each part of the ceremony and guided children through the experience. The children each played an important part in the ceremony and gained a real insight into what is involved. It was a very special day .