National Curriculum Content
Our local council, Derbyshire and Derby City are responsible for deciding the RE syllabus. The Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education for 2020–2025, states the principal aim of RE is to engage pupils in systematic enquiry into significant human questions which religion and worldviews address, so that they can develop the understanding and skills needed to appreciate and appraise varied responses to these questions, as well as develop responses of their own.
Our school uses the Discovery RE enquiry-based approach for teaching RE. Each curriculum area is created around an enquiry question.
Enquiry Question
Do Christmas celebrations and traditions help Christians understand who Jesus was and why he was born?
Overall and Lesson Objectives
To evaluate different Christmas traditions and celebrations in the light of their reference and relevance to Christian beliefs in Jesus.
- Engagement – Understand celebrations, remember past events and/or celebrate something new. List religious celebrations and identify what is being remembered in each event – past event or new event?
- Investigation – Make a list of Christmas traditions and activities. Listen to the ‘Christmas story’ and understand the key message about the significance of Jesus’ birth to Christians.
- Evaluation – Evaluate if it matters if people are celebrating or giving gifts to one another without really thinking about the cause.
- Expression – Express the Christian belief that Jesus is both human and god through a piece of art.
What we want children to know
- Some celebrations remember a past event and some celebrate something new.
- The Christmas Story and its significance to Christians.
- Why Christian’s celebrate the arrival of Jesus.
- Christian believe that Jesus was born so that God could become fully human as well as fully divine and show by his example how people should live.
- Christians celebrate the arrival of Jesus as God’s son – The Incarnation.
What skills we want children to develop
- To understand individual liberty.
- To take part in democracy.
- To have mutual respect.
- To show tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.
Vocabulary
Carols, celebrations, crib, divine, incarnation, sacrifice, significance