Religious Education

‘An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.’ (Proverbs 18:15) 

Our RE lead is Miss Pearson.


At Norham, we believe that the purpose of Religious Education is to enable children to  develop their own religious literacy so they can hold balanced and informed conversations about the diverse society we live in. Teaching therefore equips pupils with systematic knowledge and understanding of a range of religions and beliefs, enabling them to develop and reflect on their own ideas, values and identities.

We nurture this ability through exploring the big questions about life, to find out what people believe and what difference that makes to how they live, so that pupils can make sense of religion, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.

Through RE, the children explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that pupils can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by belief and religion reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living.

Christianity and other world religions are explored as living world faiths through core concepts using an enquiry approach. We use Understanding Christianity as a resource alongside the syllabus and guidance from Northumberland SACRE to create a Norham curriculum which reflects the Anglican foundation of our school. Each topic and lesson has a question which leads to an enquiry of learning. We support children to look beyond themselves and consider the ‘Big Questions’ during lessons and Wonder Days, through visits and visitors, the outdoors and a variety of media and technology e.g. visits and visitors, technology, green screen drama. Religious Education at Norham gives children the opportunity to think about relevant issues locally and globally and supports children to become citizens of the world.

 Download below for the topics we have planned for 2024/2025:


RE Overview 2024/2025


Early Years

In Early Years, the children learn primarily about Christianity, although other festivals and occasions are recognised and celebrated throughout the year that are important to our local area. They will explore key beliefs through Christmas and Easter, special places (like the Church) and special stories. In Early Years the children use cooking, role play, the outdoors and art to immerse themselves in experiences.

Key Stage 1

In Years 1 & 2 the children learn about Christians, Muslims and Jews. They will explore different texts from the Bible e.g. a parable about Jesus’ life and will give clear accounts of what they mean to Christians. Building on this, the children will explore ways that believers show their beliefs in practice in worship and will get the chance to think, talk and ask questions exploring different ideas.

We make use of a range of learning opportunities including online technology to immerse the children in experiences across the globe and the outdoors e.g. a walk through Norham to search for signs that Christmas is coming in our local area. In this sense the children become aware that Christianity is a global faith and that some Christians celebrate festivals in different ways. They also begin to investigate the impact of beliefs and make connections to themselves and between beliefs which is built on into KS2. 

Key Stage 2

In Years 3 & 4 the children learn about Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews. They will become more familiar with core concepts in Christianity including Creation and Salvation and can describe some religious beliefs and practices. They will begin to compare their own experiences to others and will find meaning in artefacts, works of art, music and poetry.

Pupils will begin to understand how texts can be interpreted in different ways and interpret religious language. They will ask questions about significant figures, events, experiences and matters of right and wrong.

The children will use research to investigate how the same festival is celebrated differently around the world and how effective a global community is and begin to conduct their own research to investigate the significance of festivals to our local community or if Comic Relief is bigger than Easter and give the children the chance to explore being a steward in a real-life context.

Religious Education beyond the classroom

Our Big Bible Story Timeline

We worked as a whole school to create our own ‘Big Frieze’ or ‘Big Bible Story Timeline’. Each class took a concept from the Bible e.g. God, Creation, People of God, Incarnation, Gospel, Salvation or Kingdom of God and were challenged to create a picture to represent it, giving reference to key Bible stories. Deepening the understanding of the stories within the Bible helps to give context and background to the children’s learning.

Prayer Space

At the heart of our school, we have a ‘Prayer Space’ which is an area aside from our classroom to explore questions, spirituality and faith in a safe, creative and interactive way. We take a broadly Christian perspective or theme (for example Christian Aid's Global Neighbour's themes such as Climate Justice) as a starting point, and give the children an opportunity to develop skills of personal reflection. Miss Murray and a group of Y4 ambassadors will be launching the space soon during lunch time and all children will be welcome to take part in a range of activities.

RE Wonder Days 

Every term we have an RE Wonder Day which allows us to explore ‘Big Questions’ further outside of lessons. We have a whole school collective worship (often lead by a visitor e.g. North East Sikh Service) that introduces the theme for the day. In classes, the children are given the opportunity to reflect, discuss and wonder before working on a piece of work to show what they have explored. In the past Wonder Day themes have included ‘Who is my neighbour?’ which lead to modern retelling of the ‘Good Samaritan’ using stop motion animation and World Religion Day where we explored what people of different faiths might have in common, talk about if they came to a 'tea party' or work together for a greater good for example to improve pollution. 

Courageous Advocacy

Being a good global neighbour is more than just feeling bad for people who are suffering misfortune – it is about making a difference in their lives. One way this can be done is through courageous advocacy. The children have been developing their advocacy skills by directly engaging with decision-makers and raising awareness about a range of issues we feel strongly about.

The children learn about issues of injustice across the curriculum and pupils in all year groups are provided with opportunities to explore a global perspective in a variety of curriculum areas. We also use Philosophy for Children to stretch and challenge our children to explore ‘big questions’ and reflect upon making a difference and what the impact of this might be.

The children asked to raise money for a special charity that means a lot to lots of people in our Norham family. We made a fantastic amount for the charity and raised awareness for a special cause. Thank you to everyone who came to our MacMillan coffee morning in September.

During RE some of our KS2 children investigated charities around the world and locally. They surveyed children throughout school to choose a group in need of support and the charity chosen was Children In Need. Our children felt that we are in a lucky situation and have a lot to be grateful for so would like to improve the lives of other children in anyway we can. We explored children around the world using the Christian Aid resources in our Prayer Space and raised a donation for a certain yellow fluffy visitor!

The children have been visiting the residents at Birch Hill Care Home. This time we brought our reading books to share with the residents. The children were keen to share their stories and read confidently to the ladies who were very impressed with their efforts! At Christmas, the children also asked to make Christmas cards for the residents at Birch Hill Care Home to spread festive cheer to their new friends. With some very special help, they were delivered just in time! 

To have a secure understanding of what courageous advocacy is each class learns about a courageous advocate either past or present, that have faced injustice and had to overcome barriers in order to help others. There are opportunities across the curriculum to engage with this including Computing, Geography, History and PSHE and the children share their learning with others regularly. 

Working with the Church 

We work closely with the local church and representatives from churches that enable the children to see Christianity as a living and diverse faith. Rev Kelsey supports the planning of Collective Worship and visits regularly to deliver worship inline with celebration events e.g. advent services. 

Following on from our work in RE, we learned about the events during Holy Week leading to Jesus' crucifixion and his subsequent resurrection. Some of the children in Y3/4 led readings about each of the 'stations' around the church with Reverend Kelsey who led our 'Stations of Holy Week' service at the church. 

We are now hosting the Norham  Junior Singers as an after school club on Thursdays. There has been fantastic singing and excellent participation from everyone who attends. The Norham  Junior Singers also share their talents at church regularly. Well done everyone! 

Reverend Kelsey led a service of celebration for St Ceolwulf in January. Children in Puffin Class displayed their fantastic illustrative interpretations of St Ceolwulf while the children in Lapwing Class confidently led a Bible reading. 

Reverend Kelsey for led our Advent Service in church and began our celebrations with some help from our ambassadors from Lapwing Class. As always, we are proud of our Norham  superstars who read brilliantly and behaved impeccably. A member of the congregation also commented about this to both Reverend Kelsey and a member of staff. 

We joined our parents/carers and members of the community for a service of Remembrance at the war memorial in the village. Reverend Kelsey led the service with readings by Year 3/4 children. Every child made a poppy on a cross to be placed at the memorial, thank you to the Parish Council for placing these next to the monument. 

Two members of Lapwing Class also represented the school on Remembrance Sunday and laid a wreath created by the children. 


Information for Parents

To support your child’s learning, we have made a set of knowledge organisers that will be used in the classroom but can also support home learning. They contain key vocabulary that will be covered, key knowledge points, the concept covered that half term and the ‘Big Story of the Bible’ timeline for Christianity units.

We have attached an example from each year group below of the knowledge organisers we use to support the children's learning in RE and beyond. 

Easter Knowledge Organisers