Spring term RE network meeting

1. Spring term RE network meeting Agenda for the day • Updates • Developing subject knowledge with a focus on Judaism and Islam • Moderation of learning in RE • Gathering evidence about how a child is developing in their religious literacy • What does assessment look like at the end of a unit of learning?

2. Warm up What is currently going well in RE in your school and how do you know? What have you introduced since our last network meeting and what has the impact been so far? What are you currently focusing on as a leader?

3. Progress since our last meeting • The big story of the Bible • Core concepts in Christianity • Text analysis • What did you take back to your school? • What progress has there been in these areas? How have your monitored and evaluated?

4. Updates: • Religious Education Conference for Primary teachers and leaders RE: Quipped – Taking great RE back to the classroom Date: 23rd Mary 2019 Venue: William Booth College, Denmark Hill, SE5 8BQ Cost: £55 Booking link: • http://www.canterburydiocese.org/events/requipped-conference/ • For more details visit: www.requipped-conference.co.uk Keynote speaker: Lat Blaylock – Adviser for RE Today and Editor of RE today magazine

5. Resources: • Join NATRE: www.natre.org.uk Access to Retoday, British journal for Religious Education and additional resources every term Discounts on resources and courses. • Assessment in RE: A practical guide: Editors Fiona and Stephen Pett - RE Today services £25.00 • Bible stories and concepts: lostsheep.com.au • Big Start: Songs for collective worship – Essential Christian

7. Main beliefs and practices of Judaism Discuss

8. Opening up Judaism At the heart of Judaism are the ideas of: Tradition Family Identify

9. History • Judaism is the oldest of the monotheistic religions. • Judaism traces its origins back to the creation of humankind. • Jewish history begins with Abraham and the Hebrew people. • Jews believe that Abraham was called into a covenant, a binding agreement, with God to start a people whom God described as numbering as many as the stars in the sky. • Judaism does not choose to define itself in terms of beliefs, but rather on what Jewish people do to express their beliefs. • Not all Jewish people are religious; by Jewish law, they are Jewish if they have formally converted to Judaism or if they were born to a Jewish mother. • Some Jewish people choose not to adhere to specific religious beliefs and practices.

10. Key ideas in Judaism • God • Torah • Land and the community

11. God • One God who made human beings in the image of himself. • Jews believe that we cannot know what God looks like therefore no pictorial representation of God will be found in synagogues or homes. • Many Jewish people believe the name of God is too sacred to pronounce. Jewish practice is to avoid writing the holy name of God, instead using G-d in written form.

12. The words of Shema are a the centre of Jewish belief Opening of the Shema ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our G-d is one. Love the Lord your G-d with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength,’

13. The Torah • The written and oral Torah were given to Moses • The teaching in the Torah, which means instruction contains 613 commandments. • Jews have other important teachings, which together make up the Tenakh or written Torah. These are: Torah – give books of Moses. These form the first five books of the Old Testament. Nevi’im - the books of the Prophets Ketuvim –the holy writings • The Talmud is also important and is known as the oral law.

14. Land and community • Jewish identity is very important. • Judaism finds its roots in ancient Judea- now modern-day Israel. • The nation state of Israel is considered to be the Jewish homeland and a holy site for Jews, wherever they live in the world. • The western wall in Jerusalem is the most important site of pilgrimage and formed part of the second temple in Jerusalem. • The family and the wider Jewish community are central to living a practising Jewish life. Many Jewish festivals are based around the home as much as the synagogue, showing the importance of the family in Judaism.

15. Diversity • Very diverse community eg: Orthodox, Reform or Liberal. Orthodox: Many different branches within it. They are unified by strict observance of the laws set out in the Torah. Reform and Liberal: God’s laws expressed in the Torah can be reinterpreted and brought up to date for today. The Reform movement were the first to ordain women rabbis. Both traditions have mixed seating in synagogues with marks the move towards greater gender equality. Notes taken from: Opening up Judaism – Primary RE - RE Today

16. Useful websites Information sites for teachers written by Jewish people: See: www.jewfaq.org/index.htm See: www.religionfacts.com/Judaism/ See: www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/judaism See: www.reonline.org.uk

17. Activity If Judaism was under threat, what do you think would be the key items/traditions that the community would work hard to keep? • Compile a list of different items/traditions you would keep to ensure the faith was not lost. • Reflect: How do the items/traditions you have chosen help to express Jewish beliefs. What message do they convey about the importance of the continuation of the Jewish tradition?

18. Main beliefs and practices of the Islamic Faith Discuss

19. History • The religion Islam was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century CE. The word Islam means ‘submission’ or ‘surrender’; the life of a Muslim is spent, therefore, in willing submission to Allah (Arabic for God.)

20. Muhammad • Born 570 in the city of Makkah, where, from the age of 40, he received a series of revelations from Allah. • The revelations were received over a period of 23 years and were delivered by the Angel Jibril (Gabriel) • The revelations form Al-Qu’ran (the Book), the sacred text of Islam. • Muslims do not believe Muhammad brought a new faith. Rather he is seen as the last of along line of prophets sent by God to guide people on to the right path. • Muhammad is regarded by Muslims as the ‘seal of the prophets.’ • Muslims offer follow the Prophet’s name with the words ‘peace be upon him’ (pbuh) as a mark of respect. • The Muslim community migrated from Makkah to Medina in 633 Ce (the Hijrah, or migration), a formative event in the history of Islam

21. The Muslim way: Muslims regard Islam as a complete way of life. There are four main concepts within Islam that underpin all Muslim belief and behaviour. • Tawhid – oneness of Allah • Iman – faith, the believer’s response to God. • Ibadah– same word used for worship and action that is performed with the intention of obeying Allah. • Akhlaq– It means behaviour, morality, manners, attitudes, and the social ethical codes by which Muslims should live.

22. The five pillars • Shahada – declaration of faith • Salat –ritual of prayer carried out five times a day • Zakat – is an annual gift for charity, usually 2.5 per cent of income • Sawm – fasting for food and water during the daylight hours of the month of Ramadan. • Hajj – pilgrimage to Makkah, to be made at least once in a lifetime if possible.

23. Other important Islamic concepts • Ihsan – doing what is good, excellent or beautiful. It refers to the right actions, charity, sincerity and goodness. • Jihad – Arabic word that means to struggle, to exert oneself and to strive. Two types of Jihad - the greater jihad contains within its means the idea of emptying out the spiritual diseases of blameworthy traits – anger, jealousy, envy, ignorance and arrogance. The lesser jihad is the struggle against oppression.

24. Schools within Islam • Sunni Muslims – Tradition or example. Authority ends with the Qur’an and Muhammad. To make decisions, the community with consult with those who are knowledgeable about the Qur’an. Around 80% of Muslims are Sunnis. • Shi’a Muslims – they believe that the rightful leadership of Islam should have passed from Muhammad to Ali (the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad). The majority of Shi’a Muslims believe that Ali and the eleven imans that followed him had a special authority to interpret the Qur’an and makes laws. Shi’a Muslims believe that , since Allah was guiding them, the twelve imans had no faults and made no mistakes. Today, most Shi’a Muslims follow a single scholar. Shi’a Muslims live mainly in Iraq, Lebanan, Iran and India. There are many denominations within the different schools for Islam.

25. Activity • What is most important….. • What should Zara do….

26. What does the work in books tell us about a child’s knowledge and understanding in RE? Key questions to ask: • What would we be hoping to see in the outcome? • This piece of work shows evidence of the following: (Think around concepts/response to big questions/critical engagement with Biblical and sacred texts) • Thoughts about how the task could be planned to enable the pupil to demonstrate more focussed outcomes related to clear learning intentions:

27. Strand 7: The effectiveness of religious education

28. Gathering evidenceFour key questions to consider: • Who are you gathering the evidence for? • Why are you gathering the evidence – what is the purpose of the gathering? • What will the evidence be used for? • How will the evidence be used to move the learning on?

29. Main purpose of gathering evidence • To provide further questions/options for the child to consider in order to become fluently religiously literate. • To inform the child, parent and teacher of the individual’s journey towards becoming a religiously literate person.

30. Reflect/Discuss What does evidence in RE look like in your school? Does it give you all you need to make an assessment about a child’s religious literacy?

32. Capturing the moment Speech bubbles

33. Reflections at the beginning and end of the lesson/units of learning • In this lesson l learnt…. • What I now know that I didn’t know before the lesson is….. • My personal response to….. • The impact I think the concept/teaching/story will have on the believer’s life is……. • Questions I still have…. • I wonder…..

34. Capturing the discussion/debate • Teacher’s eavesdropping on discussion and making notes when evaluating their planning. • T.A/child in the class being the scribe for the group/class and making notes to go in the class reflection book following class or group discussion. • Recording class discussion on a flip chart (hard or electronic), linking the skills to the task and linking names of children to the comments made • Creating mind maps of key points discussed – group mind maps go in class portfolio. • Children create individual mind maps of the key learning points of the discussion for them. • Children summarising the discussion in their book: The most important/interesting part of the discussion for me was….. because… • Capturing the key learning points from the discussion and adding them to the learning journey.

35. Capturing the creativity • Art – children write an explanation of their art. • Pictures of the drama supported with a child’s reflection on the key learning for them and questions they still have. • Videoing the drama and teacher’s annotating on their planning the significant responses from individuals. • Recording the composed piece of music in response to a religious stimuli.

36. Capturing the written outcomes Key thing to consider: Make sure the writing task matches the skill being developed: • Retelling a Biblical story • Recount • Writing from a character’s view point – skills of empathy, demonstrating understanding • Personal reflection and opportunity to express a view point and raise questions • Diary writing from a character’s view point • Information leaflets: Knowledge and the impact on the believer • Persuasive writing • Balanced argument • News paper – for K.S 2 this needs to be more than retelling.

37. Religious literacy • To enable children and young people to hold balanced and well-informed conversations about religion and worldviews. Dr Kathryn Wright • Sources of evidence: Conversation, questioning skills of the child, written work, independent thinking, group engagement, contribution to collaborative learning.

38. Year 2:Big question: How do Easter symbols help us to understand the meaning of Easter for Christians?

39. Year 6:Big question: How does the Christian Festival of Easter offer hope?

40. In groups of three Take an Easter unit • Complete a front sheet. • Keep it simple!! Key question to ask: Can a class teacher use it??

41. Time to speed date What is your current question/issue you have and would like another person’s opinion on? Time to date!!

42. Personal reflection • One thing you will take away from the session. • One question you wish to ask/explore once back at school.