Heathfield Junior School Receives the First RE Award for a Primary School in the Richmond Borough!

We are thrilled to announce that in July 2024, our school was awarded the RE Award by the local Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), making us the first primary school in the Richmond Borough to receive this prestigious recognition.

This award celebrates the outstanding work our school has done in the teaching and learning of different religions and worldviews. It highlights our commitment to creating a rich and diverse curriculum that encourages reflection, understanding, and respect for all faiths and worldviews.

We are proud to share some highlights from their feedback:

• Engagement with the Local Community: Our RE programme includes a wide variety of visits to places of worship, including a mosque, gurdwara, church, and synagogue, as well as a range of guest speakers from both religious and non-religious backgrounds. These experiences are a highlight for our pupils.
• Student Engagement and Impact: The children's responses during the RE interviews demonstrated impressive depth of understanding and enthusiasm for the subject. They spoke thoughtfully about their experiences and showed clear engagement with the topics discussed. The impact of RE extends beyond the classroom, influencing the children's personal development and the wider life of the school.

RE helps us to respect each other. It makes us think and ask questions. It is also a safe environment to share and make links with different faiths. It is different because everyone has a different belief or idea. RE helps me feel less alone. I feel respected and I like asking other people questions about their own religion and beliefs. It has helped us bond together as a class.

My family are atheists but I always share with them what we learn about in RE and how interesting it is. I loved it when Mike from the Upper Room came and explained about the homeless charity that he works for. I also enjoyed going to the gurdwara and learning about how important it is to treat everyone equally. Our school learns about lots of religions, ideas and philosophies. I like seeing how they are all linked.

RE is important to me because I can always share my thoughts. I am a Christian but I like learning about other religions, asking questions and deepening my own understanding of my own religion. I loved creating my own kosher menu when we were learning about Judaism. It was fascinating to find out what Jewish people could eat. RE is really interesting and fun as we are often allowed to express our own ideas in our own way.

RE is important to me because I like to learn about other faiths and it is fulfilling to learn about the world. I feel that I make friends when I learn about other religions. If you don’t know the rules of other religions, you might accidently do something disrespectful. I felt proud to show everyone the gurdwara, which is my place of worship because it is very unique and different to others.