RELIGIOUS EDUCATION STATEMENT

Our aim is to give students a Religious Education curriculum that inspires them to become confident and independent learners who can understand and use different knowledge and skills to complement them in school and in the wider world.

We aim to teach students to argue, listen, understand and respect the views of those around them and to help them to be valuable members of the local and national community.

Our core values of Believe | Strive | Achieve underpin this vision and form an integral part of a student's daily life at Westfield Academy. We want students to leave us not only having fulfilled their personal best in terms of academic results, but also equipped with these core values to enable them to thrive in all stages of their lives.

We are proud to educate students from all starting points and backgrounds. Our community is diverse; with this in mind, we want to inspire every child and their family to have high aspirations for themselves. We want them to believe they can access the best opportunities in life, and we understand that the key to this is giving them the best outcomes.

We are ambitious for our students; we believe the Religious Education curriculum is wide-ranging to facilitate an academic overview of the subject and each year a large majority of our students successfully undertake this subject to exam level.

Our Religious Education curriculum has a good balance between knowledge and skills. It also goes beyond the basic requirements of the Hertfordshire Agreed Syllabus, emphasising the importance of a creative, student-centred curriculum which is suited to the context of our school and local community.

We want students to progressively assume more responsibility for their learning as they become more proficient in a particular skill or concept. We emphasise this through the use of The Westfield Way in our daily teaching & learning practices. To ensure they build independent skills, students are supported to work independently on extended writing and reading tasks.

Our intent is the Religious Education curriculum:

• Enables high standards of academic achievement where outcomes empower students to progress in Religious Education.
• Provides a broad curriculum that is wide-ranging and accessible to all students.
• Delivers opportunities for students to learn to be successful, to gain useful, cross-curricular skills whilst also acquiring relevant knowledge. 
• Expands students' perspectives through a range of spiritual, moral, social and cultural opportunities to promote their sense of moral and social responsibility.
• Ensures that all students are able to thrive and develop as good citizens.
• Provides an appropriate range of opportunities and experiences to inspire students to succeed in the next stage in their study of Religious Education.