Here at St Mary’s Primary, Kettering, we put a high value on Religious Education. We believe that RE helps children get a sense of self in the world. It helps them to develop their spirituality. It promotes tolerance, respect, empathy, healthy debate and discussion. It encourages respectful questioning. 

As a result, we put out all the stops to create a vibrant and engaging curriculum where children can be social scientists, philosophers and theologians.  

We received the GOLD Religious Education Quality Mark at the end of the summer term. This means, that we were able to evidence meeting the high standards of this desirable prize. 

Our assessor was very impressed with the children’s enthusiasm about the activities they do in RE and their engagement with the learning. She wrote, “It is wonderful to see how the children are co-designing their learning in RE.” She echoed our Diocesan Schools Advisor in describing the teaching as “exceptional”, using “research-based teaching strategies” to deliver “an innovative and creative RE curriculum”. She was pleased to note that the work we do supports other schools through our Headteacher’s work as Diocesan Schools Consultant or our RE Lead running a local support group for Primary RE teachers. 

It was a demanding process to go through as we applied for Gold rather than build up from Bronze or Silver, but as the RE lead teacher, I couldn’t be more proud of our children and our staff who helped to gather all this evidence to get public recognition for the work we all put into the learning in RE being of such a high standard at St Mary’s.