Community cohesion

RE has a central role in promoting respect and understanding toward people’s faith and beliefs. At the heart of this syllabus is a commitment to helping all pupils recognize that they live in a society with different faiths and cultures present. A vital part of RE is studying the damaging effects on human beings of racial stereotyping, xenophobia and the belittling of people’s beliefs and values.

This syllabus specifically studies conflict and collaboration in religion and belief and the promotion of respect, understanding and co-operation through dialogue between people of different faiths and beliefs.

A key learning outcome of this syllabus is helping pupils develop their understanding of similarities and differences within and between religions and beliefs. Pupils are encouraged to see religions not as separate, historical entities but as living, changing faiths that have important and ongoing dialogue with one another.

Community cohesion is concerned with helping pupils explore three key questions:

• Who am I?
• Who are we?
• Where do I and we belong?

National Guidance on community cohesion places considerable emphasis on the importance of understanding the place of faith and beliefs in different kinds of communities (school, local, wider, UK and global).

REhttp://www.amvsomerset.org.uk/requirements/re-and-inclusion/ can enrich curriculum provision for Community cohesion in the following ways:

Primary	School Community	Local Community	Wider Community	Community of Britain	Global Community
RE	encourage children of different faiths and beliefs, to share their views and experiences develop a range of faith and belief visitors to enrich learning in RE	visit local places of worship invite visitors from local faith and belief communities to support both RE and Collective worship explore the portrayal of religion in the local media	visit places of worship of national significance in the Somerset area create / utilize worship trails to visit different faith communities	develop an understanding of the variety of faiths and beliefs in the UK consider the portrayal of religion and belief in the national media develop an understanding of inter faith dialogue and activity in the UK	explore the place and activities of religion and beliefs in other countries and how they influence cultures and lifestyles reflect on the contribution of religion and beliefs to global life

 

Secondary	School Community	Local Community	Wider Community	Community of Britain	Global Community
RE	encourage students of different faiths and beliefs to talk about their views and experiences invite a range of faith and belief visitors to enrich RE learning	visit local places of worship invite visitors from local faith and belief communities to support RE curriculum	visit places of national significance in the Somerset area interview a range of faith community members beyond the local community develop projects on the role and place of religion and belief in the wider community	develop an understanding of the different faiths and beliefs systems in Britain (with KS3 focus to include Buddhism and Sikhism) analyse the portrayal of religion in the media learn about and from conflict and collaboration in religion, including multi-faith dialogue	explore Christianity in the developing world study religious extremism in the USA and parts of the Middle East