At Birches Green we provide Religious Education in accordance with The Birmingham Agreed Syllabus. We follow a Route of lessons used where there are significant numbers of pupils in school from two or more religious traditions and no one religious tradition is predominant.

The intent of Birmingham’s character-driven approach is to encourage the development of 24 dispositions, or values. The dispositions both define and promote a flourishing personal, spiritual and moral character.  Children work on the 24 dispositions 3 times throughout primary school; once in KS1, once in LKS2 and again in UKS2.

At Key Stage 1 pupils are intentionally introduced gradually to a small number of Religious Traditions and a more generic appreciation of Non-Religious Worldviews. Almost always, lessons with a ‘universal’ focus will acknowledge, or even centre upon, a non-religious perspective of the subject matter, although not necessarily one that can be attributed to one specific worldview or philosophy.  Primary lessons introduce different Religious Traditions and Non-Religious Worldviews, through the learning dimension Learning about Religious Traditions and Non-Religious Worldviews. Whilst Learning from Faith and Non-Religious Worldviews is also important at Key Stage One and Two, Learning to Discern is only introduced in an age-appropriate manner, at each phase. 

The syllabus includes the nine religious traditions recorded to have significant representation within Birmingham: Bahá’i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Rastafari and Sikhism, and established non-religious worldviews.

Within each disposition four dimensions of learning are encountered. At each phase, the key questions for each dimension of learning form the framework through which pupils’ understanding, knowledge and responses can be assessed:

The 4 dimensions of learning are;

•  Learning from Experience: a question stimulating the general understanding of the disposition from pupils’ experiences.
•  Learning about Religious Traditions and Non-Religious Worldviews: a question to prompt the acquiring of knowledge and understanding of the faiths and non-religious perspectives, where appropriate to the disposition. 
• Learning from Faith and Non-Religious Worldviews: a question opening-up the opportunity to respond to the religious and non-religious ideas explored in their widest sense. 

Learning to Discern: a question enabling a critical (or critically aware) and reflective response to religious and non-religious traditions presented.