Foundations for RE in EYFS

In Nursery, our children begin to make connections between the features of their family and other families and develop positive attitudes about the differences between people. Children do this by exploring festivals and dates for some of the world religions e.g. Diwali, Eid and Christmas. Children enjoy first-hand experience where possible, such as parents visiting to share their beliefs and traditions.

During their Reception year, the children will understand that some places are special to members of a community and recognise that people have different beliefs and celebrate special times in different ways. Children do this by sharing differences from their own lives, drawing comparisons and learning from each other. Children visit a place of worship and talk about attitudes and beliefs.  Children continue to experience festivals and celebrations throughout the year, comparing and contrasting these, relating them to their own experiences.

The children learn to describe their immediate environment using knowledge from observation, discussion, stories and non-fiction texts. They know some similarities and differences between different religions and cultural communities in this country, drawing on their shared experiences of in class.

This work in the Early Years prepares our pupils for religious education in KS1:  understanding some simple Christian beliefs, what makes some places special, how and why we celebrate special and sacred times and what it means to belong to a faith community.