Religious Education and World Views
As a Hounslow school, we have adopted the new Widening Horizons curriculum. Children explore key questions related to the key religions including: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism and Humanism. Every half term, all year groups investigate and try to draw their own conclusions about the 'Big RE Question' of the term.
Requests to withdraw a pupil from RE lessons
Parents have the right under Section 71 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 to request their child/ren are wholly or partly excused from:
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RE lessons in accordance with the schools’ basic curriculum
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Acts of Collective Worship in schools
As parents, you do not have to provide a reason for requesting the withdrawal. However before exercising any right of withdrawal we would recommend you discuss your concerns with Mrs Harris, Headteacher.
Important - limitations to withdraw
If children are withdrawn from RE, we have a duty to supervise them, though not to provide additional teaching. A child may work in another area of the school, such as library or another classroom in order to facilitate this.
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Whilst parents or carers have a right to withdraw children from RE, they should note that child/ren may also encounter religions and beliefs and wider aspects of faith in other areas of the National Curriculum from which there is no right of withdrawal.
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On occasion, spontaneous questions about religious matters or issues related to religion are raised in other curriculum subjects such as history or PSHE. For example, in school, we promote respect and tolerance for all who make up our community and we try to help children to understand ideas about identity and diversity, feelings and emotions within both religious and non-religious contexts.
Managing the Right of Withdrawal
All requests for withdrawals should be made in writing, addressed to the headteacher, Mrs Harris.
We will respect your right to withdraw your child from this aspect of the curriculum, but we may invite you into school to discuss this further in order for us to better understand.
(Section 71(3), School Standards and Framework Act 1998).
