Christianity at Whiteparish

At Whiteparish we use Understanding Christianity as the basis of our teaching of Christianity across the school.  

The aim & approach

The Aim

• To enable pupils to know about and understand Christianity as a living world faith, by exploring core theological concepts
• To enable pupils to develop knowledge and skills in making sense of biblical texts and understanding their impact in the lives of Christians
• To develop pupils’ abilities to connect, critically reflect upon, evaluate and apply their learning to their own growing understanding of religion and belief (particularly Christianity), of themselves, the world and human experience.

The Approach

The approach developed for Understanding Christianity is based on the use of core concepts of Christian belief, as expressed in the Bible and lived out in the lives of Christians today. The core concepts reflect a view that the Bible tells a ‘big story’ of salvation. The approach in RE is to revisit the core concepts throughout the different key stages, deepening pupils’ understanding and making the links to the overall ‘big story’ or ‘salvation narrative’.

This is not the only way to describe Christian thought and practice, and of course there is real diversity within Christianity itself, but it sets a good foundation for understanding the heart of the Christian faith.

The teaching and learning approach enables pupils to engage with a variety of Bible texts in order to explore how Christians understand the core concepts. It explores ways in which Christians might live in the light of these texts, within the Christian community and in their individual lives. It allows pupils to reflect on some of the questions and puzzles that arise from the Bible, and to consider any implications or connections with their own lives and ways of understanding the world.

These materials incorporate activities that explore Christian response(s) to the biblical text, as well as the pupils’ own responses, whether they are Christian, atheist, agnostic, or from a faith tradition other than Christianity.

The approach and resources offer a wealth of ideas and materials for a serious engagement with Christianity in RE, in a coherent and systematic way.

The Big Frieze

Understanding Christianity has identified eight core concepts at the heart of mainstream Christian belief. 

It sets out some knowledge ‘building blocks’, to clarify what pupils should know and understand about these concepts at each school phase. It provides a teaching and learning approach to unpack these concepts and their impact in the lives of Christians in the UK and the world today, making connections with the world of the pupils and their wider understanding.  

Artist Emma Yarlett was commissioned to create a wall frieze to illustrate seven of the eight core concepts that are explored throughout the Understanding Christianity materials. Effectively, this presents a view of the ‘big story’ of the Bible – an artist’s response to the approach used in the Understanding Christianity materials.