Family challenges’ to encourage parental engagement in Religious and Moral Education

Published 01/01/2017.  Last updated 11/04/2023
sourcePractice exemplars schoolReligious and Moral Education (RME) groupsPrimary categorySchool Improvement categoryCurriculum for Excellence (CfE)

How to use this exemplar to improve practice:

This video along with reflective questions invites you to consider the impact of your own approach to developing strategies to support learning in RME. You are invited to watch the video and consider, individually or as a team, the following improvement questions:

  • How are you developing children’s RME skills in a way that reflect the 7 principles within Curriculum for Excellence?
  • How could you develop further the input of parents to support development work in RME?
  • What broader skills base do you expect children to have as a result of their study in RME ?
  • How do you involve parents further in RME learning to support children to develop their skills further?
  • What impact could be expected from this partnership working?

​Explore this exemplar:

What was done?

Staff at Kirkcolm Primary felt was important to introduce ‘family challenges’ at their school as they were developing a religious and moral education curriculum. Their aim is to engage parents to be more involved in the work that their children are doing at school and particularly to share the understanding of the particular religion that they are studying. The ‘family challenges’ are offered to the children during weekly assemblies and children decide whether they would like to opt into this challenge and take it home to complete with their parents. For example staff have invited parents to come into school and engage in a task based on Sikhism . Through the family challenge work children also practice spelling, writing and improve their computer skills.

Why it was done?

Staff wanted children to have a deeper understanding of the 5 religions commonly followed by families in the school learning community

What was the impact?

Impact from this work shows children being more articulate as they explain to the adults at home, about the religion they are focusing on and exactly what they’re learning within the class. There has been an increased sharing of knowledge and what happens daily within the school.

Download video transcript

Word file: Family challenges  to encourage parental engagement in RME

Family challenges’ to encourage parental engagement in Religious and Moral Education

Published 01/01/2017.  Last updated 11/04/2023
sourcePractice exemplars schoolReligious and Moral Education (RME) groupsPrimary categorySchool Improvement categoryCurriculum for Excellence (CfE)

How to use this exemplar to improve practice:

This video along with reflective questions invites you to consider the impact of your own approach to developing strategies to support learning in RME. You are invited to watch the video and consider, individually or as a team, the following improvement questions:

  • How are you developing children’s RME skills in a way that reflect the 7 principles within Curriculum for Excellence?
  • How could you develop further the input of parents to support development work in RME?
  • What broader skills base do you expect children to have as a result of their study in RME ?
  • How do you involve parents further in RME learning to support children to develop their skills further?
  • What impact could be expected from this partnership working?

​Explore this exemplar:

What was done?

Staff at Kirkcolm Primary felt was important to introduce ‘family challenges’ at their school as they were developing a religious and moral education curriculum. Their aim is to engage parents to be more involved in the work that their children are doing at school and particularly to share the understanding of the particular religion that they are studying. The ‘family challenges’ are offered to the children during weekly assemblies and children decide whether they would like to opt into this challenge and take it home to complete with their parents. For example staff have invited parents to come into school and engage in a task based on Sikhism . Through the family challenge work children also practice spelling, writing and improve their computer skills.

Why it was done?

Staff wanted children to have a deeper understanding of the 5 religions commonly followed by families in the school learning community

What was the impact?

Impact from this work shows children being more articulate as they explain to the adults at home, about the religion they are focusing on and exactly what they’re learning within the class. There has been an increased sharing of knowledge and what happens daily within the school.

Download video transcript

Word file: Family challenges  to encourage parental engagement in RME