Learn Together Curriculum

Learn Together Ethical Education Curriculum

Ethical Education is defined as education that enlightens, challenges and broadens our perspective of the world. It encourages reflection and engagement with local and global issues and emphasises a shared responsibility for ensuring that equality and human rights are extended to all. Ethical Education invites pupils and teachers to engage with issues and problems facing society and aims to develop the skills of critical thinking, discussion and debate.

Educate Together’s Charter affirms that children of all social, cultural and religious backgrounds have a right to an education that respects their individual identity whilst exploring the different values and traditions of the world in which they live. The Learn Together curriculum enables teachers to enact this vision by providing a comprehensive roadmap for Ethical Education in equality-based primary schools.

Educate Together is working towards a future in which all people have access to an excellent education that is inclusive of all, irrespective of belief system, race, ethnicity, class, culture, gender, language, and ability

The Learn Together curriculum aims to enable pupils to:

Become self-aware, reflective individuals with a secure sense of belonging and identity.
Develop the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes that will facilitate them to live as ethical people who are empathetic, socially aware and committed to democratic principles and values, global citizenship, and equality.
Develop and use critical thinking skills that will facilitate them to critique their world and empower them to give reasoned explanations for their opinions, decisions and actions.
Recognise their role as active members of a democratic society with the potential to take action that will lead to positive change.
Recognise the impact of the climate crisis and their role as active members of a democratic society with the potential to take action that will lead to positive change.
Develop ethical principles in relation to human rights, equality and justice, and apply these principles to their daily lives.
Become familiar with the tenets and beliefs of the major religions and rational understandings of the world.
Relate this learning to their individual experience in the context of their local, national and global community.

Aims of an Ethical Approach to the Environment Strand

Develop a knowledge, understanding and respect for the natural environment and an appreciation of its fragility and vulnerability.
Explore the interdependence of life and the impact of over-consumption on the planet.
Recognise the importance of active citizenship in attempting to redress the impact of human over-consumption on the environment.
Demonstrate an understanding of the urgency needed to protect the environment for
present and future life on the planet.

Aims of the Equality and Justice Strand

Develop a critical knowledge, understanding and awareness of issues relating to human rights, equality, culture, diversity, social justice and social inclusiveness.
Develop a critical way of being, fostering questioning, analysis and open engagement with ethical and social justice issues.
Feel empowered to become informed, ethical and active citizens

Aims of the Values and Ethical Perspectives Strand

Develop a critical knowledge, understanding and awareness of right and wrong and a heightened awareness of social, ethical, and moral standards through reflection on life itself.
Learn to explore their own identities and in doing so, strengthen and enhance their self-worth and self-esteem.
Explore, understand and identify appropriate responses to the multitude and richness of human emotions.
Identify values integral to personal development which can inform ethical decisions.
Engage in philosophical discussion and enquiry.

Aims of the Belief Systems Strand

Develop knowledge and understanding of the richness of belief systems and worldviews, both religious and secular, and relate these to the human experience and day-to-day life.
Develop an understanding of the right to hold and practise a belief or worldview and to change that belief at any time.
Develop their knowledge of conceptual understandings as they relate to religious and secular beliefs.
Relate aspects of religious and secular beliefs to individual experience, leading to enhanced mutual understandings.
Develop an understanding that beliefs and the practice of beliefs can vary from culture to culture and individual to individual.