The ways of knowing describe the skills that pupils develop as they progress through the religious education curriculum. It is these skills that are assessed at the end of each branch to see that pupils are attaining at an age-related standard. 

The three ways of knowing taught to pupils and assessed by teachers in each branch are: 'understand', 'discern' and 'respond'. 

They are called ways of knowing since they describe the holistic ways human beings experience education: as a growth in understanding, as a creative and critical assimilation, and as a recognition of the application of learning to one’s own life. 

In the ways of knowing table below, we describe the aim of each way of knowing, the skills that are required to develop them, the driver words that indicate progress through them, and generic progression indicators in the ways of knowing for each age-phase.