Religious Education

Religious Education at St. Mary's

"The mission of schools and teachers is to develop an understanding of all that is true, good and beautiful."

Pope Francis

Intent:

• To present engagingly a comprehensive content that will lead our pupils to a fuller understanding of Gospel values.
• To promote the dignity and the freedom of all those who belong to our school community as being created in the image and likeness of God.
• To promote religious knowledge, understanding and skills in our children so they are able to think spiritually, ethically, theologically as is appropriate for their age and ability and be able to communicate this effectively.
• Help the children become increasingly aware of the demands of religious commitment in every day life.
• Provide a welcoming, caring, safe Christian environment where children can develop self respect, integrity, a sense of individual worth so they are able to co-operate with and show consideration and tolerance for others.
• To prepare our children so they have the confidence to make a critique about the underlying trends in contemporary culture and society.
• To raise pupils’ awareness of the traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them.
• To ensure that the three elements of Religious Education, Catechesis and Evangelisation co-exist, providing mutual support and reinforcement.

Implementation:

Children walk into an R.E lesson and it instantly feels special. A key focal point (for example an artifact, candle, image to provoke thoughts) greets the children with calm music and prepares the children for the start of their learning. Teachers use the Come and See Programme of Religious Education as their main resource that they then develop and enhance to meet the needs of their children and create exciting and engaging lessons.

Central to the programme are three basic human questions and the three Christian beliefs that are the Church’s response in faith:

Where do I come from? Life – Creation

Who am I? Dignity – Incarnation
Why am I here? Purpose – Redemption                     ...within the Catholic tradition

Links are made with pupils’ own experiences and with universal experiences and other religion traditions.

The Come and See Programme includes objectives and learning intentions which take into account the religious and educational needs of our children:

From supportive Catholic homes
For whom the school may be the first, or only, experience of church From other Christian traditions
From other religion backgrounds

The programme helps the children to:

Raise questions
Provide material for reflection
Explore the beliefs, values and way of life of Catholic tradition Deepen and enrich the understanding of their faith

Children are taught three other religions throughout the academic year:

Judaism during the autumn term

Hinduism during the spring term

Islam during the summer term 

Impact:

• Religious Education is the core subject central to the life of St. Mary's, is given 10% of curriculum time and has the full support of management in its delivery, resourcing and development.

• It is a subject, predominantly through the delivery of the programme ‘Come and See,’ which respects and promotes the child’s innate capacity for wonder, awe, reverence, imagination and the spiritual.

• It is a curriculum subject in its own right; is a rigorous, academic discipline to be taught, assessed, developed and resourced with the same commitment as other curriculum subjects.

• It provides opportunities for prayer, celebration, investigation and reflection.

• It provides children with the language of religious experience in the form of religious activities, places, stories, symbols, rituals, people and objects.

• It presents systematically the Christian way of life and introduces doctrine in ways appropriate to the age and stage of development of the child.

• It provides staff with relevant in-service so that they are confident to deliver high quality teaching to support excellent pupil progress.

• It underpins all other school policies so that they reflect Gospel values and contributes positively to the broad and balanced curriculum through co-operation and dialogue with other subjects.

• It endeavours to interpret relationships in school in the light of the teachings of the church and strives to encourage and celebrate forgiveness, trust, respect and Christian love in all aspects of school life.

Useful Links:  

Come and See website

Hexham and Newcastle website

Diocese of Nottingham website

Diocese of Hallam website

CAFOD website