Religion

The Religious Education provided in a Catholic School cannot be confined to teaching and learning specifically devoted to RE.  We seek to ensure that the message and spirit of the Gospel permeates all aspects of school life. Through teaching, example, worship and shared Christian values, we are helping to further, with family and the parish, the work of the awakening and fostering of a living and personal faith throughout our school community in keeping with our school mission statement.

We, as a school, work to allow every child access to a broad and balanced curriculum encouraging a sense of self-worth and self-esteem. Our children are given opportunities to apply and use their knowledge and skills in cross-curricular studies to deepen their understanding of religious truths and think creatively.

As a Catholic school community we will:

• Place Religious Education at the core of our school curriculum in order to develop the children’s spirituality and understanding of the Gospel values.

Our Aims at St. Mary's
The Aims of Religious Education in St. Mary’s RC Primary School will include the following:

• Through the acts of teaching RE, we will undertake to develop the understanding and knowledge our pupils have of the Catholic faith.
• We will ensure that children become familiar with the person, life and teaching of Jesus who reveals both the face of God and the fullness of what it means to be human.
• We will help each child to live and grow in a community in a way that reflects human dignity and purpose based on love, tolerance and justice.
• We will ensure that all children have access to the curriculum and will celebrate their efforts, recognising their individual talents and needs, accepting that our children are not all at the same stage in their journey of faith.
• We will recognise and appreciate the faiths of others. We will do this through our teaching of Judaism and Islam, our Multi-faith assemblies and the use of the Caritas in Action scheme for SMSC Education.
• We will look for opportunities to involve the parish and wider community in the teaching and practice of Religious Education.

Curriculum Religious Education: Teaching and Learning
Religious Education at St. Mary’s RC Primary School is considered to be at the core of our core curriculum. It is allocated a total teaching time of approximately 10% of available curriculum time for each year group, as recommended by the Bishops of England and Wales. Planning and timetables take account of this. The 10% time allocation does not include collective acts of worship – it is specific RE teaching.

The RE Curriculum is delivered primarily through the diocesan approved Religious Education Programme, ‘Come and See’  - central to this 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? Incarnation 
• Why am I here? Redemption

Within the ‘Come and See’ programme, these three big questions are considered, in the light of the Scriptures and Tradition of the Church; as expressed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  As part of the ‘Come and See’ programme, two comparative religions are taught throughout the year. Judaism is compulsory, and Islam is the second chosen religion. 

Planning and resourcing
For each Year group, there are medium term and weekly plans which are available in a Teacher Handbook and through the ‘Come and See’ website. All the resources needed to teach the scheme are available online. Planning is adapted by the classteacher to meet the needs of all the children.

Each unit of work is presented according to the following pattern:

Explore
Reveal
Respond

Continuity and Progression 

The content of each RE Unit of work is structured so that there is cohesion and progression in what the children do and learn. In order to allow pupils to work according to their different abilities, for each level there are: 

• Clearly stated aims 
• Achievable learning outcomes 
• A selection of experiences and activities for each of the learning intentions

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