Religious Education
Religious Education
Religious Education is taught throughout the school using the 'Come and See' programme in Years 2 - 6 (from the RE Curriculum Directory) and from the new RED: To Know You More Clearly in EYFS and Year 1.
Come and See:
“Come and See” is an invitation and a promise of life for everyone. The invitation is open to all. In response to the question ‘Where do you live?’, Jesus invited the disciples to ‘Come and See.’ They went with Jesus ‘and spent the rest of that day with him.’
We recognise that all children are at different stages in their journey of faith; for some children RE is catechesis and part of their formation in the faith. Those who receive the invitation to ‘Come and see’ may also offer it to others. In the same invitation we remember that for some of our children RE will be evangelisation, the first opportunity to hear the good news.
Religious Education is a core subject of the curriculum for Catholic Schools and as such teaching and learning in RE makes up 10% of curriculum time. As such it is taught rigorously with all the same expectations as other core subjects whilst maintaining a creative element and encouraging children to question and think at a high level.
What pupils learn
Each term pupils study three topics, each lasting four weeks and following a common theme across the school. As the children move through the school this theme is developed further, appropriate to the pupils age and stage of learning.
Each year group approaches the theme through a different topic eg the Autumn term topic 1 is a 'Domestic Church' theme which is explored through:
Year 2 – Beginnings
Year 3 – Homes
Year 4 – People
Year 5 – Ourselves
Year 6 – Loving
In the Autumn term theme of Belonging (unit 2), Years 2 and 3 further develop their understanding of Baptism, including Signs and Symbols (Yr2) and Promises (Yr3), whilst in their “Community” topic Year 4 move on to learn about Confirmation, Yr5 learn about the commitment of Marriage in their Life Choices topic and Yr6 learn about the vocation to priesthood and religious life in their “Vocation and commitment” topic. Scripture is at the heart of each topic.
Each four-weekly topic is broken into 3 aspects:
EXPLORE (1 WEEK)
- Introduces the topic;
- The children’s life experience is explored;
- The questions raised are wondered at, shared, investigated and their significance reflected upon;
- Focus on AT2 Reflection on meaning.
REVEAL (2 WEEKS)
- Heart of the programme;
- Knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith revealed through Scripture, Tradition, doctrine, prayers, rites and Christian living;
- Focus on AT1 Knowledge and Understanding & AT2 Reflection on Meaning.
RESPOND (1 WEEK)
- Learning is remembered, celebrated and responded to in daily life;
- Prayer;
- Prayer and celebration are integral to Come and See;
- Opportunities for reflection are present within Explore, Reveal and Respond;
- Traditional prayers are introduced in the different Key Stages;
- Prayer styles: children are introduced to a range throughout the scheme.
Children all have a RE book where there Come and See learning is both treasured and shows high expectations for learning. In addition, each class will have a moral issue question which they can answer in RE lessons, Collective Worship and cross curricular subjects. This evidence will be put into a class file.
The children’s personal social and emotional understanding is developed through our Religious Education and the Catholic Life of the school.
RED: To Know You More Clearly
EYFS and Year 1
The programme of study for Religious Education in Catholic schools presented in this directory has a framework with four structural elements:
knowledge lenses
ways of knowing
expected outcomes
curriculum branches
Knowledge lenses set out the object of study for pupils; they indicate what should be known by the end of each age-phase. They are referred to as lenses, since they are the things we are looking at and they divide the content of the programme of study into four systematic subsections for the study of Catholicism and two additional lenses for the study of religions and worldviews, which together comprise the six knowledge lenses of:
- hear
- believe
- celebrate and live (the study of the Catholic religion)
- dialogue, and encounter (the study of other religions and worldviews)
Ways of knowing set out the skills that pupils should be developing as they progress through their curriculum journey. Whenever we know something, we always know it in more than one way: we remember it, we critically assimilate it, and we put it into practice. All three are ways of coming to know the things that are the object of our study. The ways of knowing are an evolution of the Age-related Standards in Religious Education, which were themselves an evolution of the Levels of Attainment in Religious Education. The three ways of knowing are:
- understand
- discern
- respond
They are represented in the programme of study by icons:
- head (understand)
- heart (discern)
- hands (respond)
Expected outcomes are a synthesis of the content outlined in the knowledge lenses and the skills described in the ways of knowing. Each age-phase will have a prescribed set of outcomes that will indicate what pupils are expected to know, remember, and be able to do, using the language of the ways of knowing and applying it to the discrete knowledge within each lens.
Curriculum branches are the way this programme of study presents its model curriculum. The model curriculum presents the expected outcomes in six curriculum branches that correspond to the six half-terms of a school year. The model curriculum is rooted in the narrative of salvation history and leads pupils on a journey in each year of schooling that gives a sequence to the learning. As they revisit each branch in each year of school they come to a deeper understanding of its significance for Catholic belief and practice, which allows them to make links between the four knowledge lenses within the context of the narrative of salvation history.
The six curriculum branches are:
- Creation and Covenant
- Prophecy and Promise
- Galilee to Jerusalem
- Desert to Garden
- To the ends of the Earth
- Dialogue and Encounter
Religious Education Learning Journey
RE Curriculum Map
For further policies and Curriculum directories, please go to Catholic Life > Teaching of Religious Education.