Religious Education is taught at St. Teresa’s by using the ‘Come and See’ programme. ‘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. ‘Come and See’ offers the opportunity to search, to explore, to discover and to respond; this is part of what it is to be human.
At St. Teresa’s, 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. We also recognise, where children belong to other faiths or have no faith, that the messages contained within our religious education curriculum offers the opportunity for children to develop a sense of belonging to a caring community and that through self-reflection pupils develop their awareness of commitment and service to others in everyday life.
Religious Education is a core subject of our curriculum, teaching and learning in RE makes up 10% of our curriculum time. It is taught rigorously with the same expectations as other core subjects whilst maintaining a creative element and encouraging children to question and reflect.
Each term pupils, study three topics, each lasting approximately four weeks following a common theme across the school. As the children move through school, this theme is developed further, appropriate to the pupils age and stage of learning.
Each Key Stage follow a two-yearly rolling programme. See our Religious Education Themes and Topics.
The structure of the approximately 4-week topic consists of:
Explore
- Introduces the topic.
- The children’s life experience is explored. The ‘Come and See’ programmes supports and enables the faith experience of all children because it starts with their real life experience and leads them to reflect upon and consider the Christian message in all its richness in that experience.
- The questions raised are wondered at, shared, investigated and their significance reflected upon
- Key vocabulary is shared and discussed.
- Opportunities to highlight links to previous and new learning made.
Reveal
- Heart of the programme.
- Knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith revealed through Scripture, Tradition, doctrine, prayers, rites and Christian living.
- Focus on Knowledge and Understanding (learning about), Engagement and Response (learning from) and as children move through school - skills involved in analysis and evaluation.
Respond
- Learning is remembered, celebrated and responded to in daily life – here a celebration liturgical prayer draws together all aspects of learning.
Other Faiths
Children study other significant world religions through the ‘Come and See’ programme. They develop their knowledge and understanding of these world faiths and as they progress through school and use skills of analysis and evaluation to recognise difference and compare and contrast different points of view.
Judaism is taught in the Autumn Term.
Islam is taught in the Summer Term.
The teaching of Religious Education at St Teresa’s is governed by the following principles:
- Religious Education is taught discretely and developmentally – focusing on the deepening of pupils’ knowledge and applying it to real life.
- Children are offered opportunities to apply and use their knowledge and skills within cross-curricular links.
- Children engage with questions of meaning and purpose, thus enabling them to think critically about their own questions.
- Children engage with their own and other beliefs.
- Children develop a real sense of worth by belonging to a caring community and by showing commitment to this community, develop an awareness of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.
Outcome of Religious Education
At St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, we endeavour to attain the following:
‘The outcome of excellent religious education is religiously literate and engaged young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age and capacity – to reflect spiritually, and think ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life’.
You can find out more about Religious Education in our: Religious Education Policy
Religious Education Assessment
At St. Teresa’s Catholic Primary School, we follow the ‘Age-Related Standards (3-19) in Religious Education’ document which was approved for use in Catholic schools by the Bishops of the Department for Catholic Education and Formation of The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales on 26th June 2018.
Age-Related Standards (3-19) in Religious Education
These standards are a description of what is expected of almost all pupils by the time they reach the end of a particular age phase. In primary school, the age phases are:
- 3-5
- 5-7
- 7-9
- 9-11
Children’s work is assessed at regular intervals throughout the year according to these standards.
The letters here contain the outline curriculum information for each term.
THE USE OF ‘KEY QUESTIONS’ IN RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
One of the main aims of curriculum Religious Education is to promote a knowledge and understanding of the response of faith to ultimate questions about human life, its origins and purpose. The Bishops of England and Wales said, ‘Religious Education is about engaging with deepest questions of life and finding reasons for the hope which is within them’ (Religious Education in a Catholic School, 2000)
In Religious Education at St. Teresa’s, we want to provide children with ‘compelling learning experiences’ which demands an active and engaging approach to learning where children solve something and investigate reasons for. By giving the learning in Religious Education direction through the use of key questions, the curriculum appears more compelling, imaginative and relevant to everyday life. A key question should also be relevant to the children’s interests and concerns. Topics such as ‘Rules’ which explores The Sacrament of Reconciliation may not capture the attention and interest of a student in the same way as a question such as ‘How do rules bring freedom?’
It is for this reason that a good approach to the Religious Education curriculum is to use key questions to help to develop an understanding of the topics studied. The big questions grid suggests some big questions for each topic. Teachers help the children to see what they have learned to help them answer the ‘big question’.