Religious Education
"We need to provide an education which teaches critical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values."
- Pope Francis
Subject Leader: Miss James (teaching and learning, Catholic life and Mission) Mrs Hatton (Prayer and Liturgy)
Intent
We are a Catholic school and therefore are committed to the Catholic Faith, recognising and valuing every individual was created in the image and likeness of God. Religious Education at St Teresa’s encourages each child’s ability for wonder, awe, reverence and spirituality.
RE gives the opportunity for pupils to reflect on how their faith effects their daily lives helping them to develop the Gospel values and develop an awareness of God’s presence in all they do. They learn about their own responsibilities as we understand the importance of social action and teach our children about how they can help and support all those around them and therefore how to contribute fully to society now and in later life.
Religious Education is concerned not only with intellectual knowledge but also includes emotional and affective learning. It is in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of what it is to be human truly becomes clear. Without religious education, pupils would be deprived of an essential element of their formation and personal development, which helps them attain a vital harmony between faith and culture.
Our Religious Education curriculum is designed, at every stage of a child’s learning, to explore, understand and reflect on the Catholic Faith, working closely with families, the local parish and community to develop, enhance and enrich our curriculum
One element of our studies helps us gain an understanding of the faith and traditions of other religions enabling all our children to foster respect and understanding of World Faiths. This will prepare our children for life in modern Britain by giving them a knowledge of the beliefs of others. The more knowledge they gain will increase the awareness of others which will lead to better social cohesion in our children’s future.
Implementation
The teaching and learning of Religious Education permeates all areas of school life. Religious Education is taught as a discrete subject as a core subject with 10% of curriculum time in all key stages.
Our Religious Education curriculum meets the requirements of the Bishops’ Conference in every respect and in each key stage. At St Teresa’s, we use The Way, The Truth and The Life (WTL) programme as the main resource to support the teaching of religious education. We use Caritas in Action to supplement the teaching of Catholic Social Teaching (CST).
Other world faiths and important Liturgical celebrations are interwoven throughout the year as children are encouraged to question and reflect on their own lives and the religious lives of others.
Class teachers plan for each topic ensuring that all children master key skills, think deeply and learn to question at a level which is appropriate to the age and stage of learning. Teachers use a variety of pedagogical approaches that support the teaching of RE:
- Inquiry based learning;
- Teacher modelling;
- Questioning;
- Mixture of individual, paired and group instruction and pupil-led learning.
Children are introduced to the key vocabulary relating to RE so that all children can express their understanding, views and opinions confidently. Every lesson creates the opportunity for pupils to develop the skills to reflect spiritually and morally.
Impact
“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.”
(RED)
To ensure all our children reach their full potential we monitor our children in RE using:
- Marking and feedback within books and verbally during lessons;
- Topic baseline line assessments;
- End of topic assessments
- Learning walks and lesson observations;
- RE Leader and SLT monitoring of books;
- RE leader and SLT looking at the data and identifying areas to develop; Pupil interviews;
- Termly Pupil progress meetings
Religious Education is an integral part of learning and formation. An indicator of our success is the pleasure and knowledge gained by the children from the study of RE and the deepening of their personal knowledge, understanding and response to Christ through their service of others. This will support our children to love themselves, love each other and love Jesus Christ so that they are ready when they reach the end of Year 6 to commence the next stage of their life journey.
We recognise that all children have needs and we continuously strive to ensure that we challenge all children to reach their true potential in RE. Teachers know their children and strive to move their learning on. Children who are on the Special Educational Needs (SEN) register will be working in line with their Individual Education Plan (IEP).
