Our RE Curriculum 

Intent 

At Rawmarsh St Joseph's, we provide our children with a religious education that encourages understanding of others and the world around them, providing opportunities for children to ask questions and learn about Christianity. We aim for religious education lessons and experiences to be unlike any other in school to create the opportunity for not only learning about the Catholic Faith, but also awe, wonder, reverence and spirituality in a creative way. 

 

We are committed to valuing and respecting every individual as being created special and unique, in the likeness and image of God. We learn about God's love and explore our Christian responsibilities, so our children can learn about their unique place within the home, school and parish community. 

 

We learn about and explore Catholic and Christian traditions, alongside traditions from other faith backgrounds, so we can develop an understanding and respect for all and the world around us. Visits and hands on experiences allow opportunities for children to explore and understand religions and their traditions and experience them for themselves.

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Implementation

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Our RE curriculum is organised into short thematic projects based around a 'big' question. We follow the Come And See learning programme which ensures a spiral curriculum whereby skills, knowledge, understanding and key vocabulary are revisited each year to build upon prior knowledge. 

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Come and See

Come and See is an invitation to exploration and a promise of life for everyone. What does the Come and See offer? 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.

• Children – Come and See the wonder of all that is within them and beyond.

• God – Offers the invitation to Come and See

• Teacher – Facilitates the opportunity for children to Come and See

Teaching and Learning with Religious Education at St Bede’s.

The teaching of Religious Education at St Joseph's is governed by the following principles:

• Religious Education will be taught discretely and developmentally. Deepening of their knowledge and applying it to real life.

• Children offered ample opportunities to apply and use their knowledge and skills within cross-curricular links.

• Engage with difficult questions of meaning and purpose, to enable them to think critically about their own questions.

• Engage with their own and other beliefs.

• To offer children a real sense of worth by belonging to a caring community and the commitment to this community as well as developing an awareness of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.

Themes and topics across the school

The Church

Autumn Term: Domestic Church (family) Family

Spring Term: Local Church (parish & diocese) Community

Summer Term: Universal Church (worldwide community) World

Sacraments

Autumn Term: Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination Belonging

Spring Term: Eucharist Relating

Summer Term: Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick Inter-relating

Christian Living

Autumn Term: Advent, Christmas, Loving

Spring Term: Lent, Easter, Giving

Summer Term: Pentecost, Serving

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The Come and See programme is developed through three themes based on the four constitutions of the second Vatican council, Revelation, Church, Christian living and Sacraments. Each of the four constitutions are gradually explored each time in greater depth. The catechism of the Catholic Church addresses the human search for meaning, God’s initiative in Revelation who comes to meet us and our response to faith. This pattern guides the structure of the programme and informs the process of each topic, opened up through: Explore, Reveal and Respond.

• Within Explore –children begin to look at and focus on the experience with their own lives – concerning themselves, their relationships and the world. (This usual takes one week to complete)

• Within Reveal – The heart of the process where knowledge and understanding of the catholic Faith is revealed through the Word, in Scripture, Tradition, doctrine, prayers, rites and Christian living. (This usual takes two weeks to complete)

• Within Respond –this is where the learning is assimilated celebrated and responded to in daily life. (This usual takes one week to complete)

 

 

Impact

Outcome of Religious Education at St Joseph's

As a 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’

Religious Education Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools 2001

All our children are included regardless of their age and ability. 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.

We are following the teachings and indeed the actions of Our Lord as we live out the Gospels; 'Love one another as I have loved you.' (John 13:34)

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