Religious Education
‘By following in the footsteps of Jesus,
we are making the heart, mind and spirit soar'
Our actions and words of today are the footprints of our future.
As a Catholic school, Religious Education is a core subject and is at the forefront of our curriculum. We follow the Birmingham Diocese strategy, 'Learning and Growing as the People of God'. This enables all of our children to learn about the five strands of our faith:
*The Liturgical Year
*Living as Christians
*Scripture
*The Sacraments
*Prayer
At St Thomas Aquinas, we follow the Diocesan scheme of work “Learning and Growing as the People of God” and the additional multi-faith coverage recommended for each year group by the Diocese. Class teachers have a long term overview of RE, in line with the liturgical year. RE is taught discretely and 10% of curriculum time is dedicated to the teaching of RE. There is a specific whole school assessment focus each year; for the academic year 2022-23, the assessment strand is 'The Sacraments'.
We aim to nurture strong relationships built on respect and consideration between school, parents, Parish and the wider community. We promote and encourage faith to be a significant part in every person’s life by continually working together in partnership, including home, school and Parish, following the values of the Gospel as a guide to living life to the full, and providing opportunities for pupils to make links with the local and wider community, e.g. distribution of harvest gifts, fundraising CAFOD, The Good Shepherd appeal, thus working for the ‘common good’.
INTENT
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Our aim is that children leave St. Thomas Aquinas with exciting experiences driven through an engaging and comprehensive curriculum which is the basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, enabling them to develop a living and personal faith in Jesus Christ and allowing them to know and love God.
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RE is the foundation of the entire education process and permeates all areas of the curriculum and school life.
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A programme of family life education, which conforms to the teaching of the Catholic Church and follows Diocesan guidelines, will be provided.
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RE will play a central role in the school’s work on spiritual, moral, vocational, social and cultural education.
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Children will be prepared for life in a multi faith society by fostering respect for and understanding of rich cultural diversity.
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Children will develop a deep understanding of the RE unit they are studying. They will increasingly use their prior knowledge to develop into religiously literate young people.
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In RE, children will develop the skills to make links and connections, engage and respond, analyse and evaluate using sources of evidence.
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Skills in other subjects will be applied in RE and children will be encouraged to investigate the faith with enthusiasm and rigour.
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Children, and their parents, will develop the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the Sacraments.
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Children will develop an awareness of God’s presence in their lives and the lives of others, developing the spiritual life of each child through prayer and reflection.
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Children will develop a well-formed conscience allowing them to make sound moral judgements in the light of personal commitment to God.
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Opportunities will exist for children of all ages to experience learning beyond the classroom. This will allow them to enrich their knowledge by, for example, visiting different places of worship.
IMPLEMENTATION
- The curriculum hours in RE are non-negotiable and will be followed by all staff in the school. Timetables are monitored by SLT.
- The staffing and resourcing devoted to RE is of the highest standard. High quality teaching responds to the needs of children. Spiral learning is a key focus of all formative and summative assessment with teachers actively marking work in lessons in order to identify misconceptions early.
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Our pupils are inspired by exceptional teaching and consistently high expectations across the school through the ‘Learning and Growing as the people of God’ scheme of work.
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Each year group will study a number of units over the year. The units are developmental, building on previous knowledge and experience.
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The RE curriculum will include guest speakers who are specialists in their area and guest speakers from Catholic charities will also visit schools such as CAFOD .
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RE is taught individually but plays a central role in all areas of school life.
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Children will be highly engaged in RE lessons through the use of a variety of sources such as religious stories, scripture, religious artwork, songs, music, dance and religious signs and symbols.
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The life and work of key figures in the History of the people of God will be studied for example, lives of the saints. We have four house saints and each class has a class saint.
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Approaches will include whole class teaching, group activities and individual work. Children will have opportunities to work individually as well as cooperatively and collaboratively, developing their own knowledge and expertise as well as sharing experiences with others.
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Pupils will participate in Mass, feast days, Holy days and Collective Worship which will involve religious actions and worship including the celebration of the sacraments.
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The use of visitors in school, visits and retreat days will enhance the RE curriculum.
IMPACT
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At St Thomas Aquinas our pupils are happy learners within RE. They experience a wide-ranging number of learning challenges in RE and know appropriate responses to them.
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Through RE, children deepen their appreciation of their faith and fulfil their God-given talents
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Their responses reflects the impact of deep learning.
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Visits within RE have enriched the lives of the children and they are able to discuss how the experience impacted their knowledge and understanding.
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Clear outcomes focus and guide all RE development plans and drive improvement.
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Faith plays a central role in the lives of the children and the decisions they make.
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Children are confident, resilient and actively engaged in the wider society.
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Children of all abilities and backgrounds achieve well in RE, reflected in good or outstanding progress that reveals a clear learning journey. Children talk enthusiastically about their learning in RE and are eager to further their learning in the next stages of their education.
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Children are well prepared for the next stage of their education as confident and enthusiastic learners who are witness to Christ in their words and actions.
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The children will grow to know and love God, develop their moral and spiritual nature and deepen their faith.
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Children will live their faith in an active and positive way, always aware of the presence and love of Christ guiding them..
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Through religious practice, the church’s traditions of prayer and worship will be upheld.
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Children show compassion, justice, love and forgiveness in their relationships with others
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The school environment will reflect and celebrate our Catholic faith.
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Children will be able to define, describe and discuss areas of RE. They will confidently use skills such as retelling, describing, comparing, giving reasons, explaining the meaning of biblical stories and considering the impact of beliefs.
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Through wider reading in RE and Saint of the Month assemblies, children will know about a wide variety of Saints, how we can learn from their example, and historical religious events and figures. They will be able to make links between Jesus’ life and teaching and link it to their own lives, making links between different forms of Christian action, such as in rituals and charitable acts
We educate our children in a Catholic community with
Christ at the centre.
Religious Education is taught in accordance with the rites, practices and teachings of the Catholic Church. These teachings are found in all areas of the curriculum and every subject is used to proclaim the Gospel message, links in learning provide the children with opportunities to make connections. The whole aim of the school is to nurture the spiritual growth of your child in their relationship with God the Father.
Our school follows the curriculum strategy – Learning and Growing as the People of God – this is provided by the Archdiocese of Birmingham for teaching RE in a Catholic primary school.
This contains units of work taught in each year group and contains the common strands of scripture, the sacraments, life in Christ and prayer. Children are taught in an age appropriate manner and are helped to understand in depth the teachings of Jesus and the Church.
Learning and Growing Curriculum - FS1
Learning and Growing Curriculum - FS2
Learning and Growing Curriculum - Y1
Learning and Growing Curriculum - Y2
Learning and Growing Curriculum - Y3
Learning and Growing Curriculum - Y4
Learning and Growing Curriculum - Y5
Learning and Growing Curriculum - Y6
