Curriculum RE at St. Mary's
Religious Education is the “core of the core curriculum” in a Catholic school (Pope St John Paul II). Through Religious Education, pupils study the Catholic tradition and come to an appropriate knowledge and understanding of the different religious dimensions of life. They are given the opportunity to examine their own religious attitudes and to respect the convictions of others. We teach tolerance and respect for other religions, traditions and cultures. Please see our British Values statement.
The Way, Truth and Life' curriculum planning is used throughout the school and supported by materials from CAFOD, to ensure we meet the needs of our children. All classes follow the Religious Education Curriculum Directory. Time spent on this area of the curriculum varies from 2 to 2.5 hours per week.
Religious Education is further enhanced and given expression through the liturgical life of the church by attendance and active participation in the Mass and the sacraments through the observance of religious services and festivals.
The Catholic faith perspective is not an added extra, which we teach and offer to the children, it is integrated into the whole life of the school and into all the aspects of the curriculum. Please visit our Catholic Life page to find out more about how our faith is reflected in our school life.
Bound together as we are, by the unity of our faith, the children’s education is developed in an atmosphere of caring, sharing and example.
HRSE at St. Mary's
At St. Mary's Catholic Primary School we are inspired by Jesus to be the very best we can be. We look after one another and show respect and love through our relationships with one another. We use the term Human Relationships and Sex Education (HRSE) as we believe that relationships education is about all aspects of growing a fulfilled and happy life; sexual education is a dimension of this greater whole.
Any teaching about love and sexual relationships in school must be rooted in this belief which is expressed in the Church’s teaching about relationships, marriage, sex and family life.
We encourage children from the earliest age to recognise that they are all children of God and that each person shares a God given dignity. As children mature, we encourage them to follow the example of Jesus and live lives inspired by the Gospel virtues, enabling them to follow His commandment to “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31). This is the basis for all relationships in our school where we model Christian Virtues. We follow the guidance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and ‘Fit for Mission? Schools’.
See below our parents information leaflet and school policy.
Some fantastic examples of the Year 6 children's writing as they wrote as a British soldier experiencing the Christmas Truce, during Christmas 1914. The children had to consider how this event reflected the true meaning of Christmas, to them as Christians.
Here are an example of some the newspaper articles the children wrote after watching an animation called 'The Coat - the story of charity'. We explored the noun and verb terminology of charity; what we do as individuals, with our families and as a school to be charitable and why. The children explained God is love, the 10 commandments, especially 'love thy neighbour' and how the bible tells us what to do.
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me
in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
In RE this half term, we have been focusing on God's Family. The children understand that we are all part of God's family as well as our own families and school family. Some children are able to suggest things we can do to become part of God's family, such as being kind, sharing, loving each other and saying sorry when you have done something wrong. When we read the story about Zaccheus meeting Jesus, the children recognised that he wasn't part of God's family as he had taken something that didn't belong to him, but when he apologised and gave it back, he could become part of his family. The children have enjoyed learning the song, 'he's got the whole world in his hands' and have been using the musical instruments independently to sing it!
As Jesus' birthday approaches, we will be learning about the Christmas Story and Advent.
We have been learning about the Bible and reading different stories from the Bible. We know why God chose David to spread his love, we've reflected upon God's call to Moses and also learnt about Sikhism. As part of our work we have also taken part in some role play. This half term we are talking about why it is important to trust in God. We've identified people we can trust and we've also written our own prayers.