The RE curriculum holds spiritual, moral and social development as a top priority, and of course our curriculum for Religious Education is central to this development. Alongside our Values Education, RE is also at the heart of every other curricular area and all daily interactions at the school.
Intent
Through the teachings of Christ and living the Gospel values we aim to nurture each individual pupil to be firmly rooted in their spiritual, moral and social journey in faith where positive attitudes and behaviour are evident and a loving and caring school community is celebrated.
We want to give our children a wide range of happy and rich memories in RE formed through interesting and exciting experiences driven through an engaging and comprehensive curriculum which is the basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, which is deepened further through working with parents, our local parish and charitable links.
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Children will meet the Diocesan Standards for Primary Religious Education, which will be taught by highly qualified staff who will engage children’s intellect, heart and imagination, inspiring enthusiasm and interest in RE.
We continue with our unrelenting focus on high achievement by aiming to pursue and promote a creative and reflective approach to learning in RE where every child is given the opportunity to aspire to reach a greater depth of knowledge and understanding and higher-level thinking skills. Using the subject specialists in RE from our Catholic Collaboration we plan for outstanding progress.
Implementation
Religious Education is at the heart of our whole curriculum with 10% of teaching time purely devoted to RE teaching. We use ‘The Way, The Truth and The Life’ series to help us to understand the religious content specified by the Religious Education Curriculum Directory for all age groups.
Each year group will study a number of units over the year. The units are developmental, building on previous knowledge and experience and taking into account of the children’s age and understanding.
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The topics covered by each year group are as detailed on the curriculum overview.
To enable a broad and creative approach to the teaching of RE, this scheme is supplemented with role play, written tasks, music and art to ensure the children enjoy and are passionate about their RE lessons.
There are children from many different countries and backgrounds within the school. They all need to be able to explore their own identity and understand that God came to save us all. We celebrate other World Religions throughout the year and have special ‘Other faith’ focus weeks twice a year at school.
Our Catholic faith permeates everything we do from practising Jesus’ teaching based on the Gospel values to promoting positive interactions across our school community.
Values Education
Our Values Education is based on 22 core values, celebrated monthly on a two-year cycle. These values are interwoven through the daily Catholic life of St Joseph’s and help form the ethos of the school. The teaching of these values may take the form of explicit value lessons, cross curricular learning, modelling (both adult to pupil and pupil to pupil), during collective worship. Through our Values education, pupils are provided with the opportunity to:
- think about personal, social, moral and spiritual values and how they might demonstrate these through their words and actions.
- deepen motivation, responsibility and ability in making positive personal and social choices.
- be educated with a philosophy of living which will help them to live lives with respect, confidence and purpose.
For further information and our core values see our Values Statement.
The Wednesday Word
The Wednesday Word is a website which shares Sunday’s Gospel with parents and families. There are activities and games too. Each week each class uses their collective worship time to discuss the Wednesday Word and share their reflections with the class. The Bible remains open on the Gospel throughout the week on each prayer table for ongoing reflections.
Faith Council
Our Faith Council consist of two representatives in each year group who meet weekly to discuss who meet regularly to help those in need within our school and local community through actions and prayer. The Faith council are joined regularly at their meetings with our Parish Priest.
What does the Faith Council do?
The children meet to talk, share ideas and concerns and pray about doing good works in the community. They also ensure their classroom environment is prepared for collective worship each day. They also help organise fund raising events for various charities such as the Royal Trinity Hospice, CAFOD and the Wandsworth Foodbank.
Useful Links
Impact
Faith plays a central role in the lives of children and the decisions they make. They will live their faith in an active and positive way through the guidance of Jesus’ teaching. The children will develop their relationship with God, develop their moral and spiritual nature and deepen their faith. Through religious practice, the church’s traditions of prayer and worship will be upheld. Children will understand the Catholic Values which will be focused on each half term and how these relate to their personal life and how to celebrate difference.
Through RE, children deepen their appreciation of their faith and fulfil their God-given talents
Children are happy learners within RE and they experience a wide-ranging number of creative learning challenges in RE and know appropriate responses to them. Visits within RE have enriched the lives of the children and they are able to discuss how the experience impacted their knowledge and understanding.
Children of all abilities and backgrounds achieve well in RE, reflected in good 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.
Clear outcomes focus and guide all RE development plans and drive improvement.
Children are confident, resilient and actively engaged in the wider society and the school environment will reflect and celebrate our Catholic faith.
Curriculum Overviews