This section informs you of our Religious Education Curriculum please also see the section on Catholic Life of the School to inform you about our Catholic Ethos and Gift Chaplaincy to find out about our prayer and liturgy collective worship.

Religious Education at St Teresa’s

Intent
 

The intent of our Religious Education programme at St Teresa’s Catholic Primary School is to offer rich opportunities within an engaging and comprehensive curriculum, where our children will find joy, happiness and love in a life with Christ at its heart. Our aim is to create an ethos of love, allowing all members of our school community to grow in their personal relationship with God and with each other. We seek to provide a secure, caring and inclusive community in which Gospel values permeate every aspect of school life.

Our curriculum offers pupils a firm basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, enabling them to develop a deep and living faith. Religious Education is the core of learning in a Catholic school and forms the foundation of the educational process, pervading all areas of the curriculum, school life and the wider community.
 

We aim to prepare pupils for life in a multi-faith society by fostering respect and an understanding of cultural diversity. We also prepare children for citizenship in such a diverse society, enabling them to develop sensitivity to and respect for others. Through Religious Education, we equip children with the knowledge, skills and understanding linked to fundamental British values, allowing each child to make a positive contribution to society. We believe our children should always be “ready, respectful and safe”.
 

The outcome of Religious Education is to develop religiously literate young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills, appropriate to their age and capacity, to think spiritually, ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.
 

Through our curriculum, we hope children will develop the skills to make connections, engage, respond, evaluate, discuss, analyse and reflect, enabling them to grow as lifelong learners. We want our children to ask questions, to be eager to learn about the world around them and to reflect upon their beliefs, values and experiences. We aim to nurture in our children “a love of God and a love of life itself”.
 

Throughout their time at our school, we aim to develop 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 of every person’s life by working together in partnership with home, school and Parish. Guided by Gospel values, we provide opportunities for pupils to make links with the local and wider community, working for the common good and becoming stewards of creation.
 

We also endeavour to teach children to follow the example of Saint Teresa, our school saint, who believed we should strive to “live in love” by following Jesus’ example. We encourage children to show good deeds through kind words, understanding that small actions matter and can make a great difference in our lives. As Saint Teresa of Lisieux reminds us: “Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love”.
 

Implementation
 

The aim of our Religious Education programme is to explore the religious dimension of questions about life, dignity and purpose, linking pupils’ own experiences with universal experience. Links are also made with the experience of other faith traditions. The programme is therefore both objective and subjective.
 

For all children, the programme raises questions and provides opportunities for reflection on their own experiences. It helps pupils to explore the beliefs, values and ways of life of the Catholic tradition, as well as those of other faith traditions.
 

The programme does not presume that children come from committed Catholic families. For those from committed Catholic families, it deepens and enriches their understanding and living of their faith.
 

Impact
 

Assessment is regarded as an integral part of teaching and learning and is a continuous process. We strive to ensure assessment is purposeful, allowing us to match work accurately to the needs of our pupils and to support progress. Progress is continually assessed and recorded.
 

Information for assessment is gathered in a variety of ways, including discussion with pupils, questioning, observation and the setting of specific tasks. We follow the standards documentation for national age-related expectations in Religious Education. We also use Come and See knowledge organisers as entry and exit tasks to assess pupils’ knowledge and understanding.

Lighting the Path

We have adopted the Lighting the Path Religious Education curriculum from Oxford University Press to support our teaching in line with the new Religious Education Directory for Catholic schools. Lighting the Path provides a coherent, age-appropriate programme of study from Reception through to Year 6, with units of work that help pupils explore the Catholic faith, scripture, Church teachings and the lived experience of faith. It identifies core learning outcomes in each branch of the curriculum while allowing flexibility in planning and delivery to meet the needs of all pupils. Lessons support both knowledge and theological understanding and are designed to be engaging, reflective and rooted in Catholic tradition, helping pupils to grow in faith and religious literacy.