St Francis Catholic Primary School, Morley

Religious Education

Inspirational Quotes & Passages

Intent

RE is a core curriculum subject at St Francis Primary School.

The primary purpose of Catholic Religious Education is to come to know and understand God’s revelation which is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Through Christ, the deepest meaning of what it is to be human — that we are created by God and through the Holy Spirit united with Christ in his Incarnation — is discovered. This revelation is known through the scriptures and the tradition of the Church as taught by the Magisterium.

Religious Education helps the pupil to know and experience the meaning of this revelation in his or her own life and the life of the community which is the Church.

Religious Education is a core subject in our school.

For some in the classroom, Religious Education may well be received as catechesis, deepening and enhancing their personal faith; for some it will be evangelisation, the first time they will have been presented, personally, with the truths of living faith. Nevertheless, its primary purpose is the step by step study of the mystery of Christ, the teaching of the Church and its application in daily life.

Religious Education is planned, taught, assessed and monitored with the same rigor as other core curriculum subjects.

We aim:

To present a comprehensive content which engages pupils and is the basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith;
To enable pupils continually to deepen their religious and theological understanding and be able to communicate this effectively;
To present an authentic vision of the Church’s moral and social teaching so that pupils can make a critique of the underlying trends in contemporary
culture and society;
To raise pupils’ awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them;
To develop the critical faculties of pupils so that they can relate their Catholic faith to daily life;
To stimulate pupils’ imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith;
To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understanding of other subjects in the curriculum;
To bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture.

Implementation

We use 'The Way, The Truth and The Life' syllabus to guide teaching and learning. Lessons are based around a topic every half term and the children study topics such as 'The Mass', 'God's family' and Mary our Mother.' Within each unit, the children learn about religion as well as spending time learning from religion.

Learning from religion helps the children to understand how they can put their learning into practice in their daily lives. Where possible, links with other religions are studied within each unit; at least two topics a year contain specific links to another faith.

Additionally, our children gain an understanding and appreciation of other topics and world religions through theme weeks throughout the year.

Religious Education Long term plan

Religious-Education-policy

Autumn 1 newsletter

Autumn 2 newsletter

Spring-Term-1-Newsletter

Spring-Term-2-Newsletter

Virtues to live by

“Virtues to Live By” is a resource created by the Diocese of Leeds with the creative and financial support of the Leeds Diocesan Association of Primary Headteachers.

“Virtues to Live By” enables our pupils to explore a virtue over a three week period (two per half term) to improve the school community’s virtue literacy and to deepen understanding and appreciation of the essential role the virtues play in the education of the whole person towards human flourishing. These are shown in the table below:

Autumn 1

Autumn 2

Spring 1

Spring 2

Summer 1

Summer 2

Year 1 cycle

Respect & Courtesy

Thankfulness

Hope

Patience

Faith

Simplicity

Love & Charity

Forgiveness

Resilience / Perseverance

Kindness

Honesty

Service

Year 2 cycle

Love of Learning

Citizenship

Prayer

Generosity

Friendship

Love of Neighbour

Compassion

Self Control

Confidence/ Determination

Trust

Courage

Wisdom

Each class in school has their own virtue.

Nursery - Friendship

Reception - Kindness

Year 1 - Honesty

Year 2 - Respect

Year 3 - Resilience

Year 4 - Thankfulness

Year 5 - Faithfulness

Year 6 - Service

Throughout the year we try hard to live out our class virtues in our classrooms, around school and in the wider community.

We incorporate the virtues into our school life by:

displaying the monthly 'Virtue to live by' in the Hall, staff room and all classrooms
awarding certificates each week in Praise Assembly celebrating those who have shown the monthly 'Virtue to live by'
displaying the Signs of living the virtue for each monthly 'Virtue to live by'
enjoying Circle Times linked to the monthly 'Virtue to live by'
taking part in a weekly class worship based on the monthly 'Virtue to live by'
integrating the virtues into weekly RE planning where possible

Classification of the virtues

How we link RE to British Values

Impact

'I like role playing stories.' 'I enjoyed making a comic strip about calming the storm.' 'Judaism was fun. I enjoyed learning about the different parts of the synagogue.' 'I enjoy finding out about the saints and how they became saints.' It was interesting finding out how Buddhism is different to Christianity.' 'I am most proud of the cross I made to show that Jesus is the light of the world.' 'Learning about Sikhism was really interesting.' 'It was really good making a mosque.' 'RE is fun.'

Holy Week