St Begh's Catholic Junior School
Religious Education
The purpose of Religious Education (R.E.) at St. Begh’s Catholic Junior School is to nurture the Catholic faith in our children. By helping them to live the faith, we hope to encourage our children to come to know and understand God’s revelation which is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. This permeates the school and develops a better relationship with God and with each other.
R.E promotes pupils’ cultural, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical development and prepares children for the opportunities and responsibilities that are to come.
Aims
· To provide staff and children with the knowledge, understanding and awareness of the Catholic faith and its beliefs.
· To enable staff and children to communicate with God through prayer and scripture.
· To enable staff and children to develop their spirituality.
· To help staff and children to explore and express their sense of awe and wonder at the world God has created.
· To encourage staff and children to respect those holding different beliefs.
· To help staff and children grow in awareness of themselves and to develop a positive attitude to their own emotions, life, and learning.
· To enable staff and children to grow in their awareness of others and to develop relationships in a secure and supportive environment.
· To become aware of issues involving justice and the rights of the individual.
R.E is a core subject and 10% of curriculum time is devoted to it. This time does not include time spent in prayer and liturgy.
The Religious Education Directory (RED) - To Know You More Clearly 2023:
Our Religious Education curriculum is based on the new RED. The objective of the curriculum is to 'develop religiously literate and engaged young people, with the knowledge, understanding and skills to reflect spiritually, think ethically and theologically, and recognise the demands of religious commitment in everyday life'.
There are six components to the curriculum, that are known as branches which follow the pattern of the Liturgical Year. Each branch has a core theme and is taught through the process of four lenses: Hear, Believe, Celebrate and Live. The names of these four lenses reflect the language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The study of other religions and worldviews is taught through the lenses of dialogue and encounter.
The branches are:
Branch 1: Creation and Covenant
Branch 2: Prophecy and promise
Branch 3: Galilee to Jerusalem
Branch 4: Desert to Garden
Branch 5: To the ends of the Earth
Branch 6: Dialogue and Encounter
It is a spiral structure enabling pupil’s understanding to deepen throughout their school journey.
Our children explore and experience these 'branches' through three different 'ways of knowing' these skills are:
Understand
Discern
Respond
We are using a variety of published resources to support the delivery of the RED including Vine and Branches, Magister and Catholic Plus schemes of work.
We believe that all aspects of R.E should be woven into the fabric of school life. We recognise that everyone at St. Begh’s Catholic School (staff, children and parents) are on their own personal journey of faith.
Equal Opportunities
We believe that all children are entitled to equal access to the R.E Curriculum.
Children with learning disabilities and gifted and talented children should be allowed to express themselves according to their ability, for example by using art to record ideas and thoughts where writing skills are less developed. All work should be valued. We should be aware of children’s various cultural, social, and ethnic backgrounds and be sensitive in our approach and the use of materials.
Other Faiths
The Church and therefore the school, acknowledges the importance of gaining an understanding of the cultural and religious traditions of other World Religions. These are taught through the RED curriculum.
Parental Involvement
Parents have access to the latest TenTen newsletter on the school website. This newsletter shares some of the content children will experience in school throughout that month and is a useful resource for family prayer time. Parents are also invited to mass and whole school prayer and liturgy time. We recognise and value the vital role of parents as the first educators of their children.