RE Teaching and Learning
'As you know, the task of a teacher is not simply to impart information or to provide training in skills intended to deliver some economic benefit to society; education is not and must never be considered as purely utilitarian. It is about forming the human person, equipping him or her to live life to the full – in short it is about imparting wisdom. And true wisdom is inseparable from knowledge of the Creator, for 'both we and our words are in his hand, as are all understanding and skill in crafts'' (Wis 7:16)
Pope Benedict XVI
Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales 2012
At St Joseph’s, our Catholic faith is central to everything we do.
We are extremely proud to be a Catholic school in which both children and adults are supported and encouraged to develop their own faith and spirituality.
We recognise that our children come from a range of backgrounds and abilities. As such, we are sensitive to each child's life experiences and value their individual contribution to school life.
We truly believe that every child in our care is made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, our aim in the teaching of Religious Education is to bring our children to a deep, living, active and personal faith related to their own lives and experiences.
As teachers, we strive to ensure that our whole curriculum, our moral values and our relationships stem from the Gospel values and that our children are continually reminded of God's loving presence in all that we do.
As recommended by the Diocesan guidelines, the time given to the teaching of Religious Education at St Joseph’s is 10% of the timetable.
Religious education is respected as a core subject and as such must be of a quality to engage and stimulate pupils' intellect, heart and imagination. To ensure these areas are addressed, we follow the 'God Matters' scheme of work, supplemented by materials developed by a diocesan Writing Group, which addresses the requirements of the RE Curriculum Directory for Catholic Education (2012). This strategy aims to provide a curriculum that will be enjoyable to study, and one that endeavours to secure the link between what the church teaches and the classroom by supporting teachers' planning, delivery and assessment opportunities.
The God Matters scheme is used throughout our school and is split up into different themes which are revisited and developed each year.
- Creation - Learning about the creation story and developing this learning to explore why we should look after God's creation.
- Prayer, Saints and Feasts - This unit explores our relationship with God and how we celebrate our Saints.
- Advent - Looks at how we prepare for Jesus birth
- Christmas - specifically looks at the story of Christmas and what it means to us.
- Sacraments - The children develop an understanding of each of the 7 sacraments within the Catholic Faith.
- Lent - Children develop an understanding of how we prepare for Jesus' death.
- Holy Week- Children will explore each of the different stages of Holy Week and empathise with Jesus' and the disciples feelings throughout this time.
- Easter - Children are given the opportunities to explore the sacrifice Jesus and God made at this time.
- Revelation - developing our knowledge of how we should follow God's laws and how we are waiting for Jesus to come again.
As teachers, we encourage all our children to apply the skills that they learn in other literary subjects to their religious education, and maintain that they should investigate the faith with the same enthusiasm and rigour as other subject areas.