RE
Our RE Curriculum – Intent, Implementation and Impact
Called to Change
Our RE curriculum is built on the Word of God, Pope Francis’ Laudato Si and Fratelli Tutti. This means it is all linked based on Pope Francis’ message of looking after our world and being ‘stewards of creation.’ We want our children to be able to accept and love others of all faiths and cultures as well as developing their own spirituality. The Catholic ethos of the school stems from the RE taught in class as we learn why we act and behave in certain ways.
We are currently implementing the new Religious Education directory from the Bishops Conference of England and Wales. This new spiral curriculum 'To know You more clearly' enables children to gain a deeper understanding of our Catholic Faith which they build on each year. The six branches follow the liturgical year and the events happening in Church enabling us to live out our Faith.
Intent
As a Catholic school, we hold Christ at the center of everything we do. Our curriculum is closely designed around our school mission and vision statements and has been developed to support the needs of our community and the child as a whole. Working alongside our parish and local community we foster an ethos of service to individuals and to society.
Our curriculum is underpinned by our core virtues of: Compassion and love, tolerance and peace, forgiveness and mercy, faith and hope, justice and truth, service and humility.
When planning our curriculum, we recognise the disadvantaged social and economic backgrounds of many of our families and therefore it is designed to enhance children’s awareness of different cultures, practices and beliefs. We include and promote British values to ensure that our students are aware of their rights and responsibilities in modern Britain and that they are prepared for life today and life after Sacred Heart Catholic Primary & Nursery School.
Our RE curriculum is designed to close the cultural gap with children understanding faiths and cultures around them. We also focus on the development of children’s own faith and beliefs and the foundation of our religion. We place a high focus on developing the children’s vocabulary and oracy and use sentence stems and tier 2 and 3 vocabulary embedded in our curriculum.
Impact
We intend that our RE curriculum will promote physical, emotional and mental well-being and ensure children know how to keep themselves safe and healthy. We recognise the valuable contribution and positive impact of RE lessons and children are offered and encouraged to take part in a wide range of activities. Children will deepen their understanding of the Catholic Church and the Word of God as we look at different Bible stories and beliefs of the Church.
Implementation
We recognise the RE curriculum as a core subject and central to the whole school curriculum which underpins all teaching. We use the following as a basis for our RE curriculum; The Way the Truth and The Life, Caritas in Action and Journey in love. Through this we strive to ensure that the Christian virtues show themselves not only in the R.E. lessons but at all times. Parents who wish their children to be prepared for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion follow a programme prepared by the parish.
The impact of our school’s curriculum is measured through several means in addition to the statutory assessments required of each school. The children are regularly assessed, using formative assessment and teacher summative assessment against the Diocese age related standards. Our curriculum reflects the Church calendar and we take time to celebrate school and child feast days. It is the class teachers and TAs’ responsibility to ensure that classroom practice and subject delivery matches our curriculum intentions. Subject leaders rigorously check implementation and review the curriculum using triangulated monitoring throughout the year to gauge the impact of the curriculum design.
Subject Leaders monitor the RE taught in class: reviewing learning, evaluating pupil voice, providing individual feedback to move practice forward, celebrating positives and highlighting areas of development.
We were inspected by the Diocese in November 2021 in which we were graded Outstanding.
Please see the RE Section 48 diocese inspection on the school website for more information.
Year 7 - life after Sacred Heart
We are part of the Mater Christi Trust and work closely with the Secondary schools in our family. We want to ensure that our children have a successful and positive transition between Key Stage 2 and 3 and are prepared for their adult life as well.
The new Catholic RED curriculum is followed by all Catholic school in the diocese and England. The six branches run through the curriculum for early years to Year 11 ensuring knowledge is built on throughout their education, as they revisit parts of Jesus's life and delve deeper into the meaning and lessons we can learn.
Learning about other faiths enables our children to meet new children as they move on to secondary schools and into our world.
