Holy Family Catholic Primary School

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Religious Education

Link Governor:  Rebecca Thornton-Smith

Intent:

A Holy Family Theologian can articulate what it means to belong to the family of God, understands the responsibility of discipleship and constantly seeks to encounter God. Through their learning in ‘Building the Kingdom’ of the examples of leaders of the past and the present, they will be inspired to become the leaders of tomorrow and make a difference in society.

Children will be encouraged to know, understand and participate more fully in the life of the church and will appreciate the spiritual and religious dimensions in life as expressed in the Catholic faith tradition. Children will reflect on what it means to have faith and to develop their own spiritual knowledge and understanding. Children will build on the foundations they have from their families and Church life, preparing them for the next stage of their lives academically and spiritually.

Children will develop the skills to make links and connections, engage and respond, analyse and evaluate using sources of evidence from the Bible and knowledge from lessons to gain a deeper understanding of the teachings of the church. They will be encouraged to investigate their faith through their reading and questioning of the scripture that is posed to them as well as questions they themselves put forward. The skills they have acquired in other subjects will be applied in their Religious Education. Children will be able to use this knowledge to articulate what the Catholic faith means to them.

 Implementation:                          

Religious Education is implemented through the scheme of The Way, The Truth and The Life throughout the school. This scheme promotes knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith; its relevance to the ultimate questions of life and the skills required to engage in religious thinking. The basic content of our scheme of work has as its point of reference the Religious Education Curriculum Directory. The broad themes with which Religious Education is concerned are: Revelation, Life in Jesus, The Church, and Celebration. The scheme covers the teachings and practises of the Catholic Church. Children’s experiences are explored and built upon to help them relate what they are learning to their own lives.

The scheme incorporates attainment targets: learning about the Catholic faith (AT1), learning from the Catholic faith (AT2) and analysis and evaluation (AT3). Ongoing informal assessment against the AT1, AT2 and AT3 indicators and formal assessment are used to inform planning and to identify areas for focus and support. Moderation of RE is completed internally and externally within partnership meetings with other local Catholic primary schools. Each year group have a different focus unit every half term. (These are outlined in the overview attached at the bottom of this page).

The whole curriculum at Holy Family is enriched and enhanced by two Catholic Social Teaching programmes: Caritas in Action, which looks at the social teachings of the church, and Building the Kingdom.

Children are given the opportunities to read scripture, to discuss, and unpick the meaning behind the messages that are given. To have the chance to make references to life now, seeing the links with their own life and experiences. Religious Education presents our pupils with the same academic demands and challenges as any other curriculum area. Ten per cent of the teaching time is dedicated to the teaching of RE.

RE is also taught throughout other subjects such as PSHE where children are given opportunities for personal development, well-being and community cohesion by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in a diverse society. Children receive their entitlement for RSE through following ‘Journey in Love’, ‘Jigsaw’ and the statutory science curriculum. RSE is taught throughout the summer term for all year groups.

There are additional feasts throughout the year, which are celebrated such as All Saints, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, through ‘Building the Kingdom’ and ‘Catholic Social Teaching’ whether these are: assemblies, Masses or reflections in school or at church.

Each class in the school is named after a Saint. The class will learn about their Saint as well as celebrate their Saint on, or near, their feast day by having a class Mass with our parish priest, Fr. Eugene. Masses are attended throughout the year, these are celebrated either at our Parish Church or in school. Masses are attended on Holy Days of Obligation and school Masses to celebrate the beginning or end of a term. Throughout the year, classes have the opportunity to visit the Parish Church to learn about the features and artefacts with Fr. Eugene.

The children have opportunities to learn about other faiths through focused days throughout the year. The children learn about aspects of the religions to build their understanding and respect for others as they grow. These days begin with a virtual assembly led by a religious speaker of the focus religion, all pupils attend this. The children learn key facts about the faith, view artefacts and have the opportunities to ask questions. The rest of the day is planned for each year group to learn about specific aspects of the religion such as: places of worship, hearing stories or Holy books.

These days will develop each child as a person ready for their future for when they meet those with differing beliefs, whether in religion or opinion.

Impact:

Through their RE learning, the children have a clear understanding of the Catholic faith and are able to speak confidently and clearly, expressing what they believe and the messages that are shared with us in the Bible. The children will be able to ask and answer questions to develop their knowledge and understanding; building and expanding on prior learning or reflections. Children will be able to refer to scripture to articulate meaning and evidence, when explaining the faith to others. The children are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world as well as messages from the scripture read. Through RE our children are developing an understanding of other people’s cultures and ways of life, which they are then able to communicate to the community and will prepare them for life in the wider world. Through moderation of planning, lessons and books, within school, partnership and diocese, we can be sure that progress is made across all year groups and where needed, support is provided to ensure all pupils achieve at their own rate and pace. Evidence of the impact of RE is not just collated through books, but also through pupil conferencing and the children’s contributions to Liturgy and Prayer and Catholic Life. RE offers our children the means by which to understand how other people choose to live and to understand why they choose to live in that way. As such, RE is invaluable in an ever-changing world.

Children will deepen their understanding of who Jesus is, what they believe about him and his Church, and why they believe it. This helps shape them into well-rounded, informed citizens who develop a deep-rooted relationship with God and an understanding of their Catholic faith. It also develops our pupils into leaders of tomorrow who are ready to go out into the world and proclaim the Gospel confidently, building the kingdom of God through compassion, justice, love and forgiveness in their relationships with others. From the opportunities provided, children progressively take ownership of prayer and worship and actively take part in society to promote a better world and contribute to the common good.

/docs/RE/Prayer-and-Liturgy-Policy-2023_296056624.pdf

/docs/RE/RE-Policy-2023-24_318169267.pdf

/docs/RE/The-Way-The-Truth-and-The-Life-Overview-update-September-2023_306156619.pdf

Catholic Life and Mission

The ultimate aim of a Catholic school is to develop the full potential of all young people, leading to their life-long activities being guided by the Spirit and presence of Christ, in the service of God and of others.

The school focuses on the education of the whole child. It is centred on Gospel values and reflecting the teaching of the Catholic Church, through the use of Catholic Social Teaching and Building the Kingdom threaded throughout our curriculum and life. Hence, the formation of each person is regarded as being as important as the information which is transmitted through the teaching offered.

Catholic Life is to...

'To love and serve God, and love and serve others.'

As a school, we aim to develop our children to show this within their lives at our school but for this to continue into their adulthood, building the leaders of tomorrow.

Prayer and Liturgy

Every Monday, the whole school attends the Gospel assembly. This is led by the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher. These assemblies reflect on the Gospel from the previous Sunday. The children listen to the Gospel reading, answer questions about it and think about what they have learnt and how they can go forth and share this during the week.  Examples of these can be found below.

During Advent and Lent, the Monday Gospel assembly becomes reflections about the that specific Liturgical season. Parents are invited to join in these, learning about the season and preparing for Christmas and Easter.

Every Tuesday, we have whole school musical worship. Our music lead, teaches the children new hymns for Masses as well as singing for enjoyment and a time for reflection.

Every Wednesday, each Key Stage 2 class leads a Liturgical Prayer within their classes. This is something that they have planned, resourced and deliver within small groups. The Chaplaincy Team are on a rota to deliver Liturgical Prayer to the classes in Key Stage 1 each Wednesday. These are planned and resourced within their small groups.

Every Thursday, each Key Stage has an assembly and uses the document 'Twelve Baskets'. This links PSHE and RE together. 

Every Friday, we have a whole school assembly which celebrates children's achievements throughout the school, whether these are academic, sports or related to our behaviour policy of being 'Ready, Respectful, Safe.'

Throughout the year, there will be additional assemblies such as:

- CAFOD National Assemblies - the whole school watches these and each Lent we support the walks that they plan by planning a walk and raising money.

- Catholic Social Teaching - Each term we focus on a different aspect within our classes, having a focus lesson as well as a home task to focus on too. At the beginning of each term, the Chaplaincy Team will lead an assembly to the whole school to introduce the aspect.

- Building the Kingdom - Throughout the year we have days when we work towards a task from Building the Kingdom and so the day is begun with an assembly to introduce the person or focus of the day.

- Jigsaw - Each term, a new unit is introduced to the school by the Chaplaincy Team. The focus is linked to scripture which is shared with the children within the assembly.

 Chaplaincy Team

Above is our logo, each member of the team designed a logo and had to explain their reasoning behind it.

Below is our Chaplaincy prayer, which we wrote as a team. We start each of our meetings saying it.

The Chaplaincy Team consists of children within Key Stage Two who perform many duties in school throughout the year, including: meeting weekly to plan activities throughout the school, plan, resource and deliver weekly Celebration of the Word in Key Stage One, as well as planning and leading fund-raising activities throughout the year. In turn, they encourage the children throughout the school to live out their faith in their daily living.

‘What’s On’ for Your Chaplaincy Group

The team meet once a week - their current goal includes the threefold intent of carrying out:

  • Strengthening our school mission;
  • Deepening prayer;
  • Enabling communion.

The team has written an action plan for the year (see below), focusing on ways to develop the above aspects within school. Meeting each week gives the opportunity for the children to come together to discuss and plan things that we can do in school.

The Chaplaincy Team have taken part in many activities, so far they have…

  • Attended two separate Chaplaincy Team Day with Chaplaincy Teams from other schools within the Newman Partnership.
  • Organised and raised money for Afghan refugees through a whole school raffle.
  • Planned, resourced and led Celebration of the Word in EYFS and Key Stage One every week.
  • Planned and organised a 'Walk against Hunger' to raise money for CAFOD.
  • Led the Harvest assembly to the whole school.
  • Took part in Commissioning Services led by Fr. Eugene with the whole school.
  • Led Catholic Social Teaching assemblies each term to introduce the new focus for that term to the whole school.
  • Led Jigsaw Celebration of the Word each term to introduce the new unit to the whole school.
  • Planned and delivered a Macmillan Coffee afternoon for parents and parishioners to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Care.
  • Leading prayers within whole school Celebration of the Word.
  • Planned and presented information about the CAFOD BIG Lent Walk to Mr. Harding and as an assembly to the whole school. They also advertised the walk around the school.
  • Working on achieving their Leaders in Faith Award.

Message from our Chaplaincy Team:

“As part of our role in the Chaplaincy Team we work together to try to make our world a better place. We do this by helping others in our school, our local community and around the world, bringing them into a closer relationship with God.

We try to follow Jesus’ commandment to ‘Love one another as I have loved you’ in all that we do.”

What does being part of the Chaplaincy Team mean to you?

"We feel closer to God." Emmanuel

"We raise money to help those that are less fortunate than ourselves." Sophie

"We are role models to other children in the school." Kara

"We use the Chaplaincy Team as an opportunity to teach younger children about the importance of God." Mario

"It is a place where we help everyone to follow God's path." Lorena

"We are serving God and teaching other children about God." Grace

/docs/Chaplaincy-Development-Plan-2021-2022_254755694.pdf

/docs/Chaplaincy-Development-Plan-2022-2023_279729128.pdf

/docs/Chaplaincy-Development-Plan-2023-2024_318341506.pdf

Multi-Faith

Children learn about other faiths during the year to increase their knowledge, respect and understanding of everyone in our society.

We aspire for our children to show respect and tolerance towards all who they will meet in their lives, no matter their background or religion.

We want our children to be able to consider the thoughts, feelings, experiences, attitudes, beliefs and values of others.

Awards

Currently, our school is working towards achieving the 'Oscar Romero Award'.

"The Oscar Romero Award will support your school in realising and living the unique calling of a Catholic school to become an evangelising centre by empowering young people and staff to become true agents of the change they want to see in the world by putting their faith into action." 

https://www.romeroaward.co.uk/ 

This will be evidenced through all of our activities in school through Catholic Social Teaching, Building the Kingdom and the Catholic Life of the school.

Our Chaplaincy Team are currently working on the 'Leaders in Faith' Award which has been designed by Clifton Diocese. The children are very dedicated.

There are 4 levels: bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

The children evidence what they are doing within the school to support the Catholic Life as well as developing their own religious knowledge

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