Religious Education Policy
1.
Rationale of Religious Education
The Outcome of excellent religious education is religiously literate and engaged
young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their
age and capacity – to reflect spiritually, and think ethically and theologically , and who
are aware of the demands of the religious commitment in everyday life.
(Religious Education Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools 2012)
“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 ‘bothwe and
our words are in his hand, as are all understanding and skill in crafts’
(Wis7:16)
(Pope Benedict XV1).
We believe that children will receive the best foundation for adult life
by encouraging them to learn, grow and develop as individuals in a happy
and stimulating atmosphere. They are encouraged to deepen their
personal faith commitment and develop opportunities for celebration,
prayer and reflection in Religious Education.
“Children grow and develop in interaction with those with whom they live.
From the point of view of Christian faith, it is the quality of life of the
Christians who surround them that has the greatest impact on them.”
(Jim Gallagher SDB – Our Schools and Our Faith)
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2.
Aims
The aims of Religious Education in St. Anne’s Catholic Primary school:
1. Religious Education will be taught discretely and developmentally. It
will include the deepening of knowledge, and understanding of key
theological ideas and their application to life.
2. Ample opportunities will be offered for children to apply and use
their knowledge and skills in cross curricular studies to deepen
their understanding of religious truths and think creatively.
3. Engagement with their own and others’ beliefs and values will help
to develop good attitudes and dispositions so that children are
instilled with a love of learning and a desire to go on learning.
4. Engagement with difficult questions of meaning and purpose which
everyone has to face will enable them to think critically about their
own questions of meaning and purpose.
5. Offer the children a sense of self-worth through their experience
of belonging to a caring community and an awareness of the
demands of religious commitment in everyday life.
3.
Our Objectives are:
 to present engagingly a comprehensive content which 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.
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 To stimulate the 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 lifde, and
between faith and culture. (RECD 2012)
4.
The Religious Education Programme
It is necessary, therefore, that Religious Education in schools be regarded as an
academic discipline with the same systematic demands and the same rigour as
other disciplines. It must present the Christian message and the Christian event
with the same seriousness and the same depth with which other disciplines present
their knowledge. However it should not simply be regarded as one subject among
many, but rather it should engage in interdisciplinary dialogue.
……Religious Education in schools underpins, activates, develops and completes the
educational and catechetical activity of the whole school.
Religious Education Curriculum Directory 2012
Since the total curriculum in our school is based on the values of the
Gospel and because we see all education as revealing the mystery of God,
we recognise two aspects of religious Education in our school: Implicit, or unstructured Religious Education - those opportunities
which arise in the course of the school day to lead pupils through
curriculum content or through relationships to a religious
understanding of their implications. It is the policy of this school to
use such opportunities as they arise.
 Explicit, or structured Religious Education – those opportunities
timetabled and planned periods of time given to an explicit
consideration of Religious Education in the classroom. It is the
policy of the school to give 10% of the timetable at Key Stage 1 and
2.
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To fulfil our aims and objectives we the ‘Come and See’ programme
of Religious Education recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
Overview of Content
(taken from Come and See pg 15 – 17)
Come and See is developed through 3 themes based upon 4 documents
of Second Vatican Council:
 Die Verbum – God speaks – finding meaning in life
 Lumen Gentium – Christ the light of the nations – Community of
Faith
 Gaudium et Spes – Joy and Hope – Way of life
 Sacrosanctum Concilium – Liturgy – Celebration in symbol and ritual
The three themes are gradually explored each time at greater depths.
The themes are: Church, Sacrament and Christian Living
Community of Faith – Church
Celebration in ritual – Sacraments
Way of Life – Christian Living
The diagram below is an example of how the programme develops:
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The Process
The process for delivering the topics in ‘Come and See’ has three stages
– Explore, Reveal and Respond which enables pupils to develop knowledge,
understanding, skills and attitudes.
The Word who is life – this is our subject
sEaRCh – EXplORE
This is the introduction to the topic where the children’s life
experience is explored, the question(s) it raises are wondered at,
shared, investigated and their significance reflected upon.
REvElaTiOn – REvEal
This is the heart of the programme where knowledge and
understanding of the Catholic faith is revealed through the Word, in
Scripture, Tradition, doctrine, prayers, rites and Christian living.
REspOnsE – REspOnD
This is where the learning is assimilated, celebrated and responded to in daily life.
Explore – 1 week of Religious Education time - teacher helps the children
to focus on the experience within their own lives
Reveal – 2 weeks of Religious Education time – This is the heart of the
process where the teacher and children discover together the Christian
understanding if the mystery of the trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Respond – 1 week of Religious Education time – Remember, Rejoice and
Renew
(for more detail refer to p20-22 Come and See)
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5.
Planning
Please see section ‘Planning’ which includes long and medium term’
examples of plans. Currently ‘Come and See’ planning is annotated by
teachers’. They are identifying the groupings, differentiation, dates and
timings of the lessons.
6.
Assessment
Assessment is focused by the overall aims and objectives of Religious
Education ‘Come and See’ (p27) and ‘The Religious Education Curriculum
Directory for Catholic Schools and Colleges’ (P65-66) In ‘Come and See’
it is related to the concepts, skills and attitudes to be developed through
the exploration of the themes and the learning outcomes for each topic.
Assessment establishes what pupils know, understand and can do. It does
assess faith or the practice of faith. Assessment in ‘Come and See’
emphasises a wide range of achievement.
(See Assessment File)
In our school it involves:
Informal Assessment – The children are assessed during whole class and
group activities, Collective Worship and meditation by the comments that
they make and contributions to discussions. Marking reflects the level
descriptors and uses driver words where possible.
Formal Assessment – St Anne’s follows the guidelines provided by
Liverpool Archdiocese for the Assessment, Recording and Reporting of
Religious Education. Formal assessment activities take place once per
term and teachers level this piece of work according to attainment
targets and level descriptors completing the Context sheet for each
level.
Attainment Targets and Levels of Attainment: A record of attainment
is kept with samples of work from each year group and examples of each
level of attainment from across the key stages. Foundation Stage keep a
record of evidence and attainment according to each area of learning.
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7.
Recording
8.
Reporting
9.
Evaluation of Teaching Monitoring of class teaching will take
place through observations of lessons and Collective Worship,
children’s work, displays and use of resources.
10. Evaluation of Learning Children take part in planning and
celebration of each topic by evaluating their learning through
the ‘Remember’ and ‘Renew’ stages of the ‘Respond’ section.
11. Staff Development
 The Religious Education co-ordinator provides regular in-service
training in response to courses that she has attended. Information
is disseminated and new ideas shared.
 Members of staff attend professional development courses
provided by Liverpool Archdiocese on a rotation basis.
 All staff take part in ‘Come and See for Yourself’ gatherings at the
beginning of a topic, as part of our weekly staff meeting.
(See Staff Inset)
12. Staff Induction All staff are invited to join inset training for
staff, Newly Qualified Teachers attend the NQT induction
meetings provided by Liverpool Archdiocese
13. Staff Communication We have a noticeboard for Religious
Education in the staff room which is useful for sharing
information and communicating with the whole staff. Regular
staff meetings provide opportunities for discussion and any
issues to be shared.
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14. Resources – Staff Members
15. Resources – Teaching Each Classroom has a copy of the
‘Come and See’ document and internet access to the ‘Come and
See’ website, God’s Story 1, 2 and 3, Church’s Story 1, 2 and 3
are available in hard copies and electronically, a wide selection of
books connected to the different topics are available. Each class
teacher has a ‘Collective Worship’ box which contains a range of
resources that are used for daily class Collective Worship.
(See Resources List)
16. Relationship of R.E to the whole curriculum
 See Collective Worship policy
 See SMSC Policy
St. Anne’s works very closely with the parish in supporting the provision
of ‘With You Always’ and the Year 4 children develop links by attending
weekly Friday mass. Father Boniface regularly visits school to work with
the children developing them through spiritual reflection and discussion.
Parents, Parish and Local Community Links ( See Community
Links Section)
17. Self Evaluation Document – updated Oct 2012 (See SED
Section)
18. Religious Education Development Plan (see separate action
plan and time line)
19. Review of Religious Education Handbook This will take
place annually during the Autumn Term.
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