Religious Education Curriculum

At St Winefride’s we follow the ‘Come and See’ programme for Foundation and Key Stages 1 and 2, which is endorsed by the Diocese of Brentwood. 10% of the teaching timetable is provided for Religious Education. This means, 2 hours 15 minutes at Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, and 2 hours 30 minutes at Key Stage 2. This time does not include collective worship (other than the Rejoice section), hymn practice, assemblies etc. This time allocation is distributed appropriately across the timetable to ensure quality time is given for effective teaching and learning throughout the week. Allocation of teaching time to other faiths is 5 hours (2 weeks RE time). The school leadership and management take responsibility for this.

Within each lesson there is a balance between input, discussion and activity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses the human search for meaning, God’s initiative in Revelation who comes to meet us and our response of faith. This pattern guides the structure of the programme and informs the process of each topic, opened up through; Explore, Reveal and Respond.

Explore

The teacher helps the children to begin to look at and focus on the experience within their own lives – concerning themselves, their relationships and their world. In this way the children are led to a deeper understanding, clearer vision and the discovery of significance and value of the experiential events of everyday life.

Reveal

Reveal is the heart of the process. The teacher and the children together discover the Christian understanding of the mystery of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They explore the mystery of human life as revealed in the person, life and gospel of Jesus Christ. It will involve learning about Scripture, the teaching of the Church, prayers, rites, psalms, hymns and other expressions of Christian faith and the lives of outstanding Christians

Respond

‘Remember’ is the first part of this section. The children will respond by remembering and celebrating all that they have learnt. This new understanding will enable them to make a personal response in their daily lives. This part begins by reflecting on what the children wonder about. This is followed by providing the opportunity for the children to remember what they have understood and learnt.

For an overview of the RE Curriculum please click the link below:

Overview of the RE curriculum

Click here to see our full Religious Education Site.

Other ways we spread the good news of Jesus throughout the school.

Every class has their own prayer table, which the children help to keep clean and tidy, the cloths covering the tables are changed to reflect the time of the church year.

The Gospel is central to our lives at St Winefride’s and the scripture is displayed every week along with a prayer for the children to read. This prayer is included in the newsletter every week.

Our yearly Cafod fundraising events during Lent are one of the highlights of the school year.

Our Mini Vinnies carry out lots of good work for both charity and the school. They have made, packaged and sold cookies, run stalls and organise the ‘Reverse Advent calendar’, they are a marvellous asset for the school.

The RE Team plays a vital role in the school, monitoring classroom setups, talking to the children and helping to teach them class prayers, helping to set the Intention of the Week and setting a good example by raising the Catholic profile of the school.

 

Catholic Life

All pupils are at the centre of shaping the school’s ethos. Pupil Responsibilities and participation in the Catholic life of the school are of an exceptionally high standard. For example the children take pride in singing their mission statement daily and applying it to everyday life. All staff and governors are committed to living the Gospel Values to be outstanding role models to the pupils.

Religious Education

All pupils, regardless of starting points, make good progress throughout the school and standards in RE are high. Teachers have secure subject knowledge supported by dedicated topic launch sessions for each new topic and have, and communicate, high expectations to the children.

Governors monitor the effectiveness of how Religious Education is taught in the school and use this information to inform future developments in the school’s provision.

Collective Worship

Collective worship is central to the life of the school and children behave responsibly and with reverence during school and class Masses and other liturgical celebrations. There is a daily 15 minute collective worship session on every class timetable in addition to class prayers and assemblies. The children are very keen to participate in these sessions and be part of collective worship groups – there is currently a waiting list of children who would like to join the Mini Vinnies group. All of our staff participate in collective worship.

Useful links

Here are some websites that you may find interesting.