Religious Education

Intent Statement

We are a Catholic school and we are committed to the Catholic Faith, recognising and valuing every individual as special and unique in the image and likeness of God.

Religious Education at St Joseph and St Teresa’s respects and promotes each child’s innate capacity for wonder, awe, reverence and spirituality. Our Religious Education curriculum encourages our children to be taught about God’s love; they learn about their unique place within the home, school and parish community; they learn about their Christian responsibilities; are provided with experiences of Church, Catholic and Christian traditions as well as being taught to be respectful and understanding of people and traditions from other faith backgrounds.

Implementation Statement

Religious Education is taught according to the doctrine of the Catholic Church as required by Clifton Diocese. Teachers use a scheme called God Matters and lessons focus on both providing the children with a knowledge of the Catholic Faith and leading them to an understanding of the significance of religion in their lives. They are encouraged to give a variety of responses to what they have learned and to measure their own development as Christians by reflecting on their relationships with others and with God.

Closely linked to our teaching of RE is the way in which this is reflected in the Catholic life of the school. The children pray at regular intervals during the day: start of the morning, before lunch, after lunch and at the end of the day. Prayer and spirituality are at the heart of every day’s learning. Assemblies are another important part of the religious life of our community. As assembly, we pray together, sing hymns together and reflect on aspects of our Faith within the context of our own experiences.

We also regularly celebrate Mass together as a community – on certain feast days, and at the beginning or end of the term throughout the year at St Joseph and St Teresa’s Catholic Church in Wells. Father Tony also celebrates children’s liturgies or Masses with the classes.

Impact Statement

The children are reflective learners who have the knowledge, skills and understanding of the Catholic and other faiths and use this to question and influence their own lives and choices. Children know how to be well rounded Christians because of what they have been taught and they are better equipped to face the challenges in the next phase of their education. Pupils actively seek to improve the lives of others using what know and understand. Pupils know that relationship between faith and life and can question this and apply this to their everyday behaviour. They make good progress in RE teaching building on the skills, knowledge and understanding they have learnt in the previous year as well as understanding the purpose of Worship as an experience of deepening their relationships with God. Pupils show respect and understanding of Other Faiths and they are all keen on improving our school and community by leading by example.