Our Approach to Religious Education
At The Marist our primary intent in teaching Religious Education is to learn, love and achieve together. We want our children to develop knowledge, understanding, reflection skills, analysis and religious experiences. In our Catholic community, we intend for our children to gain a wide range of experiences to build their sense of belonging alongside their individual faith.
We aims to enable the children to be active participants in RE through our curriculum as well as our whole school worships, Masses and celebrations. These all allow our children to feel they are an important part of our school community. In line with our fellow Diocesan schools, we are using a scheme called ‘Come and See’ which forms the basis of our Religious Education provision. It is based on the theological foundations of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Catechism and the revised RE Curriculum Directory. ‘Come and See’ is an invitation to all to explore the promise of life. In response to the question; ‘where do you live?’ which was asked by the disciples, Jesus invited them to; ‘Come and See.’ (John 1:39), and scripture is very much at the heart of this resource. The children explore the major aspects of the Catholic faith but also learn about other world faiths.
The ‘Come and See’ scheme provides a school wide overarching theme, which each group approaches at an age appropriate level.
During the Autumn term the children will focus on three key themes:
- Domestic Church (Family)
- Baptism and Confirmation (Belonging)
- Advent and Christmas (Loving).
- The children will also spend one week studying Judaism.
As we move into the Spring term we will be studying:
- Local Church (Community)
- Eucharist (Relating)
- Lent/Easter (Giving).
Within the Summer term each unit reflects upon the role the Holy Spirit plays in our lives. We will be studying the three themes:
- Pentecost (Serving)
- Reconciliation (Inter-relating)
- Universal Church (World).
- The children will also spend one week studying Islam.
Each topic focus runs for four weeks. During that time the children begin by exploring how the topic relates to their daily lives for example what images or actions show unconditional love to others. We then move to looking at scripture passages where we respond to their messages, teachings and advice. At the end of the topic we celebrate what we have learnt during this topic and reflect on how we can put this new knowledge into action.
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