Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Primary School
Better Never Stops
Religious Education
Our Lady Queen of Heaven Religious Education Curriculum
At Our Lady Queen of Heaven, we believe in a curriculum that underpins and promotes
the school’s culture and aims -
a curriculum for the whole child.
“A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person.
And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints….” Pope Benedict XVI, 2010
Mission Statement:
At Our Lady Queen of Heaven, our school’s curriculum stems from our Mission Statement:
“We are inspired, strengthened and encouraged by our Catholic faith.
We place Jesus at the centre of everything we do and say, listening to Him with our hearts.
We spread love everywhere we go, valuing and caring for each other.
We strive to be the best learners we can, using and celebrating our God given gifts.”
“For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and Holy is his name” Luke 1: 49
At Our Lady Queen of Heaven, in Religious Education our definition of progress is the widening and deepening of essential knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours. We design, organise and plan our curriculum to ensure that children are not merely covering content, but achieving a depth to their learning that enables them to use their skills and understanding in all areas of the curriculum.
Our curriculum is meticulously designed and planned to move the children's thinking to a higher order, deep level of understanding, rather than simply acquiring facts and knowledge. The RE skills progression document clearly displays the progression and skills that the children obtain through their primary education at OLQOH through their RE lessons. Alongside the RE lessons, children also participate in daily Collective Worship. Collective Worship is accessed through whole school, key stage and class platforms. Children are encouraged to participate fully in their worship and are given appropriate levels of support to plan for and evaluate Collective Worship practice through the school.
Alongside the RE lessons and Collective Worship, children are engaged with the Catholic Life of the school. Christian values and living are shared and celebrated through the use of various reward systems (in class, house points, RE stickers, Merit certificates, WOW postcards home, etc.) and children engage with living out the Gospel values through a variety of charity work. Children are also aware of the need to look after the world as God’s creation and gift to His people, and are able to recognise and talk about the ways we look after our school environment.
Throughout the year, pupils are part of a wide range of activities and events that offer breadth and depth to understanding Catholic Christian living.
Religious Education is at the centre of all we do, at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Catholic Primary School. Through our Mission Statement: “We place Jesus at the centre of everything we do and say, listening to Him with our hearts. We spread love everywhere we go, valuing and caring for each other. We strive to be the best learners we can, using and celebrating our God given gifts. Religious Education therefore, is at the heart of all that we do and is "core of the core curriculum" (Pope St John Paul II).
“For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and Holy is his name.” Luke 1: 49,
enables us to be inspired, strengthened and encouraged by our Catholic faith.
As a Catholic school, with RE at our core, our aim is to "help parents, priests and teachers to hand on the Deposit of Faith in its fullness to a new generation of young people so that they may come to understand the richness of the Catholic faith, and thereby be drawn into a deeper communion with Christ in his Church." (Religious Education Curriculum Directory pvii).
We believe, that ‘placing RE at the core of the curriculum in our Catholic schools helps us to fulfil our mission to educate the whole person. Religiously literate children and young people are able to engage in a fully informed critique of all knowledge, "leading, for example, to an understanding of the relationship between science and religion or history, and between theology, sport and the human body." (Religious Education Curriculum Directory p4).
At Our Lady Queen of Heaven we use the Come and See Religious Education programme in line with the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton. Central to the programme are three basic human questions and the three Christian beliefs that are the Church’s response in faith.
Where do I come from? Life – Creation
Who am I? Dignity – Incarnation
Why am I here? Purpose – Redemption
'Come and See' is an invitation to exploration and a promise of life for everyone. The invitation is open to all. 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) The disciples went with Jesus ‘and spent the rest of that day with him.’
Come and See is developed through three themes based on the key documents of the Second Vatican Council, each theme is gradually explored throughout the programme at greater depths. The three themes are: Church, Sacrament and Christian living. The structure of the programme allows teachers to help children explore the religious aspects of life, dignity and purpose within the Catholic tradition. Children reflect on personal experiences and links are made with Catholic and non-Catholic faith traditions. In each year, two other world faiths are taught: Judaism and Islam. Big questions are considered in the light of the Scriptures and Tradition of the Church, as expressed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The Come and See programme is separated into three themes in each term:
Autumn Term: | Spring Term: | Summer Term: |
Each theme is approached through the structure: Explore, Reveal and Respond.
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 (one week)
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 (two weeks)
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 Christians. 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 (one week)
- Remember is the first part of this section. The children will respond by remembering and celebrating all that they have learnt.
- Rejoice is the second part of the section. There will be the opportunity to plan and take part in a celebration.
- Renew the teacher helps each child to make an individual response, to hold on to and make their own, what they have understood of the topic.
WORLD FAITHS
As part of the ‘Come and See’ Religious Education programme all children will study for two weeks of the year, Judaism and one other World Religion, our chosen religion is Islam.
‘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)
SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural Development) / PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education)
Within the curriculum, learners’ spiritual, social, moral and cultural needs are addressed across the range of subjects taught. At Our Lady Queen of Heaven, learners are reflective about their own beliefs or religions and use their understanding to inform their perspective on life and their interest in and respect for different people’s faiths, feelings and values. Learners continuously discuss and develop their awareness and understanding of reasoned views about moral and ethical issues and appreciate the viewpoints of those around them.
Celebrations are a key within the school community and learners are keen to involve themselves in national celebrations, raising awareness and monies for charities helping them to contribute positively to life in school, the local community and on occasions the global community. Learners understand and appreciate the wide range of cultural influences that have shaped their own heritage and that of the school community around them. There is a willingness from all learners to participate in and respond positively to artistic, sporting and cultural opportunities that are offered.
RELATIONSHIPS AND SEX EDUCATION
"The focus in primary school should be on teaching the fundamental building blocks and characteristics of positive relationships, with particular reference to friendships, family relationships, and relationships with friendship is, what family means and who the people are who can support them. From the beginning of primary school, building on early education, pupils should be taught how to take turns, how to treat each other with kindness, consideration and respect, the importance of honesty and truthfulness, permission seeking and giving, and the concept of personal privacy. Establishing personal space and boundaries, showing respect and understanding the differences between appropriate and inappropriate or unsafe physical, and other, contact – these are the forerunners of teaching about consent, which takes place at secondary."(54&55)
Department of Education 2019
"Any teaching about love and sexual relationships in a Catholic school must be rooted in the Catholic Church’s teaching about what it is to be truly human in Christ, what it means to live well in relationship with others and be presented within a positive framework of Christian virtue.
The learning needs to reflect each stage of the development of the person. Since a Catholic school is committed to the education of the whole person, teaching on relationships and sexuality needs to be reflected in each relevant part of the curriculum. Whilst, for example, some aspects of RSE will be more appropriately explored in science lessons and some more appropriately explored in RE lessons, each should be informed by the other. Each discipline should speak with consistency about the meaning of human love and the virtues that are enshrined in the Church’s teaching on human love.
A well-planned programme will not just ensure that there is correspondence between phases and across disciplines but will ensure that parents are fully involved in the planning and evaluation of the teaching of relationships and sexuality."
A Model Catholic RSE Curriculum", Catholic Education Service
At Our Lady Queen of Heaven, Relationships and Sex Education is taught through a whole school policy and the scheme ‘Journey in Love’ and the use of Ten:Ten Resources as recommended by the Diocese. Where possible, it is integrated into other areas of the curriculum such as religious education, science and SMSC. It is always taught within the context of the church’s teaching on sexual relationships. Parents are given the opportunity to discuss what their child will be learning so that they can support their child’s work at home. Any questions that children ask are answered sensitively and in a caring manner. Lessons and resources are always chosen to suit to the age of the children.
RE in Action
School Video
