Intent

At St Augustine’s School, the intent of Religious Education is to support children to acquire and develop a deep knowledge and understanding of their Catholic faith. We acknowledge and understand that Religious Education is a lifelong process and recognises that the primary years are significant in the lasting impact they have upon our children. It is also linked with our school curriculum and is a thread running through everything we do here.

The aims of religious education in St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School include the following:

• To create a safe, secure and stimulating learning environment.
• To deepen knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith through prayer and the Gospels.
• Helping to foster pupil’s awareness that our Christian faith is not just a subject for learning, but a  complete way of life.
• To promote the spiritual and moral development of the children.
• To lead the children to a living and active faith by helping them to become aware of God’s presence in their lives, to listen to Him and to respond to His invitation to enter into a personal relationship with Him through prayer.
• To give the children the experience of a Christian caring and inclusive community where all members are valued.
• To involve parents/carers in the spiritual development of their children.

Implementation

Our aim is to develop children’s love and enjoyment of RE. Children should become knowledgeable about their faith and deepen their understanding of how Scripture, Church teachings and traditions, shape their lives today.

• R.E is a core subject and we follow the ‘Come and See’ program of study.
• We always endeavour to plan for outstanding knowledge, understanding, progress and attainment.
• Our assemblies support learning by being based around values, Catholic Social Teaching, feast days, incorporating many faiths and customs and other important world events.
• Everyday the children engage in collective Prayer and Liturgy. Children pray together, sign hymns together, learn together and reflect on aspects of our Faith together. Using the context of both their own and their shared school experiences to deepen their knowledge and understanding. We have mass in school using our beautiful chapel area on various feast days across the year. We also take the opportunity to have mass at our Parish Church ‘Our Lady of Good Counsel’. Visits to the church help develop a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith, linked to our curriculum concepts.

As well as learning about Catholicism, we believe it is important for our children to learn about other World Faiths as these also make up part of our immediate community. Throughout the year, we have 5 additional 'R.E. Days', each one focusing on a different World Faith - these include Sikhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam & Buddhism.

Catholic Social Teachings

At St. Augustine’s we aim to respond to the needs of learners and their interests. We also incorporate Catholic Social Teachings, in order to consolidate Pope Francis’ encyclical – Fratelli Tutti. It is important for our pupils to have an understanding of their rights and responsibilities both to themselves and the Common Good. This will also allow them to develop a sense of identity, find their place in the world, and make positive contributions to society. Children are encouraged to be resilient and develop the knowledge needed to keep themselves and others safe, make well-informed decisions using their learning as a moral compass, be respectful and tolerant, and uphold the British Values and the Values of the Gospel.

Impact

The children of St Augustine’s are able to talk about their own faith in a reflective and knowledgeable manner. Through class discussions they are encouraged to ask questions and challenge beliefs, enabling them to justify their own opinions linking their thoughts with their knowledge of the scripture and their own experiences. They continue to demonstrate their learning through the reflective work they produce in their RE book and the shared learning opportunities as evidenced in the RE Big Books. RE is assessed like any other core curriculum subject, there is a high expectation for the quality of the work produced.

Through the RE curriculum and the experiences our children are exposed as part of the Catholic Life of our school, children will be able to make connections between their own lives and the lives of those in our local community and in the wider world. Children will also develop an understanding about other cultures and the importance and dignity of human life.

As part of our learning journey, we will always aim to be evaluative and regularly review our practice. We have a robust Monitoring Cycle that supports our school evaluation process.

We believe the real impact of our curriculum comes through in the strength of character and determination of our pupils to live out the values of the Catholic faith.

Finding out about other faiths in EYFS.

   Exploring the toy Mosque.           Learning a Passover song.                Painting our D

iva lamps.