RE
At St Joseph's Catholic Primary School, we feel that Religious Education runs right through the whole of our school life and we are incredibly proud of the way children engage in Gospel Values and their own spiritual development.
10% of our teaching time is directly spent on teaching RE for which we use either the 'Come and See' curriculum (Years 2, 3, 4 and 5) or the new The new Religious Education Directory (RED) in the EYFS and Years 1 and 6
The new RED curriculum will be implemented across the school completely by September 2025.
http://www.comeandseere.co.uk/
Click on these links below for more information about our RE teaching and curriculum coverage.
St Joseph's Catholic School RE Statement
Catholic School's Inspection Report February 2022
Information for parents - Summer Term 2023
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Daily Christian Meditation
We have a daily act of worship and each class holds a Christian Meditation session after lunch for five minutes. Christian Meditation, alongside collective worship and prayer are an integral part of school life. Children have talked enthusiastically about how this helps them settle for the afternoon's work and how they enjoy the opportunity to engage with God for just a short part of their day.
The children take it in turns to set up the prayer focus.
We also have several prayer spaces outside too, which children can visit alone or gather together in, to quietly reflect and pray and spend time talking to God and reflecting on their faith.
At St Joseph's we pray together throughout the day. Our classroom prayers are learnt by children from their early days in school and are said each and every day. These are a few of the prayers that may be said during the school day.
Morning Prayer:
Thank you, God for this new day In my school to work and play. Please be with me all day long In every story, game and song. May all the happy things we do Make you Our Father, happy too.
Amen
Lunchtime Prayer:
Bless us O God as we sit together Bless the food we eat today, Bless the hands that make the food, Bless us O God Amen.
Prayer for the end of the school day:
At the end of the day, we come to say
Thank you for your love today.
Thank you for our families
And all the friends you give to me.
Guard me through the dark of night
and in the morning send your light.
Amen.
These prayers are in addition to the ‘Our Father’, ‘Hail Mary’ and the ‘Glory be ’.
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We meet together every day for worship in assemblies and collective acts of worship. Our Assemblies are used to unite and celebrate our school. Individual and group achievements are celebrated, talents and interests of individuals are observed, news from other parts of the school is shared, current issues are discussed and the need for positive Christian qualities are emphasised.
The Church’s Liturgical Year is reflected in our Assemblies and Acts of Worship. We come together as a whole school as well as in Key Stages and in several class acts of worship.
Wherever possible, children lead and take part in these acts of worship.
We come together as a community to celebrate events such as Harvest, Christmas and Easter. Our parish priest regularly takes Mass in school.
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Our class collective worship each week is based on
"The Wednesday Word." It details Sunday's Gospel, connecting home, school and parish.
The Wednesday Word is now available on line. Click here for access.
Each child's RE work is kept in their own RE book. These are very special books that contain individual and thoughtful reflections of pupils' religious journeys through the topics throughout the year.
Each class also keeps a shared learning journey that details parts of the RE coverage that children do not record individually in their RE books. This might include role play, group responses to Scripture, photographs and individual responses to a visitor etc.
We try to plan creative activities as part of the children's RE learning wherever possible. Here are some pages from our SLJ's.
Catholic Social Teaching (CST) is based on the belief that God has a plan for creation, a plan to build his kingdom of peace, love and justice.
Our part in this is a kind of vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as our brothers and sisters. It is something that we all share.
The Catholic Church has seven principles of social teaching that we share with our children through all that we do, through the curriculum, special events and activity and through our ordinary actions in school.
Pope Francis emphasises that it is our duty to work together to bring about a more just and peaceful world: to put love into action. It is vital that our children can articulate the connection between Jesus’ teaching and doing good deeds.
How do we implement Catholic Social Teaching at St Joseph's?
Catholic Social Teaching underpins the essence of our daily school life and we are keen to address elements of CST throughout all aspects of our curriculum.
We are proud to be part of the 'Our City Our World' initiative and encourage our students to think about the world they live in and how we can work together to look after the planet.
Please click HERE for more information on sustainability at St Joseph's.
How you can support your child at home with RE
Talk to your children about daily happenings. Encourage them to reflect on their own and other's behaviours by relating them to Jesus’ teachings. Encourage them to ask deeper questions that explore their understanding of their own faith.
Useful websites:
