St Columba's RC Primary School

Religious Education in Our School

Religious Education is a core subject. At St Columbas, we aim to guide the children to become religiously literate young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills to think spiritually and theologically and who are aware of how their religion is a part of their everyday lives.

Religious Education is taught for at least 10% of the weekly timetable. Our Religious Education curriculum is based on the delivery of the Curriculum Directory supported by the Come and See scheme of work which is used as a guide for the teaching and learning of Religious Education throughout the school. Our RE curriculum enables the children to explore key questions of life from the Christian tradition and how to put what they have learnt into context. We work closely with our local Parish to prepare liturgies and we value the partnership between home, school, parish and the wider community.

The primary purpose of Catholic Education is the step by step study of the mystery of Christ, the teaching of the Church and its application in daily life, therefore the principal aims of the school in terms of the Religious Education which it provides are:

• to lead the children to a deepening knowledge and understanding of the Catholic Faith.
• to provide opportunities for the children to develop a loving relationship with God and their neighbour.
• to encourage children to respect and be fully aware of the needs of others as equal members of God’s creation.

There are many opportunities for all children to explore their faith and deepen their relationship with Christ. This includes daily acts of worship, weekly assemblies, regular classroom/parish based liturgies and celebration of mass. We make twice yearly visits to our local church where we join together with parishioners for a celebration of mass. The Pupil GIFT team play a fundamental part in the religious life of our school.

 Other Faiths

To raise pupils’ awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them, the whole school spends time learning about different beliefs and cultures.   As we learn about other faiths, we come together to share our experiences through whole school celebrations.

Come and See Scheme of Work

St Columba's follows the Come and See programme of Religious Education recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool. The aim of this programme is to explore questions about life, dignity and purpose within the Catholic tradition.

Each year group from Nursery to year 6 have their own list of focus topics to cover throughout the academic year all linked by a central theme. The topics will coincide with the church calendar however, the depth in which the topic is explored is dependent upon the respective age of the child.

Each topic is split into 3 sections-

Explore

Reveal

Respond

Children remember and celebrate what they have learnt and apply their knowledge individually.

Children learn through shared experience and make connections between life’s experiences and the gospel teachings. Teaching methods stimulate activities resulting in a response from the ‘heart’ of the child, developing attitudes of respect and reverence and an understanding that following Jesus is a call to holiness and wholeness of life.

Below is a yearly overview of the topics your child will be learning in Religious Education: 

Read our newsletter to find out what's happening in Religious Education in school this term and important religious dates for your diary: