1. The Divine Mercy RC Primary School - RE Curriculum Intent

 “Act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8)

At The Divine Mercy we reflect the Religious Education Curriculum Directory’s aims to:

• To bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture;
• To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understanding of other subjects in the curriculum;
• To raise pupil’s awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them;
• To develop the critical faculties of pupils so that they can relate their Catholic faith to daily life;
• To present engagingly a comprehensive content which is the basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith;
• To enable pupils continually to deepen their religious and theological understanding and be able to communicate this effectively;
• To present an authentic vision of the Church’s moral and social teaching so that pupils can make a critique of the underlying trends in contemporary culture and society;
• To stimulate pupils’ imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith;

1. In this subject:

We are a Catholic school and we are committed to the Catholic Faith, recognising and valuing every individual as special and unique in the image and likeness of God.  Religious Education at The Divine Mercy respects and promotes each child’s innate capacity for wonder, awe, reverence and spirituality. Our Religious Education curriculum leads our children to aspire not to have more, but to be more; children are taught about God’s love; they learn about their Christian responsibilities; children are provided with experiences of church, Catholic and Christian traditions, as well as being taught to be respectful and understanding of people and traditions from other faith backgrounds. Through Religious Education our children learn about their unique place within the home, school and parish community, whilst keeping Christ at the centre of their lives.

All pupils can reflect on their purpose in a Catholic school by looking at the values in the Gospels and the teaching of the Beatitudes.  Pupils are assessed using the RECD and encouraged to try their best with every objective and aim.  Outside of lessons, pupils are encouraged to be prayerful and use worship as a form of communication with God, especially in times of need.  Using documents such as ‘Caritas in Action’ and the CAFOD Universal Church resources, pupils will experience life through activism of faith.  Pupils should feel free to stand up to injustice and to spread the Word of God to their peers and the wider community. The standard of work in RE should be at least as good as the quality found in other subjects, especially English.  Using ‘Building the Kingdom’ termly meetings, our teaching is rooted in Catholic Social teaching, not only in RE, but throughout the curriculum. The work in pupil’s books should be of a very high standard.  Pupils are encouraged to reflect on their work and use prayer times to reflect on themselves as learners and members of society.  Using RSE schemes such as ‘Journey in Love’ we teach about respect for all members of the community, in line with the teaching of the Catholic Church and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.

Jesus I Trust in You