Religion, Values and Ethics

As a Catholic School, we devote 10% of curriculum time to the teaching of Religious Education, Values and Ethics (REVE); this is separate from times of prayer and collective worship, such as assemblies, liturgies and class prayer which happen in addition to the taught curriculum. This means we have 2.5 hours per week of taught REVE for pupils in Reception to Year 6 and 1.25 hours for our Nursery Pupils.

As a Catholic School, our curriculum model centres on the pupil’s relationship with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, which is at the heart of all we do. Our school mission statement of "We live, learn and grow together in Jesus" runs through all that we do.

Teachers use the Religious Education Directory (RED) to plan engaging lessons that allow children to know Jesus more deeply. The RED is separated into 6 branches, each of which are studied each year. Within each branch of the curriculum, there are six "knowledge lenses", four concerned with the study of the Catholic faith and two concerned with the study of other religions and worldviews:

Hear - in which children hear the Word of God through reading stories from the Bible

Believe - in which children learn about what Catholic Christians believes and teaches

Celebrate - in which children learn about liturgy, prayers and sacraments

Live - in which children learn about how we are called to live. It incorporates Catholic Social Teaching.

Within each unit of work, there are lots of opportunities to combine knowledge lenses so these areas are not taught in isolation. REVE lessons involve creativity, discussion and active learning about what it means to be Catholic.

The two other lenses, called "dialogue" and "encounter", focus on the importance of dialogue in our pluralistic world. Children study how those who profess other religions or worldview understand the world on their own terms.

The topics generally coincide with the church calendar. However, the depth in which the topic is explored is dependent upon the respective age of the child. For example, during Lent, whilst all children will learn about the plight of Christ, our younger children will consider the importance of growing and new life while our older children consider the importance of self-discipline, sacrifice, death and new life.