Religious Education Curriculum

Aim

We believe that our primary aim as Catholic schools is to provide a holistic curriculum which develops every aspect of each of our children; spiritually, morally, academically, emotionally, socially, culturally and physically. We want our children to be the best they can be, be stewards of our Earth and see Christ in themselves and each other.

Daily prayer times and weekly reflections provide children with time to think of others' intentions and meditate on scripture and children spend several weeks each year learning about other faiths, Judaism, Sikhism, Islam and Hinduism. Collective worship embeds the Catholic ethos bringing home, school and parish together through the celebrations of mass, liturgy, assemblies, prayer and song.

At St Joseph's, we follow a Religious Education Scheme called The Way The Truth and The Life. Lessons consist of written, artistic and creative tasks aimed to allow all to succeed. These tasks create interest, passion and enthusiasm for the subject, for example building a Lego church in Year 2, taking part in the re-enactment of the accession of Jesus into Heaven, reading and analysing text messages from the disciple Peter to Jesus in Year 4 and evaluating Catholic social teaching in Year 6.

We are proud that:

• As a Catholic school we teach our children to think of what each of us can do to make a positive difference to others. Our families are extremely generous in their charitable donations and support of others who are less fortunate than ourselves. This is shown by the donations to the local Food Bank each year and the amount raised across the year for a number of charities including, The Manner Centre, CAFOD and the Catholic Children's Society Crisis Fund.
• Following a programme of preparation taught in our school every year our two Year 3 classes receive their First Holy Communion at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, supported by our school community.