How we teach RE at St Mary's
At St Mary’s we believe that the outcome of excellent religious education is religiously literate and consciously engaged young people who have the knowledge, understanding, and skills- appropriate to their age and capacity- to reflect spiritually, and think ethically and theologically, and who recognise the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.
Religious education is at the heart of everything we do at St Mary’s and is delivered within a broad and balanced curriculum, where it informs every aspect of the curriculum underpinned by our two curriculum drivers; faith and oracy and our Mission Statement, ‘St Mary’s school community follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, working together to develop the whole child in a spiritual, moral, academic, physical, social and emotional way, within a caring and supportive environment.’
At St Mary’s we follow the model curriculum as set out in the Religious Education Directory, ‘To Know You More Clearly’. Religious Education lessons equate to 10% of the curriculum timetable, distributed throughout the week.
The programme of study has a framework with four structural elements; knowledge lenses, ways of knowing, expected outcomes and curriculum branches.
Knowledge Lenses:
These set out the object of study for pupils and indicate what should be known by the end of each age-phase. They divide the content of the programme of study into four systematic subsections for the study of Catholicism and two additional lenses for the study of religious and worldviews, which together comprise the six knowledge lenses of: hear, believe, celebrate and live (the study of the Catholic religion), dialogue and encounter (the study of other religions and worldviews).
Ways of Knowing
These set out the skills that pupils should be developing as they progress through their curriculum journey. Whenever we know something we always know it more than one way: we remember it, we critically assimilate, and we put it into practice. The three ways of knowing are: understand, discern and respond.
Expected Outcomes:
These are a synthesis of the content outlined in the knowledge lenses and the skills described in the ways of knowing. Expected outcomes for each age-range can be found in our progression map below.
Curriculum Branches
The curriculum is organised into six branches that correspond to the six half-terms of a school year which are:
1. Creation and Covenant:
In this branch, pupils will encounter the God who creates and calls a people. They will explore revelation of the Christian belief that all that is comes from God, the Creation accounts in Genesis, and scientific explanations of the process of Creation. They will explore the call of God and his covenantal relationship with his people first through Abraham and Moses, then through the narrative of the Old Testament.
2. Prophecy and promise:
In this branch, pupils will explore the Christian understanding of the teaching of the prophets as they point to the fulfilment of God’s promise in a messiah, Jesus Christ. They will explore the expectant waiting for the Messiah through the Advent season and how this speaks to Christians today as they wait for Christ. Pupils will encounter the story of the nativity of Jesus and the mystery of the incarnation.
3. Galilee to Jerusalem:
In this branch, pupils will experience the ministry of Jesus, the Word of God. They will learn about the life of Jesus and his revelation of the Kingdom of God through parables, encounters, miracles, and teachings. They will learn about the call of the disciples and the nature of being a follower of Jesus.
4. Desert to garden:
In this branch, pupils will study the season of Lent and its culmination in the events of Holy Week. They will learn about the Paschal Triduum at the heart of the Catholic Church’s Liturgy and life. The title of this branch points both to the liturgical journey from the desert of Lent to the garden of Resurrection, but also to the Paschal journey from darkness to light, barrenness to fruitfulness, death to life.
5. To the ends of the Earth:
In this branch, pupils will study the events that flowed from the Resurrection and Ascension in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work of the apostles and early Church. They will also learn about the Catholic Church today as the apostolic Church and how its liturgy and structures flow from the early Church.
6. Dialogue and encounter:
In this branch, pupils will learn how Christians work together with people of different religious convictions and all people of goodwill towards the common good, respecting the dignity of all humanity. They will also encounter other pathways of belief drawing on the teaching of the Church about intercultural dialogue.
Each of these branches has a core theme and invites pupils to learn about an aspect of Revelation, Scripture, life in Christ, and the life in the Church, and to discern what their learning means academically and experientially enabling them to see, judge, and act through a deeper knowledge of the Christian faith.
Impact
As the model curriculum is rooted in the narrative of salvation history, it leads pupils on a journey in each year of schooling that gives a sequence to the learning. As they revisit each branch in each year of school, they come to a deeper understanding of its significance for Catholic belief and practice, which allows them to make links between the four knowledge lenses within the context of the narrative of salvation history. At St Mary’s we are passionate about ensuring the children are able to live and celebrate the Catholic beliefs using the scripture they have learnt as their guide. We expect pupils to embody the Catholic Social Teaching Principles and each half term there will be a different focus for us to reflect and act upon.
EXPECTED STANDARDS PROGESSION OF SKILLS
KNOWLEDGE LENS PROGESSION OF SKILLS
INTENT IMPLEMENTATION AND IMPACT STATEMENT
British Values and our Catholic Ethos September 2025
Collective Worship Policy 2023
Guidance on Prayer 2023
RE Assessment 2023
RE Guidelines 2023
Spiritual and Moral Development
RED (To Know You More Clearly)
Statement on Religious Education in Catholic Schools
Religious Education in Catholic Schools