Religious Education

Religious Education is an integral part of our lives at St. Joseph’s School. We are members of the Body of Christ and members of a Christian Community and recognise that we are all at different stages of our faith journey. Therefore, through our Religious Education program and the way we use Christ’s teaching within every aspect of our school and lives, we can develop a deep understanding of our faith which will help us to love and serve God in our daily lives, both now and in the future,

Aims

Our aims for Religious Education will be to enrich the lives of the children in the;

  • Love of God for everyone and everything He has created.
  • Understanding of the Good News of the Lord, to enable them to respond to His love.
  • Teaching of the Catholic faith and how their lives should be shaped by their beliefs and values.
  • Growth of faith by relating the Gospels to their lives and levels of understanding.
  • Development of worship and prayer, allowing children to take a leading role.
  • Awareness and respect of other Christian faiths, world faiths and cultures.
  • Standards to be high and children to be challenged in their understanding so that they can deepen this.

RE guidelines and dates

Come And See Yearly Overview Planner

Advent Term 2024 Parent Letter

Lent Term 2025 Parent Letter

At the heart of our RE curriculum are our ‘Big Questions’, which ultimately drive the learning of the topic. These questions remain open ended and challenging, providing children with opportunities to engage with the deepest questions of life (Peter 3:15), encouraging pupil collaboration, discussion and reflection. Children are exposed to the mystery of God, the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Church, lives of Saints and the relationship between faith and life. Please find the ‘Topic and Big Questions’ grid below.

Big Questions Grid Liturgical Colours

RE Homework at St Joseph’s 

Across school, children are set RE homework to encourage home school links in Religious Education. These are sent home at the beginning of each topic and can be found below. In addition, knowledge organisers are used to share key learning and allow children to build on knowledge to answer their Big Question.

Homework Grid RE Advent Topic 1- Domestic Church 

Homework Grid RE Advent Topic 2- Belonging 

Homework Grid RE Advent Topic 3– Advent/ Christmas

Homework Grid RE Lent Topic 1– Local Church

Homework Grid RE Lent Topic 2- Eucharist 

RE Knowledge Organisers

Knowledge organisers are documents which allow children and parents to look for key information about the topics they are covering in RE. These can help with retrieval and when having discussions about RE at home. On each knowledge organiser, there is also a prayer and scripture reference to support children and families in their prayer.

 

 

RE Galleries, Presentations and Assemblies

Across the year, classes share their RE learning with parents and the parish. Each class has the opportunity to display their work in an RE Gallery and showcase their learning in a Come and See Assembly. These are planned across the year and allow children to share the answer to their ‘Big Question’ is a creative way.

New Religious Education Directory (R.E.D.) launching in September 2026 

‘To Know You More Clearly’ is the new programme of study that will become statutory in all Catholic Schools in England and Wales from September 2026 and will replace the previous programme of study listed above. This is for all children aged 3-19 who are educated in a Catholic setting, and aims to provide a model curriculum for schools.  

As the statutory requirements do not come into effect until 2026, St Joseph’s is continuing to teach from the ‘Come and See’ programme.

Assessment in Religious Education 

We assess our children in RE using the Nottingham Diocese End of Year Expectations document, which uses key driver words for each year group. We make use of external and internal moderation opportunities to ensure the quality of teacher’s judgments, as well as half-termly book scrutiny to ensure work is engaging and is sufficiently challenging for all pupils.

End Of Year Expectations