Intent, Implementation, Impact

Religious Education Intent

At the Rosary Catholic Primary School, we believe that every child is a child of God and that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. Religious Education contributes significantly to the ethos of our school and we encourage our children to place Gospel Values at the centre of their interaction with each other.

We believe that each child has been blessed with unique gifts and contributions to make the world we live in. Our Religious Education curriculum is intended to recognise, nurture and develop these gifts, talents and abilities.  “The school’s vision ‘Aspire, Believe, Achieve’ is shown in the variety of school opportunities given for human flourishing,” Diocesan Inspection 2019.

It is our intent for the Religious Education curriculum to engage, inspire, challenge and encourage our children, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to answer challenging questions.

By the time children leave The Rosary, they will have mastered a range of skills that will support their future development. These are –

• To have a sense of curiosity and enjoyment in Religious Education by promoting awe, wonder, reverence and spirituality within every child.
• To experience Cultural Capital in a variety of different forms in Religious Education by exposing pupils to a wide range of experiences; school trips, workshops, places of worship.
• To be resilient, independent and self-motivated pupils by participating in class debates and discussions where they are able to express their beliefs in a safe and respected environment.
• To ask questions and to problem solve with a curriculum that enables pupils to ask deep and often searching questions about their own faith and beliefs, and the beliefs, faith and opinions of others.  
• To be global citizens of the twenty first century children are given opportunities to discuss the challenges in the world today and practise showing love for others especially the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, by participating in charitable work.

Religious Education Implementation

At the Rosary, Religious Education is at the centre of everything we do as a Catholic school and permeates through every aspect of the curriculum and school life. We ensure that a minimum of 10% of Curriculum time is allocated for RE teaching across all key stages. The requirements of the RE curriculum are met through the scheme ‘The Way the Truth and The Life’ which  in turn meets the requirements of the Religious Education Curriculum Directory set out by the Bishop’s Conference of England Wales. All requirements at The Rosary are met at a standard that equals or is better than those of Literacy at all key stages and Foundation stage.

Christ is at the centre of our curriculum and, to this end, we promote and foster opportunities for our children’s R.E. learning to be developed through all curriculum areas. We teach the wonder and beauty of God’s creation across the curriculum, for example, in Science, Geography, English and Maths. We seek to offer experiential learning where children aspire not to have more but to be more. Our R.E. curriculum reaches out into their world by providing opportunities to develop links with the local communities and parishes. We seek to foster a lifelong faith journey so personalise this to reflect the children’s background and experiences. Our R.E. curriculum offers the knowledge and experiential-based learning our children deserve and need to continue on their journey to reach their full potential and become missionary disciples. We ensure that pupils develop a clear understanding of other faiths through our ‘Learning About other Faiths’ curriculum across the school from EYFS to Year 6 but also through visits to the local gurdwara, mosque and synagogue.

Through the high standard and exceptional teaching of RE, pupils are inspired to become critical thinkers and to reflect deeply upon their own faith journey. They are challenged through the topics taught, to think about how they put the teachings of the church and Jesus into practise in their own daily lives. The children are encouraged to continually think about their own spirituality and teachers plan opportunities for children to explore this through discussion, lesson, prayer and weekly Collective Worship. A high priority is given to the formation of pupils in their understanding of, involvement in and service to building the Kingdom of God and taking care of our common home.

Each phase uses the Age-Related Standards to assess the attainment of the children and their progress is tracked on a termly basis. The children complete an assessed piece of work which is moderated by staff across the school termly to ensure judgements are well evidenced and verified. Children are assessed not only on the content of their assessment piece but on their individual, group and oral work through each topic. This enables both class teachers and the subject leader to monitor coverage and identify progress made throughout the pupils’ time at school.

Religious Education Impact

As a result of our broad and balanced curriculum offer, children at The Rosary enjoy Religious Education and learning about other religions and why people choose to follow a religion. Through RE learning, the children are able to make links between their own lives and those of others in their community and in the wider world.

• Deepen their appreciation of their faith and fulfil their God-given talents.
• Children will develop their relationship with God and become religiously literate.
• Children are confident, resilient and actively engaged in the wider society.
• Produce good quality work which they are proud of.
• Achieve consistently well in all areas of Religious Education and make exceptional progress.
• Are happy, well-rounded individuals who have developed a deep-rooted relationship with God and understanding of their Catholic faith.
• Through wider reading in RE, children will know about a wide variety of Saints, how we can learn from their example, and historical religious events and figures. They will be able to make links between Jesus’ life and teaching and link it to their own lives, making links between different forms of Christian action, such as in rituals and charitable acts.
• Are ambassadors for Christ who are ready to go out into the world and proclaim the values of the Gospel confidently, building the Kingdom of God through compassion, justice, love and forgiveness in their relationship with others.
• Children will be able to define, describe and discuss areas of RE. They will confidently use skills such as retelling, describing, comparing, giving reasons, explaining the meaning of biblical stories and considering the impact of beliefs.
• Understand that they are part of the family of God and know how they can play their part in this Global family united by Christ.
  
  
• In Class Feedback

Informal assessments are made by the teacher through observation, marking and plenary of lessons. Children are also involved in self-assessment during lessons. The marking of children’s work is consistent with the school’s marking policy. Teachers give constructive feedback which involves closing the gap Next Steps in order to extend the children’s learning. Teachers may use some of the questions in the NEW AGREED LEVELS document to support their marking.

• Assessment

Assessment within each topic is ongoing. Teachers assess each child and give a ‘best fit’ judgement using the Age-Related Standards each term. This ‘best fit’ judgement will be based on evidence gathered from two formally assessed piece of work as well as other pieces of pupils’ work that term.

Teachers plan and assess against the ‘I can’ statements created by the RE Coordinator for each topic and are taken from the Age-Related Standards. The ‘I can’ statements are adapted to the key learning of each topic. At the beginning of every half termly topic, teachers meet to forward plan an assessment task for the topic so that all learning in the topic supports achievement of the assessment task. During this meeting teachers decided on their topic focus, vocabulary and assessment task using The Way, The Truth and The Life programme to support this. Sometimes the school will use an assessment task suggested by the Diocese, so the REC can collaborate with Diocese in assessing the same tasks.

• School Report

Parents are informed of their child’s progress at parent consultations and at the end of the year as part of a written report.

• Partnership

As a school we realise and understand that parents are the first educators of their children. We aim to work in partnership to develop the children in our care to be the best that they can be.  To develop our partnership with home, parents are invited to whole school masses at the beginning and end of each term along with whole school masses for particular Holy days of obligation. Our school is fortunate to be in close proximity to our Parish Church, Our Lady Queen of Apostles which allows for regular visits from Fr Luigi and Fr Ritchie. We attend Parish masses in the Church on a regular basis, participating in the readings, prayers and offertory.

In partnership, we aim for all children to:

Aspire, Believe, Achieve: Together in Christ.

            21^st Century World; 21^st Century Learners