Religious Education

 

Religious Curriculum Intent

Mission Statement

Our Mission Statement is our Whole School Prayer which is taught from Nursery and prayed and lived out daily in our school.

GOD LIVES IN ME

God lives in me. I am His witness.

I respect everybody, everybody respects me.

In our loving school, everyone is unique.

Just like the flowers in the field, as they

grow, we too grow in God’s love each day.

Rationale Of Religious Education:

Here at St Alphonsus, Religious Education is the beating heart of our school and we believe that God is the central focus for everything we do- ‘God lives in me’ (School Mission Prayer). Religious Education is considered as our ultimate core subject and the Holy Bible is our core text. We have a shared vision of where we believe the school is headed, and this is based upon our “community of faith” in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and religious education is where that faith seeks understanding. The primary aim of Religious Education in our Catholic school is to engage in a comprehensive and systematic study of the mystery of God, of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Church, the central beliefs that Catholics hold, the basis for them and the relationship between faith and life.

All members of our school community have a common goal, a common purpose, common values, working together for the common good. Our school community, at St Alphonsus, includes everybody involved in the Catholic social, moral, spiritual, cultural and educational development of the children in which Christ is our foundation.

Religious Education permeates the whole of St Alphonsus’ school curriculum and each day, children are provided with enriched engaging opportunities to apply their faith, knowledge and skills in cross curricular studies to deepen their understanding of religious truths and allow them to think spiritually and creatively, deepen and enhance their personal faith, or discover answers to the deepest questions of life. This is provided within an atmosphere of love, controlled freedom and enjoyment where children are motivated and challenged in order to develop positive self-concepts and are encouraged to be loving, thoughtful, spiritual, resilient, tolerant and independent learners.

As they ‘grow in God’s love each day’ (School Mission Prayer), they have the knowledge and confidence to reach their full individual potential -we strongly believe in our school motto: ‘Nothing is impossible to a willing heart’ because we know that ‘With God, all things are possible.’ (Matthew 19:26)

 

Dialogue and encounter

Each classroom is a place of respectful dialogue. We believe Religious Education has an important part to play in this dialogue, by presenting a curriculum that includes a study of other religious traditions and worldviews. Every day, at St Alphonsus, we celebrate the diverse nature of our school community so that we can promote respectful dialogue and live out the teachings of The Catholic Church which teaches us that by virtue of their baptism, Catholics are called to engage in dialogue with others. Opportunities for a variety of cultural expressions to coexist in our school is therefore a natural occurrence. This dialogical attitude is nurtured in our school through its provision of a pluralistic Religious Education curriculum and its modelling of respectful dialogue in every day classroom practice. Our aim is to prepare pupils for the world they will encounter outside of the Catholic atmospheres of the home, parish, and school. In addition, the provision of a pluralistic curriculum opens for pupils, the opportunity to engage in meaningful interreligious and intercultural dialogue that is relevant to all pupils, not just to those who are Catholic. (RED, 2023)

Our aims are:

• To promote an atmosphere of reconciliation within which differences are resolved with patience and understanding so that each new day brings a fresh start – “To be like Jesus”
• To provide opportunities for celebration, prayer, daily worship and reflection in implicit and explicit ways.
• To provide children with the language of religious experience – a “literacy” in religious activities, places, stories, symbols and rituals, people and objects, through a range of creative teaching styles.
• To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understanding of other subjects, making links and connections, appreciating the impact which their faith has on the lives of others.
• To provide a systematic presentation of the Christian event, message and way of life, stimulating pupils’ imagination and provoking a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith.
• To raise pupils’ awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them;
• To prepare children for the participation in, and appreciation of, the blessed sacraments.
• To develop co-operation between home, school and parish based on mutual respect and support.

 

Religious Education Implementation

Our planned and taught curriculum for Religious Education is based on the Religious Education Curriculum Directory (3-19) for Catholic schools.’ To Know You More Clearly’ is the new Religious Education Directory (RED), which is to be implemented by all primary schools by September 2026. 

At St Alphonsus RC Primary, we have followed Salford Diocese’s guidance and recommendation for the implementation of the RED and are now in our second year of implementation. We are now using the Oxford University Press scheme ‘Lighting the Path’ for Early Years, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

The school has a curriculum map for Religious Education based on the objectives set out in the RED.

Teachers follow the RED model curriculum as the basis for planning, teaching, learning and assessment, supplemented by resources from ‘Lighting the Path’ and Salford Diocese. Teachers will also use additional appropriate resources that work to enhance the teaching and learning of religious education.

As of September 2026, the ‘Lighting the Path’ scheme is now implemented fully across the school to supplement the RED.

Religious Education is planned, taught, assessed and monitored with the same rigour as other core curriculum subjects.

10% of the curriculum teaching time is timetabled and dedicated to RE in all classes in line with the requirements set out by the Bishops of England and Wales.  

Religious Education Impact

Through a well-structured religious curriculum using the six liturgical branches, knowledge lenses and ways of knowing set out in the RED, our pupils acquire a secure, comprehensive, progressive and deep understanding of the Catholic Church, faith, Scripture, Catholic tradition and Sacramental life. They demonstrate profound respect, sensitivity and understanding towards other world faiths and worldviews.

They are confident at using specialist religious vocabulary to articulate their understanding and reflections on faith. Our children are consciously engaged young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to their age and capacity – to reflect spiritually, think theologically and reflect deeply on ethical choices, recognising how their faith influences their personal decision-making and the lives of others in their community and globally.

Pupils at St Alphonsus make meaningful links between Sacred Scripture and their daily actions, demonstrating our school values of: love, respect, forgiveness and growth, and Gospel values such as compassion, justice and empathy. They have a strong sense of God’s presence in their lives: ‘God lives in me’, demonstrated through their engagement in the religious curriculum; a range of prayer and worship; interaction and dialogue with others and the ability to apply scripture and the principles of Catholic Social Teaching meaningfully in their daily lives.