Religion

Intent

At Holy Name, we see each individual child as a child of God. We want to enable every child and adult to 'have life to the full'; cultivating an attitude of respect for each other among the whole community. We all have a responsibility at Holy Name to follow Jesus and help and support each other in our community. We try to be fair, we care about each other and always try to help, including those less fortunate than us and those outside of our community.

Our Religion curriculum has been specifically tailored to meet the unique multi-faith context of our school through welcoming, worshipping witnessing, whilst thinking about the welfare of all staff and pupils and ensuring the Word is taught and mastered throughout teaching and Gospel assemblies. The curriculum is designed to be broad and balanced, providing all pupils with the opportunity to master their learning and deepen their knowledge showing a greater understanding of how to answer the big questions in Religion, which helps them to transform our society, putting their faith into action and being like Jesus in all that they do.

Our Religion curriculum develops links with the Diocesan Hope in the Future and how all the children can grow just like the mustard seeds in the Parable of the Sower. We recognise how to inspire children to celebrate their gifts and talents alongside their uniqueness in all they do, which will help them to put their own faiths into action. We are developing links with the parish community and ways in which we can work together to develop our faith with a multi-modal approach.

As a Catholic school, we are deeply committed to developing the faith of all children with Jesus Christ as our inspiration and guiding light. Our school is inspired through our school saints of St Don Bosco, St Joseph, St Martin and St Therese as role models of how we can be more like them in all we do. With the school having children from all around the world with a multi-faith background, we teach and develop the knowledge of other faiths with children. The children have a great understanding of other faiths and world religions. Throughout the year children have opportunities to celebrate key celebrations and activities through learning days, assemblies and a range of scriptures.

Within our school, the Gift Team are a key part of developing the faith of our school. They lead in prayer, assemblies and work on how we can develop our prayer and worship in school. 

The children are challenged to become resilient, confident and independent learners whilst understanding our ever-changing world. They are encouraged to be respectful in our diverse society and understand the Catholic faith and the other faiths.

We aim to build high levels of competence in the subject specific skills of:

• Knowledge and understanding
• Engagement and response
• Analysis and evaluation

The Come and See curriculum is set out to encourage children in their learning and vocabulary throughout the topics to: 

• Explore
• Respond
• Reveal

Implementation

Religious Education is implemented through (Word; Welcome; Welfare; Worship and Witness) and are encompassed in all that we do.

It is the framework by which our effectiveness and implementation of the curriculum as a Catholic school is assessed. They are implemented as:

• Word (talk) - we talk together as a word of God's community
• Welcome (come) - we come together in welcome
• Welfare (walk) - we walk together as a welfare community
• Worship (pray) - we pray together as a worship community
• Witness (work) - we look at our School mission statement and work together as a witness community

The Religious Education of our children is a core subject in our curriculum. Each week, 10% of the teaching timetable is allocated across all key stages. The staffing and resources devoted to Religion is of the highest standard, reflecting the significance and importance in our school. The requirements of the Religious Education Curriculum Directory are met at all key stages and standards are equal or better than those of literacy at all key stages.

Our children, as part of their Religious Education, take part in Praise and Worship sessions where through hymns and meditation and reflect upon how the Holy Spirit can guide us in all that we do to be more like Jesus in our lives. In Advent, Lent and Holy Week, children are given a wide range of worship, assemblies, prayers and activities to develop an understanding how the celebrations shape the lives we lead through the key passages and prayer.

Our children are inspired by exceptional teaching and consistently high expectations across the school through the Come and See scheme of work. They are encouraged to deliver the curriculum through a range of teaching styles and to engage with the use of Big questions to challenge and develop the purpose and meaning of life as created and sustained by God. This allows for religious literacy to be developed with the highest level of expectations for all pupils. A rich vocabulary is developed with children to enhance their understanding of the sacraments of the Church. This is alongside in line with the Hope in the Future this year to develop their understanding of the Mass and the importance of the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Our children, as part of their curriculum for life, are actively encouraged and supported who work on building a community and ways in which to develop appropriate questioning and decision making. Children develop their understanding of how they can be involved and ways in which they can help people in the local community.

Impact

In Religion, the assessment of pupil progress is undertaken against levels for Religious Education through the AT1 and AT2 assessment levels. Children are assessed if they are working below, expected or exceeding in each of the individual topics throughout the year. This includes work and assessment pieces for children and whole class assessments that teachers may undertake. The outcomes of these assessments are used by class teachers to evaluate the coverage of the ARE in Religious Education. This informs future planning to enhance pupil progress within a quality provision.

Assessments for learning is highly developed, challenging and empowering pupils to be creative, independent and reflective learners.

Children are assessed as Emerging, Expected or Exceeding in line with the assessment levels for each topic. These assessments and outcomes are important to measure the impact of the current curriculum and system.

Assessments are carried out in various forms:

• Big Questions
• Assessment grids
• Assessment tasks 

At Holy Name, our curriculum ensures that God is central to everything that is done throughout our school and we recognise God is with us in every aspect of our lives. All the family of our school bear witness to our Mission Statement which informs everything we do in our community. We are all witnesses to the values of the Gospel such as love, forgiveness, respect, peace, tolerance, dignity and justice. We nurture, support and challenge the children to live out and to give witness to the Gospel values in their everyday experience of school life and by developing their sense of responsibility to play their part in caring activities for good causes in the wider community. We are witnesses to our environment and all God's world by being good stewards of Creation.

Our Religion curriculum is broad and balanced with a range of cross-curricular opportunities which allows pupils to become confident in their learning and understanding of the curriculum. The curriculum offers opportunities for children to enhance their Religious vocabulary with a greater understanding of how they can live to be more like Jesus in all that they do.

Children will:

• Be well prepared for the next stage of their education as confident and enthusiastic learners who are witnesses to Christ in their words and actions.
• Be happy, well rounded individuals who can articulate how their Catholic education has impacted on their beliefs and values.
• Have a great knowledge of the Catholic faith and be able to discuss and write about celebrations of other faiths.
• Be able to show an understanding of a range of scripture and psalms and demonstrate this in their reading, writing, singing and dramatic activities to re-enact passages.
• Produce good quality work across religion which they are proud of.
• Achieve consistently well in all areas of Religious Education.
• Develop detailed knowledge and skills across a range of curriculum areas.
• Show compassion, justice, love and forgiveness in their relationships with others.