At St Mary’s school, our whole educational endeavour is centred on the person of Jesus Christ, Who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. As a Catholic school, our provision is directed to the whole person, and we ensure that each child is enabled to develop, not only academically, but also physically, morally, culturally and spiritually. Religious Education plays a key role in the integral formation of each child, so that he or she may live a fulfilled and fruitful life in this world, and achieve eternal happiness with Almighty God in the next. The aim of Religious Education is to ensure that each child gets an excellent grounding in the teachings and doctrine of the Catholic Church, and that these teaching are lived out in our community of faith, nourished by the liturgical and prayer life of the school and the parish. Our aim is to ensure that each child grows in knowledge of and fidelity to the Catholic Faith. For this reason, we aim for excellence in the teaching of RE, which is taught with the same rigour and grounded in same high expectations as the other core subjects. We aim for each pupils to develop strong religious literacy, and so we ensure that standards in RE are as high as in the other core subjects. In partnership with the parents, we intend that all our children are enabled to answer Our Lord’s call to holiness, to grow as strong and confident Catholics.

Religious Education is not seen as simply an ‘add-on’ to the main curriculum, but is central to integrated across the whole day and across the wider curriculum.                        Nevertheless, 10% of teaching time is devoted directly to Religious Education itself, amounting to at least two and a half hours per week. We use the diocesan recommended scheme of work, Come and See, which provides the comprehensive coverage we cherish. The Come and See programmes is complemented by provision related to the Church Year, including the great seasons and solemnities, as well as devotions by months, and the memorials of our great saints. We also include content related to the special years decreed by our Holy Father. The lives of the saints are celebrated and held up as wonderful examples to be emulated, providing a great diversity of unique Christian lives from across time and across the cultures. RE lessons are characterised by high academic expectations, with pupils expected to develop the necessary language and literacy skills to master the full range of concepts and sources, including the study of other religions including Judaism, Islam and Hinduism. Our pupils learn the great prayers from the Catholic tradition, using these to get a deeper knowledge and understanding of salvation history and the great mysteries of the Catholic Faith. There are weekly liturgies, preparation for which includes weekly hymn practice.  Formative assessment is used throughout, and there are termly formal assessments. The quality of teaching of RE is monitored and evaluated on a termly basis as part of school SSE, including book scrutiny, learning walks and lesson observations. A comprehensive CPD programme ensures that teachers are equipped to deliver excellence in this vital subject. The teaching of RE is championed by the Headteacher and the SLT.

Throughout their time at St Mary’s the impact of the RE programme is to be found, first and foremost, in the character of each child, who is supported and nurtured to grow in love of God and His Holy Catholic Church. The impact is recognisable in the warm and welcoming faith community of St Mary’s, in which each person is cherished as  a unique child of God, and in which all visitors are made to feel part of the family of St Mary’s. The impact is felt in the excellent behaviour of our pupils, as well in their high academic standards. As they leave us and move on to secondary school, the impact of the RE provision at St Mary’s can be found in the attitudes and convictions of our girls and boys, who take with them a love of and deep faith in Jesus Christ and His all-holy Mother Mary, a faith which, we pray, will sustain them through the ups and downs of life, a faith to which they will proudly bear witness, and gladly share with all those whom they encounter on life’s journey.