Religious Education at

Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School

At Our Lady of Lourdes we offer our children an exciting and faith filled RE curriculum that is central to every aspect of school life. Through the outstanding provision we make we ensure that children leave our school religiously literate and engaged in the world and people around them, filled with knowledge, understanding and skills so that they can reflect spiritually, think ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.

The staff team are dedicated to every stage of your child’s development in the faith and through prayer life, vocational awareness, Religious Education lessons, charitable works, Sacramental preparation, we work with you, the parent, and the Parish to make sure children growing in God’s love are prepared to live life to the fullest as Catholics who have an astute understanding of their personal and social responsibility and British Values as faith filled and giving citizens of tomorrow.

Religious Education at Our Lady of Lourdes ensures coverage of the following aspects of religious literacy:

• Morality (Christian Life)
• Doctrine (Beliefs)
• Liturgy (Church)
• Scripture (Sacred Texts)

Why is Religious Education important in Catholic Schools?

Religious Education is the "core of the core curriculum" in a Catholic school (Pope St John Paul II). Placing RE at the core of the curriculum in Catholic schools helps the school to fulfil its mission to educate the whole person in discerning the meaning of their existence, since "Religious Education is concerned not only with intellectual knowledge but also includes emotional and affective learning. It is in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of what it is to be human truly becomes clear. Without religious education, pupils would be deprived of an essential element of their formation and personal development, which helps them attain a vital harmony between faith and culture." (CES) Furthermore, religiously literate children and young people are able to engage in a fully informed critique of all knowledge, "leading, for example, to an understanding of the relationship between science and religion or history, and between theology, sport and the human body." (CES)

What is the purpose of Religious Education in Catholic schools?

Catholic schools, with RE at their core, exist in order to

"help parents, priests and teachers to hand on the Deposit of Faith in its fullness to a new generation of young people so that they may come to understand the richness of the Catholic faith, and thereby be drawn into a deeper communion with Christ in his Church."

With this as their primary aim, Catholic schools serve diverse populations of pupils and within this context the Religious Education Curriculum Directory (RECD) makes the aims of Religious Education explicit:

1. To present engagingly a comprehensive content which is the basis of knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith
2. To enable pupils continually to deepen their religious and theological understanding and be able to communicate this effectively
3. To present an authentic vision of the Church's moral and social teaching so that pupils can make a critique of the underlying trends in contemporary culture and society
4. To raise pupils' awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them
5. To develop the critical faculties of pupils so that they can relate their Catholic faith to daily life
6. To stimulate pupils' imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith
7. To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understanding of other subjects in the curriculum
8. To bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture

Each term, your child's curriculum letter will detail the Diocesan Strategy Units being covered in class to support you at home when your child is asking searching questions and so that you can complement the academic and spiritual journey your child is engaging with at home.