R.E.

Mission Statement

Rooted in gospel values St Cecilia’s Catholic School Community lives together, learns together, loves together.

Aims

Live:

We strive to be a community where everyone feels safe, secure and cared for, where all are respected and loved.

Learn:

We aim to provide an environment full of creativity, where talents grow and uniqueness is celebrated. We encourage co-operation and develop new experiences through exciting teaching methods.

Love:

We aim to create a school family where each person can experience the love of God. We seek to promote gospel values modelling Christian principles throughout our school community.

“LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”

(John 13:34)

Religious Education Vision

At St. Cecilia’s Catholic School community, we use Jesus as our role model and everything we do centres around our Mission statement that: ‘Rooted in Gospel values we live together, learn together and love together.’

Religious Education is the core subject which is central to the life of Our Catholic School. We support every member of our community in their journey in faith. We strive to create an environment which reflects our values and Christian ethos and sense of community in everything we do.

Through challenging and stimulating lessons, we study The mystery of God, as discovered though reading the Bible and particularly through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. We wholeheartedly promote the teachings of the Church and celebrate the lives of the Saints. We journey through the Sacraments and examine the relationship between faith and life, equipping our children for their own Christian journey during, and beyond, their time at school. We provide a safe, respectful and nurturing environment, where the uniqueness of every individual is celebrated as created in God’s own image and where learning and appreciation of other faiths is promoted.

Come and See is a Catholic Primary Religious Education programme for Foundation and Key stages 1 and 2. The programme of study, written by a group of experienced diocesan advisors was introduced across St. Cecilia’s Junior School in September 2012 and has been warmly received by staff and pupils. The child friendly material provided within Come and See allows children to explore the teachings of the Catholic church through the use of age appropriate resources and activities.

Each year group from year 4 to year 6 have their own list of focus topics to consider throughout the academic year. The topic will coincide with the church calendar however, the depth in which the topic is explored is dependent upon the respective age of the child. For example, during Lent, whilst all children will learn about the plight of Christ, our Early Years children will consider the importance of growing and new life; Key Stage 1 children explore the effect of change and opportunities, with Key Stage 2 children considering the importance of self-discipline, sacrifice, death and new life.

At the heart of the programme is the mystery of God’s self-revelation of love through Jesus Christ. Come and See gives pupils the opportunity to explore the mystery of faith through Scripture and Tradition

The Religious Education Curriculum

To fulfil our Aims and Objectives we use the ‘Come and See’ and ‘To Know You More Clearly’ Programmes of Religious Education recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool. The aim of these programmes are to explore the religious dimension of questions about life, dignity and purpose within the Catholic tradition. Links are made with the pupil’s own experiences and with universal experience. Links are also made with the experience of other faith traditions. The programme is therefore both ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’.

We are in a period of transition between the old Religious Education Scheme ‘Come and See’ and the new Religious Education Directory ‘To Know You More Clearly’. Year groups are beginning to use the new R.E.D in line with Archdiocese support and training, hoping to be fully implemented across KS1 and KS2 by September 2027.

For all children the programme will raise questions and provide materials for reflecting on their own experience. It will help them to explore the beliefs, values and way of life of the Catholic tradition and where appropriate, of other faith traditions. The programme does not presume that children come from committed Catholic families. For those from committed Catholic families, it will deepen and enrich their understanding and living of their faith.