Curriculum: Religious Education

The Intent of our Religious Education Curriculum
At The Willows we see Religious Education as a way of becoming more human as we grow to love ourselves, love each other and love Jesus Christ. We understand that Jesus challenges us to be ‘perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’, by the strength of our faith, hope, love and compassion. Therefore, we aspire to see ourselves and each other as ‘precious in His eyes’.
Our Religious Education curriculum aims to:
- Present comprehension content based on the knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith;
- Enable children to deepen their religious and theological understanding and be able to communicate effectively;
- Develop an authentic vision of the church’s moral and social teaching;
- Raise children’s awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities to bring out respect and understanding;
- Develop children’s ability to relate their Catholic faith to daily life;
- Enable children to relate the knowledge they have gained from Religious Education to other subjects;
- Bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture.

The Implementation of our Religious Education Curriculum
At the centre of our whole school curriculum is Christ. We plan our RE curriculum with varied opportunities for children to become learned and wise.
Lessons engage, provoke and inspire as teaching guides, supports and challenges children to become the best versions of themselves. We use the Bishop’s Conference Directory topics: Revelation, The Church, Celebration and Life in Christ as a basis for all our planning, which are also outlined in the Diocesan RE wheels which every teacher incorporates in to their plans. The Directory provides ‘valuable guidance for the RE curriculum to ensure that our teaching and learning truly reflects the vision and breadth of the teaching of the Church’. This revised Directory was published so that religious educators can continue to meet the needs of the pupils of today.
The ‘Come and See’ programme provides part of the basis of teaching religion, many additional resources are used to give the children the best possible opportunities to deepen their understanding and challenge them in lessons which are engaging and make them think deeply through effective questioning. Teachers use CAFOD, The Way, the Truth and the Life, Caritas in Action and many other resources to ensure a rich and varied RE curriculum.
Other world faiths and important Liturgical celebrations are interwoven throughout the year as children are encouraged to question and reflect on their own lives and the religious lives of others. Class teachers plan for each topic ensuring that all children have the opportunity to master key skills and to think deeply and to question.
To ensure the children can be assessed accurately teachers ensure that the expectations of the Assessment Standards are integrated into the whole planning process. This will inform the teaching and ensure that expected standards are aspired to. The critical question to address at the planning stage is ‘what must I do, in this theme, to enable children to achieve the standard I know they can achieve?’
Teachers in every year group have the opportunity to share and evaluate plans with teachers in the same year group in these other local schools, on a regular basis. This supports a consistent approach across schools and enables good practice to be shared.

The Impact of our Religious Education Curriculum
At The Willows we view Religious Education as an integral part of learning and formation. An indicator of success will be the amount of pleasure and knowledge gained by the children from the study of RE and a deepening of their personal knowledge, understanding and response to Christ through their service of others. This will support children to love themselves, love each other and love Jesus Christ so that they are ready when they reach the end of Year 6 to commence the next stage of their life journey.
A further key indicator will be the way in which the children conduct themselves throughout our Catholic Life. As children attend Mass, receive the sacraments, build relationships etc. – with school or their families – children will be able use the knowledge from their Religious Education lessons to guide them.
Knowledge Organisers
At The Willows we use Knowledge Organisers to help our children, and staff, ensure the key objectives are covered.
Reception Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Year 1 Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Topic 7 – Holidays and Holydays
Topic 9 – Neighbours
Year 2 Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Year 3 Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Year 4 Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Year 5 Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Year 6 Religious Education Knowledge Organisers
Witnesses
Healing
Common Good
Useful Documents
Year 6 Remembrance Prayer And Liturgy
On Thursday 10th November, Year 6 led a Prayer and Liturgy for the whole school based on the theme of Remembrance. The children led the reflection wonderfully, in a very calm, reflective and respectful manner. After explaining what Remembrance is about, Emily read the...
Year 6 Outdoor R.E. Artwork
As part of our R.E. topic this half term, which is all about love and the key Christian Values, we have taken our R.E. learning outside! The children have been carefully considering which Christian values are most important and linking this to their own lives,...
Fr. Andrew visits Year 6
On Wednesday 3rd November, Fr. Andrew came to visit Year 6 to hold a talk and answer their questions about the role of a priest and Fr. Andrew's personal experiences of becoming a Catholic priest. Year 6's current R.E. topic is all about vocations, in particular the...
Year 3 – Baptism
When we are baptised we become a member of the Church’s family. Year 3 have been learning about the promises made for us at Baptism by our parents and our Godparents. We really enjoyed visiting church where Fr Andrew helped us find out about the structure of the Rite...
Year 6 – Outdoor RE Artwork!
We are currently learning all about The Kingdom of God and positive values in R.E. lessons. We have learnt all about what God’s Kingdom is, how we become mebers of God’s Kingdom and how we accept the invite of becoming a part of God’s family. It is however the...
Year 2 – Our R.E.
This half term in RE we have been lucky enough to go over to Church with Miss Harrison and Mrs Barnett to do some learning. We got the entire Church to ourselves and enjoyed asking lots of questions, explored the stained class windows and even learnt how to genuflect...