Religious Education at St Robert Southwell is central to our mission to be an educating Christian community rooted in the Gospel and Catholic tradition. Through RE we aim to:

• Nurture each child as a unique individual, helping them to grow in faith, hope and love and to respond to God’s call in their lives.
• Develop a deep theological understanding of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and the story of salvation, grounded in Scripture and Catholic teaching.
• Root pupils’ moral and spiritual formation in the values of the Gospel such as honesty, gentleness, compassion and respect, so that they become people of integrity and service.
• Support pupils in learning about and reflecting on the person of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Church and their place in the world.
• Foster respectful and meaningful dialogue with world faiths and worldviews.
• Ensure that RE contributes to a rich, intellectually rigorous curriculum where faith permeates all aspects of school life.

Religious Education is the core of the core curriculum at St Robert Southwell. It forms a central component of the curriculum, comprising 10% of allocated teaching time and is delivered in a structured, sequential and progressive manner with academic rigour equivalent to that of other core subjects.

We follow the Religious Education Directory (2023) and the Model Curriculum outlined in To Know You More Clearly: The Religious Education Directory 2023 (RED), as required by the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales. Our curriculum is built around the six-branch model of the RED, which aligns with the Liturgical Year.

The Model Curriculum offers an ambitious and detailed programme for pupils centred on the Knowledge Lenses (Knowledge) and Ways of Knowing (Skills).

Knowledge Lenses show what pupils are expected to learn at each stage of their education and help organise the Religious Education curriculum. They are called lenses because they provide a focused way of looking at different aspects of faith. The curriculum is divided into six lenses. Four focus on Catholicism, named Hear, Believe, Celebrate and Live and cover Scripture, Church teaching, prayer, liturgy, moral life, and the impact of faith on daily living.

• HEAR – The Word: Exploring Scripture and Church teaching.
• BELIEVE –What do Catholics believe? Introduces children to the core teachings of the Catholic faith.
• CELEBRATE – How do we celebrate our faith? Children explore prayer, liturgy and the sacraments, showing how the Church celebrates Christ’s work of salvation.
• LIVE – How faith shapes life: Encourages children to explore how Catholic teaching guides how we live, make choices, and treat others, including the example of the saints and the role of faith in culture and society.

In addition, there are two further lenses:  DIALOGUE and ENCOUNTER which are used when teaching world faiths:

• DIALOGUE – Engagement: Introduces children to respectful dialogue with different Christian traditions, world faiths and non-religious worldviews, highlighting the importance of understanding their own faith while promoting mutual respect, cooperation and the common good
• ENCOUNTER – Pupils study a range of Christian denominations, world faiths and worldviews, including non-religious perspectives, learning to understand each on its own terms and fostering respect, dialogue and peaceful living with all.

Ways of Knowing set out the skills that pupils should be developing as they progress through their curriculum journey. All three are ways of coming to know the things that are the object of our study.

• Understand – Learning about
• Discern – Judging wisely
• Respond – Reflecting and acting on personally

Key features of our implementation include:

• A carefully sequenced curriculum built on the RED’s Knowledge Lenses and Ways of Knowing, with clear Expected Outcomes for each branch and age phase.
• Long term and medium term plans from Nursery to Year Six; target pages and knowledge organisers for each branch across all year groups.
• Scripture, Church teaching, the lives of the saints, Catholic Social Teaching, and tradition forming the foundation of all topics, taught through creative and engaging lessons rooted in faith.
• An inclusive approach that supports all learners.
• Strong links with the parish, liturgy, prayer, sacramental preparation and the wider Christian community, ensuring that learning is lived out in the daily life of the school.
• Regular professional development for staff, strong subject leadership and effective monitoring to secure consistency, progression, and high standards in teaching and learning.
• A carefully planned home-school link to enhance our curriculum in school with activities such as creative homework and prayer activities for home such as praying the Rosary during the month of October.
• Regular updates for parents in curriculum parent overview documents.

We evaluate the impact of our Religious Education curriculum through a range of strategies:

• Formative and Summative assessments by teachers
• Monitoring of R.E books
• Learning walks
• Pupil voice
• Staff voice

Pupils’ learning and attainment are assessed regularly against the RED age-phase outcomes and the Model Curriculum end of branch Expected Outcomes.

At St Robert Southwell, we take part in both internal moderation and collaboration with other Diocesan schools to ensure consistency and accuracy in our assessment. Progress and attainment data are reviewed at Pupil Progress Meetings and pupil progress is shared with parents in end-of-year reports and at parent meetings in the autumn and spring terms.