RE Co-ordinator's Welcome
R.E Coordinator's Welcome.
Welcome to our page for Our Lady’s RC Primary School. My name is Miss McIver and I am the RE co-ordinator for our school.
Our Mission Statement is the cornerstone of everything we do at Our Lady’s RC Primary School. Through our bespoke Religious Education Curriculum, we aim for our pupils to gain a deep understanding of their innate gifts, talents and skills. Our curriculum offers a range of approaches to learning which includes a focus on creativity and opportunities to develop the vocabulary and understanding of how we can live out our faith in all that we do. Every child deserves to flourish, physically, socially, emotionally, mentally and academically. We want to enable them to, ‘Be who God created them to be’.
At Our Lady’s, we are a friendly, happy place where children follow the ways of Jesus by loving, valuing and respecting each other. We welcome everyone into our school life and community and are nurturing to all who are a part of our school family.
Our worship and prayer are pertinent and a key part of our religious life in school. We pray to God through our class prayers, Masses, music, assemblies, prayer and our class prayer and liturgy where through our actions and the way we live and treat each other is demonstrated through our love, care and prayers for each other and the world. Our School hymn Ave Maria and school prayer is a huge part of our school ethos and Catholic mission to think about how we can pray to Mary our Mother everyday to ask her to help and guide us in all that we do.
Within our school, the Word of God is placed at the centre of all that we do, following an enhanced curriculum that allows pupils to celebrate the word of God in an interesting and fun way. Our weekly Gospel assemblies help us to reflect upon the Word and to think about how we can be like Jesus in all that we do.
At Our Lady’s, we are all witnesses to be loving and caring in the way we live, the way we treat each other and, in the way, we reach out to others. We celebrate each other’s achievements and help everyone to succeed and develop a loving and caring attitude and to honour everyone’s unique gifts and talents. The welfare of all our families is paramount in the way we care for and support each other, ensuring pupils feel safe and are encouraged to develop spiritually, academically and physically. We think about how we can think about the welfare of those in our community and how to help them to have what they need.
We teach RE to give our children the best opportunities to learn and develop their knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith and to keep Jesus at the heart of all they do. RE is key to learn about the Church, why we go to Mass and how we can learn from the Gospels. Our links with our parish priest is pertinent in the teaching of RE and in understanding the importance of the church.
At Our Lady’s, we see each individual child as a child of God. We want to enable every child and adult to 'have life to the full'; cultivating an attitude of respect for each other among the whole community. We all have a responsibility as a staff and school family to follow Jesus and help and support each other in our community. We try to be fair, we care about each other and always try to help, including those less fortunate than us and those outside of our community.
Our Religious Education curriculum has been specifically tailored to meet the unique multi-faith context of our school through welcoming, worshipping witnessing, whilst thinking about the welfare of all staff and pupils and ensuring the Word is taught and mastered throughout teaching and Gospel assemblies. The curriculum is designed to be broad and balanced, providing all pupils with the opportunity to master their learning and deepen their knowledge showing a greater understanding of how to teach and incorporate a rich vocabulary which enhances the teaching and learning in RE.
Our Religious Curriculum develops links with the Diocesan Hope in the Future and how all the children can grow just like the mustard seeds in the Parable of the Sower. We recognise how to inspire children to celebrate their gifts and talents alongside their uniqueness in all they do, which will help them to put their own faiths into action. We are developing links with the parish community and ways in which we can work together to develop our faith with a multi-modal approach.
As a school we are working on keeping in line with Bishop John Arnold’s Laudato Si project. Children are offered a range of activities to complete in order to help reduce the pollution and to save the planet. Our links with Forest School where children plant vegetables and take part in the recycling scheme are all key parts of the curriculum. Our annual march to raise awareness of how to make changes to the climate and how we can answer the call to help our world to be a better place. Our work with our chair of governors who comes in to deliver the CAFOD sessions in all classes is a way we continue to make our links with the world and how we can help those in need. We think about how we can help those in our world by raising money and awareness of what changes need to be made.
As a Catholic school we are deeply committed to developing the faith of all children with Jesus Christ as our inspiration and guiding light with the school having children from all around the world with a multi-faith background we teach and develop the knowledge of other faiths with children. Our curriculum is being developed to enhance delivery and teaching of different faiths and for children to have a richer vocabulary. The children have a great understanding of other faiths and world religions. Throughout the year children have opportunities to celebrate key celebrations and activities through learning days, assemblies and a range of scriptures. Our bespoke curriculum includes the celebrations and teaching of other faiths to have a wider understanding of religious symbols.
As a school our Gospel assemblies are a beautiful way of deepening our faith and spending time with our Lord. The hymns of worship and praise are extremely powerful with an enhanced spiritual feeling of the Holy Spirit descending on us all to help us to be who and what we want to be. The outpouring of praise and thanksgiving alongside the time of reflection allows time to deepen and enhance our faith as a school. Our area for children to show how they have responded to the call of the Gospel and followed the word to encompass their mission to be a missionary disciple.
Our RE lessons deliver the ‘Come and See’ scheme of work for RE, which develops and enhances the knowledge and understanding our children have of scripture and how they can learn to be more like Jesus in all that they do. Lessons offer opportunities for children to reflect, discuss and worship on the scripture, and music. In addition to this, teachers extend their planning to reflect the events of the liturgical calendar, global events and the life of the Catholic Church through making connections between life’s experiences and the teachings of the gospel.
As a school we regularly teach children about other world religions, in order that they develop an appreciation for faith in a wider sense and are appreciative and respectful of the religious beliefs, practices and observances of others thus enabling them to be responsible and constructive members of the multi-cultural, multi-faith society in which they live.
At Our Lady’s we want to help our children to respond to Pope Francis’ call to holiness. As such, the Saints play an important role in motivating our pupils. They inspire us to lead joyful lives; they serve as role models; they teach us that holiness means being who you are; and they pray for us from heaven, giving us the strength to be who God created us to be. The children learn about how we can be missionary disciples and to spread the Word to others and how we can continue to build our school and community church to be like St Francis. We are happy to celebrate and share the gifts and talents which we are thankful for and how we can use them to help and guide others on their mission.
As a school we look forward to welcoming and continuing to develop the religious life of our school. We strive to give the best opportunities to offer a bespoke curriculum for RE which utilises the skills and knowledge of the world around us and all the different faiths. As a school, we are proud of how we celebrate and recognise all religions with a drive to learn more and to be a welcoming family to everyone.
The wide range of cultures and backgrounds of the children make belonging to Our Lady’s RC Primary School an interesting, rewarding and uplifting experience. Many people are struck by how special and unique our school is when they visit alongside being welcomed into Our Lady’s School life.
Miss McIver
RE Lead