R.E and Prayer

Each separate subject here at St Mary's has a Lead teacher. In R.E the Lead teacher is called Mrs Hayes. Her deep rooted faith and many years of teaching experience support her to lead this hugely important subject area effectively. She is supported by all colleagues, in our desire to share the Gospel Values to teach children about life and how to be the best they can be. She works tirelessly to keep all stakeholders involved and able to encompass the essence of what makes our Catholic School such a happy fulfilled place to be. Mrs Hayes is one of our Assistant Head Teachers.

Each subject also has a Link Governor, who supports and monitors progress, in conjunction with guidance from the SLT. In the case of R.E this is Mrs Chris Hopkinson. Fr Ramesh is  our parish priest and the school’s spiritual director. He brings great drive and humour to all that he does, whilst maintaining an air of wonder and awe in all liturgical interactions with children and parents. His versatility and adaptability are also a strength of the R.E team here at St Mary’s.

Each class has its own class page, where homework, projects, home communications etc are publicised and shared on a very regular basis. Class pages share our Peer mentors, which are greatly sought after Y6 monitorial roles; these then cascade down to Mini Vinnies in differing classes, also. Class pages also share much about the prayer progression and the Catholic life of the children. Finally, they share the class saints in all instances; again a much cherished saint in each setting, who is part and parcel of the life of “the class”.  

 

At St Mary of the Angels school our intent is to support each child on their journey in faith whilst ensuring they become ‘the person God intends them to be.’ We aim:  

  • To fulfil our Mission Statement by creating a school community where the children know they are loved, where they feel confident and secure, giving them the confidence to search and question, helping them to deepen their own faith commitment and to respect that of others. 

  • To help pupils recognise and appreciate the spiritual and religious dimensions of life, fostering feelings of wonder, delight, joy and mystery and a sense of ritual. 

  • To stimulate pupils’ imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith; 

  • To lead children to a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Catholic tradition and the ways in which it seeks to express the significance of human life. 

  • To lead children to see their place in society as promoters of our faith, with the responsibility to live out the Gospel values, British values and all that these embrace 

  • To raise pupils’ awareness of the faith and traditions of other religious communities in order to respect and understand them; 

  • To foster a whole school environment where prayer life is encouraged to grow 

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The Year of Prayer  
 In preparation for the 2025 Jubilee Year 'Pilgrims of Hope', 2024 has been designated a Year of Prayer by Pope Francis. 

It started on Sunday 3 December 2023, the First Sunday of Advent. 

There is a particular focus on the Our Father, and this presents us with a great opportunity to go back to the basics of prayer.

Every Catholic is encouraged to reflect on their life of prayer: what they pray, how they pray and why they pray. This is for two reasons:
1 To encourage Catholics to deepen their prayer life and love of God;
2 For each Catholic to help at least one other person to pray during the Year of Prayer.

Please see below the beautiful work that classes have produced to learn more about the "Our Father " and the meaning of the prayer.

Lent in a bag.
During the season of Lent , pupils had the opportunity to reflect on how they would follow in Jesus' footsteps by praying with their families. 
Please see below an example of these reflections.

RE Key Knowledge Organisers are below. These help you to know what is being taught and when, for your child. Hopefully, they also give you a flavour of the type of vocabulary and the type of learning that will take place in each year for your child.The current Key Knowledge Organisers can be found on Class Pages.

 

Summer Term Key Knowledge Organisers
A flavour of our children's views are below, so that you can see that we listen to children and they empower us to help them become effective leaders. You can also hear that our methods are effective.
Year Two Pupil Voice.
 
What does your teacher do to help you learn?
  • We watch videos of bible stories to help us learn.
  • We share and magpie ideas with friends to help us learn more.
  • We recall what we have learned in the last lesson to  help us remember and learn more.
  • We enjoy role playing stories and hot seating characters.

What bible stories have you enjoyed learning about?

  • The  Abraham and Isaac story it teaches us to listen to God and do as he asks - Abraham was told to kill his only son and he was going to do it because he trusted God.
  • Jonah and the Whale,  Jonah was told to do something difficult and he didn't do it, he was thrown overboard and eaten by a whale. He said sorry to God and God saved him. We have to do as we are asked even when it is difficult.

Year Three Pupil Voice

How do you like to learn?

  • We like to watch videos of bible stories and stop them to discuss the ideas.
  • We like to role play stories and hot seating characters to understand how they are feeling.

What have you been learning in Year Three?

  • We have been learning about the seven sacraments and the symbols used. We know water is used to wash sins away in Baptism and when you are baptised you become part of God's family. In Year Three we make our First Holy Communion and receive the body of Christ for the first time. We also make our reconciliation when our sins are forgiven.
  • We enjoy leading prayer services and singing hymns to help us learn about the sacraments.
How can your teachers help you to improve further?
  • Time to research or find out the answer to their wonder question - we listened and introduced access to Chrome Books to help pupils research topics for themselves.
  • Word banks with key words would help us to spell words correctly. Pupils felt that key word banks would help them further improve their RE and remind them to include information they have learned.- We listened and introduced Key Knowledge Organisers for each RE unit taught.
Year Four Pupil Voice
 
How do you like to learn?
  • We like to watch videos of bible stories  and make notes whilst watching to help remember facts and main points.
  • We enjoy role playing stories as a team to ensure really learned story.
  • We like researching information ourselves as  this helps us remember more facts.
  • We like having more time to complete writing and complete work well.

What have you learned that you didn't know before?

  • We learned about our class saint St Anthony of Padua. He is the Patron Saint of lost things and died at 36. He  preached to one fish in Italy because no one would listen, then lots of fish came to listen and this encouraged an audience of people.
  • We learned that Jesus is a Jew and that he would listen to the Old Testament Scripture in the Synagogue. 
  • We liked the story of Joseph and his Dream Coat because even though the brothers were mean and jealous of Joseph he forgave them. We thought about times we are jealous and what we could do instead.
Year Five Pupil Voice.
 

What have you enjoyed learning about in RE?

  • I liked learning about Joan of Arc our class saint.
  • I liked learning how to use bible references to find stories.
  • I like researching about pilgrimages and learning about Lourdes 
Year Six Pupil Voice.
 
What do you like about learning RE?
  • Miss really explains it well.She always questions us to make links with ourselves and what it would feel like / mean to me to be in that situation 
  • I have learned a lot of information about saints but Miss has made me think more about why that saint is important to me
  • I think RE  has improved my thinking skills. I have improved making links, before I learned the facts or the story but didn’t see how it would link to me or others. 
Pupil Voice with Books
In Autumn 2023 and Spring Term 2024, pupils were asked to talk about the work they have covered in RE using their books as a prompt for discussion.
The pupils were asked a series of questions and were very honest in their responses.
Please see below for an overview of the school's responses. 
Catholic Social Teaching 
Catholic Social Teaching 
 
Catholic Social Teaching is based on the belief that God has a plan for creation, a plan to build his kingdom of peace, love and justice. It holds that God has a special place in this story for each of us, whoever we are. Our part in this plan isn’t just limited to things ‘spiritual’, or 'when we do religious things', but that it involves every aspect of our lives, from the things we pray about, to how we live as a responsible global citizens. Our part in this story is a kind-of vocation for the common good, a call to treat everyone as your brothers and sisters and is something that we all share.

The Catholic Church has seven principles of social teaching that we share with our children through all that we do, through the curriculum, special events, charitable works, activity and through our ordinary actions in school.
Below are examples of how these Catholic Social Teachings are built into other areas of the curriculum through "Building a Bigger Kingdom."  
Building the Bigger Kingdom. 
As a school we are considering the ways that CST can be taught throughout the school curriculum. Here are examples how we have achieved this already and the links to curriculum areas that we have identified and planned.
Examples of Catholic Social Teaching Work.
Catholic Social Teaching Pupil Voice.
Pupils across the school were asked to reflect on how we show Solidarity and Stewardship in our daily lives. 
Please see below to see the range of ways pupils recognise that we show these two principles. 

Our Long term overview is below. This helps to map out what is being covered and taught when and where across the school in R.E, currently. It might also help you as parents to plan and link into the work we are covering and when.

 

Our Action Plan in R.E is below

 

Our Policy in R.E is below

 

Some examples of our successes are here for you to appreciate. These link in with parent and governor views also.

 

Stations of the Cross April 2021
Each class in the school prepared and led a station of the cross. They used actions, mime and art to present the poignant stations. The reverence of all children was outstanding. Please see below an example of each class station.
An example of work completed by Year Three on their class Saint St  Therese of Lisieux
To encourage pupils to develop thinking skills, religious art work is used to hook children and encourage them to ask questions. Below is an example from Year Six inspired by some art work depicting the call of the disciples. 
In response to pupil voice, Chrome books are used to support learning and help pupils to research and present the information found out in different ways. Year Four enjoyed using Book Creator to create a class book of Jewish signs and symbols.
Children in all Key Stage Two classes enjoy having time to research and write double page fact files in RE - these examples are about prayer.
Children from Year Six have opportunities to share and discuss their faith with Year Three.  

Our assessment methods are summarised here for you, with a working example of what actually happens within the classroom, for you to appreciate, also.

 

Assessment and Outcomes
The outcome of the outstanding Religious Education provided at St Mary of the Angels is religiously literate and engaged young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age  – to reflect spiritually, and think ethically and theologically. They are able to ask and answer questions about their own and other people’s experiences as well as the world around them and they are aware of the demands of religious commitment in their everyday life.
In our Section 48 Religious Education Inspection the quality of Religious Education was judged to be "Outstanding." The reports states that "The majority of teaching is outstanding because teachers’ planning takes into account the pupils’ current knowledge and builds upon this. Assessment is used well to build upon prior learning in order to consolidate and extend pupils’ knowledge. Teaching is never less than consistently good and often outstanding"  It also states that "Assessments show that pupils’ attainment is outstanding. This has been sustained over three years. Teacher’s assessments are reliable, because they know their pupils well"  As a result of this, the report also recognises that "In each phase pupils make very good progress. This progress across the school is obvious as pupils move up through the year groups. By the time they reach Year 6 the majority of pupils meet, and many pupils exceed, the expected outcomes in Religious Education."

As part of our assessment of children’s learning in R.E. we follow the assessment cycle set out by the BDES.
(see below for an example of the yearly cycle and focus) Each year there is a different assessment focus eg Sacraments, Scripture, Living as Christians and The Liturgical Year,  and over each year three units are assessed by teachers through observations, discussions and written work to make judgments of below expectations, at or above expectations.
Currently 90% of the school achieves at least expected in all units covered. At the end of each unit pupils also complete either a Show off sheet, Boastful Bubble or Key Reflection Sheet to show what they have learned. ( an example of these can be found below)
The data collected is moderated at all levels: internally by staff, SLT and governors and externally by R.E. leads from schools within our Diocesan cluster group and other schools that we have formed close working partnerships with.
 
An example of a Year Six and Five Key Reflection Sheet 
Examples of "The Season of Creation Work." 
During the month of September and October we focused on the Creation and the themes around this. 
Below are examples of the work produced throughout the school.  
The Nativity Story Through Art and Poetry.
The whole school reflected on the Nativity story through art and poetry. We reflected on the different characters within the story and how they can inspire us in our faith and lives. 
See below for examples of the art work produced. 
SMA Strategies to Remove Potential Barriers of Learning.
Through adaptive teaching strategies we aim to support all learners to access the RE Curriculum. 
Please see the document below for strategies used to address potential barriers.