The Religious Education Programme

The Religious Education Curriculum Directory reveals the Good News and makes the little stories of children meet the big stories told by the disciples.

Wonder at God's gifts inevitably flows into reflection and enjoyment of the gifts, into prayers of praise and thanksgiving.

Through the curriculum, children learn about the story of the life, death and risen Jesus through sacred texts, parables, sensory experiences, the symbols and gestures of the sacraments.

The curriculum shares the importance of each individual’s gift and talents in producing, writing, using and learning. In responding to this encounter, children learn that dignity, loving friendships, responsibility, care for our world and its people, and peace are values they meet in Jesus, who calls everyone to live a life of love.

In order to achieve this we follow the Liverpool Archdiocesan R.E. programmes 'To know You more clearly' in EYFS - Year 4 and “Come and See” in Years 5 - 6. 

To know You more clearly explores the same 6 strands across the year groups and 'Come and See' follows a central theme but each year group study different topics. In addition to the topics studied, one week is dedicated to Judaism and one week to Islam/Hinduism (2 year cycle).

At St Gregory's we follow the recommendations of the Archdiocese of Liverpool by phasing in the new Religious Education Directory 'To know You more clearly'.  

Early Years through to Year 4 are following To know You more clearly which teaches 6 central themes across the academic year linked to the Churches Liturgical year.

These are:

Creation and Covenant

Prophecy and Promise

Galilee to Jerusalem

Desert to Garden

To the Ends of the Earth

Dialogue and Encounter

The teaching of other Faiths is incorporated discretely and children will learn what the Church teaches about their relationship with other Christian traditions, Islam, Judaism and other religious and non-religious world views. Each theme is explored dependent upon the respective age of the child. 

There are 4 strands built into each theme. They are:

Hear- Listen to the Scripture from the Bible

Believe- The Church teaching

Celebrate- The Sacraments and Prayer and Liturgy

Live- How we live out the message of our Catholic Social Teaching

Children in Year 5 and Year 6 will continue to follow the Come and See programme and explore the religious dimensions of questions about life, dignity and purpose within the Catholic tradition. This is taught on a four-week cycle teaching 9 topics from a central theme across the school year, in addition to this there are two other Faith topics taught. Islam and Judaism/Hinduism (on a two year rolling cycle). Each topic is broken down as follows:

Explore

Children learn through shared experiences and make connections between their life experiences and their friends.

Reveal

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. 

Respond

Children remember and celebrate what they have learnt and apply their knowledge individually.

Children learn through shared experience and make connections between life’s experiences and the gospel teachings. Teaching methods stimulate activities resulting in a response from the ‘heart’ of the child, developing attitudes of respect and reverence and an understanding that following Jesus is a call to holiness and wholeness of life.

Both programmes encourage creativity to bring the curriculum alive and children are taught in as creative a way as possible, using for example, role play, hot seating, drama, art, music, reflection; the children learn and live through experiencing living faith.