At St Thomas More Catholic Primary School, we follow the Archdiocese of Birmingham’s Curriculum Strategy for Religious Education in Catholic Schools called “Learning and Growing as people of God”. The strategy clearly lays out the steps to be taken in RE at each stage of the Primary Years. We then adapt this in order to make our lessons enjoyable and challenging for our children. As part of the strategy the children learn about what it is to live as Christians today, how the Church is organised from global to parish level and also the opportunities which exist for them to participate in the life of the Church.

Throughout the year, our children also learn about the Liturgical Seasons and have opportunities to link learning to prayer and reflection.

Children are taught by committed teachers who plant and nurture the seeds of faith. Numerous opportunities are created by staff for cross-curricular activities that link with and often stem from RE lessons. We hold regular RE Inspire Workshops, where parents can work with their child making for example Christmas Cribs and Easter Gardens. Additionally, we hold a ‘Multi Faith’ week in the Summer Term around the time of our Patron’s Feast. During this time, children visit places of significance to other faiths including; Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Islam. This opportunity allows them to understand their rituals and customs thus building closer links with our communities.

The Catholic Virtues and Gospel Values permeate the whole curriculum. As school, we follow the ‘Jesuit Pupil Profile’. As part of this, the school focuses on a particular pair of ‘Virtues’ and we reflect upon what they truly mean and as a result we can encourage all to demonstrate them across the school day but also outside of it too. This is supported by our Catholic Life Team which consists of Father Christopher, Mr Jordan, pupils and members of staff.

We assess the children regularly using the national and diocesan assessment tool. Children have the opportunity at the start of each unit to understand the vocabulary they will be using and where their understanding is expect to be at the conclusion of that unit.