Religious Education at St. Michael’s

“The outcome of excellent religious education is religiously literate and engaged young people who have the knowledge, understanding and skills – appropriate to their age and capacity – to reflect spiritually, and think ethically and theologically, and who are aware of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.”

– Religious Education Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools (2012).

Our aim is to:

Embrace all elements of our Mission Statement. Our learning objectives will take into account the religious and educational needs of our children whilst recognising the variety of starting points. We recognise that our children come into the school community from a variety of backgrounds and we take into account the religious and educational needs of all of our children.

Religious Education is viewed as a subject for all children – a collaborative activity, which respects and promotes the child’s innate capacity for wonder, awe, reverence and imagination. Through this approach, we aim to help our children to recognise and appreciate the religious and spiritual dimensions of life. We aim to lead our children into a deeper understanding of the Catholic tradition and where appropriate, other religious traditions and the ways in which they seek to express the significance of human life.

To achieve these aims we will:

• Create a caring happy environment where the school reflects a living Christian community.
• Provide opportunities for celebration, prayer, praise and reflection in implicit and explicit ways.
• Expect and encourage a high standard of positive behaviour.
• Provide children with the language of religious experience.
• Present a systematic presentation of Christian events, their relevance and meaning in ways appropriate to the age and development of the child.
• Encourage children to become independent, self-motivated and self-disciplined.
• Support Home and Parish in preparing the children for the Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation.
• Ensure that parents are kept informed regarding the Religious Education curriculum.
• Provide an environment of continued development and growth for pupils and staff.
• Give children an understanding of and a respect for other faiths.
• Implement the Archdiocesan Religious Education programme ‘Come and See’.

Come and See

To fulfil our aims and objectives we use the ‘Come and See’ programme of Religious Education recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool.

The programme has been developed to respond to the needs of children today in their faith journey, to enable them to grow in their religious literacy and understanding in a way that is coherent with current educational principles.

It is designed to support teachers in their delivery of religious education. It integrates the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Catholic Levels of Attainment and the new Religious Education Curriculum Directory.

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.

Themes

Come and See is developed through three themes. They are Church, Sacrament and Christian living. The basic question – belief for each season time is explored through three kinds of themes.

• Community of faith – Church
• Celebration of Ritual – Sacraments
• Way of life – Christian living

Topics

The document below outlines the topics and themes covered by each year group during the school year.

Visitors during our Come and See lessons

To support our learning in Come and See, we invite visitors into our school. This helps bring our learning to life, broaden our pupils' horizons and knowledge and make direct links to the real world.

Recently we have had visits from Fr. Mark to talk to our pupils about Baptism and Ordination. Each year, Mr. Cohen visits us to talk to each class about Judaism. In addition, we have invited Hindu, Islam and Sikh visitors to St. Michael's.

Why teach about other Faiths or Religions?

“In Meeting God in Friend and Stranger” an article produced by the Bishops of England and Wales, it outlines that;

“Within our schools we are seeking to educate all pupils of whatever religion to be able to live a way of life that integrates their beliefs with all other aspects of what it means to be human. As part of this, they must learn to live alongside others who are different and hold alternative views, including religious views.”

In school we refer to Judaism as another faith because of our shared Christian and Jewish heritage. Jesus was a Jew. We refer to Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism as other religions. These are studied because they have a belief in one God. Judaism is studied for one week every year whilst the other religions are taught for one week annually in rotation.

2022/23 Islam

2023/24 Hinduism

2024/25 Sikhism

For further information about Religious Education at St. Michael's, please refer to our RE handbook below.