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Religious Education

RE at St Edmund’s is taught through the Come and See programme in Years 2,3,4 and 5 which follows the expectations of the Religious Education Directory 2012. EYFS, Year 1 and 6 are now following the new and updated curriculum based on the Religious Education Directory(To Know You More Clearly) 2023.

Our RE lessons provide children with the opportunity to develop their religious beliefs and values. RE is the core subject that is central to the life of a Catholic school, and it enables children to understand the relationship between faith and life through various engaging activities. This also includes work to be completed at home, which involves vital parental input. The teaching of RE at our school is not treated purely as a lesson, as throughout the school, the children are provided with many opportunities to grasp and embed a deeper acknowledgement of our school community as part of the family of God.

This enables us as a school to ensure that we create a happy atmosphere that is nurturing and caring in which children and all staff at our school show love and care for one another. The teaching of RE is also taught discretely and developmentally through assemblies and our involvement with charitable projects that usually concern the welfare and well-being of other children and communities. This develops good citizenship, making links with the parish and fosters an awareness of economic changes and an understanding of our changing world.

RE lessons offer children an opportunity to develop good attitudes and dispositions which offer children a sense of self-worth through their experiences of belonging to a community. We endeavour to ensure that children then apply their learning and take their spiritual learning with them when they integrate into the wider community as young adults.

Alongside our RE programme, we incorporate relevant areas which are age-appropriate from The Programme for Education in Personal Relationships which also includes our Relationship and Sex Education Programme(Life to the Full). This is also developed through our Come and See programme and Healthy Living curriculum and, eventually, at the top of the school, children learn about puberty and the changes that happen to them. This all takes place within the context of our Christian beliefs and living which is age-appropriate. We reinforce the teaching of RE through Collective Worship assemblies; Class Collective Worship sessions which are also child-led and through our weekly Ethos Statements which are based on the Statement to Live By.

These statements are very closely linked to the RE programme and deepen our children's awareness of the demands of religious commitment in their everyday life. As part of our celebration of children’s spiritual journey, children in Year 4 are invited to join the parish preparation programme for the sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. 

We work very closely and in partnership with our parish priest, Fr Jonathan How, Wintershall, CAFOD, our Xavier Catholic Education Trust team and our Diocese to enhance children's learning of RE and understanding of scripture through immersion from learning activities and opportunities provided.