“…Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
Religious Education at St. Joseph's invites each child to enter into a personal and profound relationship with Christ. We are committed to allowing each individual to explore their own faith and develop their relationship with God and all that He has planned for them through the unique set of gifts and talents He has blessed them with. It respects and promotes each child's innate capacity for wonder, awe, reverence and spirituality. Our teaching of Religious Education enables children to continually deepen their theological understanding and be able to communicate this effectively.
As a Catholic School we are committed to the Catholic Faith, holding Religious Education at the heart of the curriculum and all that we do in school. This allows our children to relate the knowledge gained through Religious Education to their understanding of other subjects in the curriculum. Therefore, our Catholic ethos permeates every aspect of our curriculum and wider school life.
Prayer and Worship in our Catholic school is concerned with giving glory, honour, praise and thanks to God. It is our loving response, in word and action, to God’s invitation to enter into relationship with Him, made possible through the work of Jesus Christ and the witness of the Holy Spirit. Prayer Life at St Joseph's is integral to everything we do as we strive to deliver a Christ-centred curriculum for all.
It is allocated a total teaching time of approximately 10% of available curriculum time for each year group, as recommended by the Bishops of England and Wales. Planning and timetables take account of this. The 10% time allocation does not include collective acts of worship; it is specific RE teaching.
Our RE Curriculum is delivered primarily through Diocesan approved schemes of work linked to the new Religious Education Directory 'To Know You More Clearly', which addresses the four areas of study outlined – Revelation, Church, Celebration and Life of Christ.
We continue to use 'Come and See' in Year 5 and 6, as recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, whilst implementing and embedding the the new RED Curriculum from EYFS to Year 4. We use the schemes of work recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool in order to be fully compliant in fulfilling our aims and objectives.
For Year 5 and 6, the Religious Education programme ‘Come and See’ is centred around three basic human questions and the three Christian beliefs that are the Church’s response in faith:
Where do I come from? Life - Creation
Who am I? Incarnation
Why am I here? Redemption
Within the ‘Come and See’ programme, these three big questions are considered, in the light of the Scriptures and Tradition of the Church; as expressed in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church
In teaching our children about Relationships, Health and Sex Education, we follow the age-appropriate programme; shared with parents, families and our community as well as approved by the Archdiocese of Liverpool - Journey in Love.
Standards in Religious Education are high. The Catholic life of the school is central to our mission and children engage in well-planned, yet authentic and spiritual, prayer and liturgy.
Children at St Joseph's have the opportunity to celebrate the sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion as part of our close-knit parish with the support of our whole community.