Religious Education
Our Religious Education Curriculum
Religious Education is at the heart of our life as a Catholic school. Through RE, we seek not only to develop pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, but also to help every child encounter Christ, recognise their dignity as a child of God and grow in wisdom, virtue and love.
We follow Discerning Disciples, the Religious Education curriculum developed for Catholic primary schools in the Archdiocese of Birmingham. It provides a coherent, sequential and progressive journey through which children develop their knowledge, understanding and love of the Catholic faith.
The curriculum reflects the shared mission of the family of schools within the Archdiocese of Birmingham:
“Forming Christ-centred pilgrims of hope with kind hearts, questioning minds, a thirst for knowledge and a hunger for justice.”
What does it mean to be a Discerning Disciple?
A discerning disciple is someone who learns to recognise what is true, good and right, and who is increasingly able to make thoughtful and wise decisions in the light of faith, reason and lived experience.
From their earliest years, our children are encouraged to listen attentively to the Word of God, wonder at the beauty of creation, encounter Jesus through the Gospels and learn about the life and mission of the Church. As they progress through school, they develop the confidence to ask meaningful questions, make connections, consider different perspectives and understand how faith can shape the way we live.
The Six Branches of Learning
Discerning Disciples is organised into six branches, which structure pupils’ learning throughout the year and connect their growing knowledge of faith with the life and liturgical year of the Church:
- Creation and Covenant – exploring God as Creator, the dignity of the human person, Scripture, covenant and our responsibility to care for creation.
- Prophecy and Promise – exploring God’s promises, the prophets, Mary’s response to God and the coming of Jesus.
- Galilee to Jerusalem – encountering Jesus through the Gospels and learning about His life, teaching, ministry and mission.
- Desert to Garden – journeying through Lent and Easter and developing an understanding of Jesus’ death and Resurrection and the Paschal Mystery.
- To the Ends of the Earth – exploring the Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost, the Holy Spirit and the mission of the Church.
- Dialogue and Encounter – helping pupils understand the Church as a community and providing opportunities to learn about other faiths and religions so that they develop the knowledge and dispositions needed for respectful dialogue and encounter.
Across these branches, knowledge is carefully sequenced so that children revisit important ideas and encounter them with increasing depth and theological understanding as they move through the school.
Hear, Believe, Celebrate and Live
Throughout Discerning Disciples, children make meaningful connections between four important aspects of their learning: Hear, through encountering Sacred Scripture; Believe, through developing knowledge of Catholic beliefs and teaching; Celebrate, through learning about prayer, liturgy and the sacramental life of the Church; and Live, through considering how faith is expressed in our lives and in the world.
These lenses ensure that RE is much more than learning isolated facts. Children encounter Scripture, deepen their understanding of Catholic belief, explore how faith is celebrated and consider what faith means for the choices we make and the way we treat others. The curriculum also introduces philosophical and ethical questions, artistic expressions of faith and examples of lived religion, while reflecting the global and culturally diverse nature of the Catholic Church.
Know, Discern and Respond
Central to the curriculum are three interconnected elements: Know, Discern and Respond.
Know ensures that children acquire secure and age-appropriate religious knowledge. Discern encourages them to use that knowledge to think deeply, ask questions, make connections and develop thoughtful judgements. Respond gives children opportunities to consider how their learning shapes their understanding, attitudes, choices and actions.
Every RE lesson incorporates these elements, ensuring that secure knowledge provides the foundation for meaningful discernment and thoughtful response. The curriculum places particular importance on children being able to remember and articulate the key knowledge they have been taught, before using this knowledge to think more deeply.
Discussion and questioning are therefore important features of our RE lessons. Children are encouraged to listen carefully to one another, explain their thinking and use their growing knowledge to consider what is true, good and beautiful. Teachers continually check understanding and adapt their teaching so that all pupils, whatever their starting point, can access the curriculum and flourish as discerning disciples.
These lenses ensure that RE is much more than learning isolated facts. Children encounter Scripture, deepen their understanding of Catholic belief, explore how faith is celebrated and consider what faith means for the choices we make and the way we treat others. The curriculum also introduces philosophical and ethical questions, artistic expressions of faith and examples of lived religion, while reflecting the global and culturally diverse nature of the Catholic Church.
Faith in Action
Discerning Disciples recognises that Catholic education is concerned with both faith and life. Rooted in Catholic Social Teaching, our children learn to recognise the dignity of every human person, care for creation, serve the common good and develop a hunger for justice.
They are encouraged to understand that faith should bear fruit in love: in the way we treat one another, the choices we make and the way we respond to the needs of our local and global communities. Learning about other faiths and religions also helps children to grow in understanding and respect, preparing them to participate positively in the diverse communities in which they live.
Our Aim
Through Discerning Disciples, we want every child to leave our school with a rich and secure knowledge of the Catholic faith, an ability to think deeply and ask meaningful questions, and the confidence to put their faith into action.
Ultimately, our RE curriculum supports our wider mission as a Catholic school: to help our pupils know that they are loved by God, encounter Christ, grow in faith and knowledge, and become compassionate, thoughtful and hopeful young people who are ready to serve others and make a positive difference in the world.
