Religious Education
At Holy Family, our Catholic faith is central to everything we do.
We are extremely proud to be an 'Outstanding' Catholic school in which both children and adults are supported and encouraged to develop their own faith and spirituality.
We recognise that our children come from a range of backgrounds and abilities. As such, we are sensitive to each child's life experiences and value their individual contribution to school life.
We truly believe that every child in our care is made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, our aim in the teaching of Religious Education is to bring our children to a deep, living, active and personal faith related to their own lives and experiences.
As teachers, we strive to ensure that our whole curriculum, our moral values and our relationships stem from the Gospel values and that our children are continually reminded of God's loving presence in all that we do.
Teaching and Learning
As recommended by the Diocesan guidelines, the time given to the teaching of Religious Education at Holy Family is 10% of the timetable, for timetabled or planned periods of time to an explicit consideration of RE in the classroom.
At Holy Family, religious education is respected as a core subject and as such must be of a quality to engage and stimulate pupils' intellect, heart and imagination. To ensure these areas are addressed, we follow the 'God Matters' scheme of work, which addresses the requirements of the RE Curriculum Directory for Catholic Education (2012). This strategy aims to provide a curriculum that will be enjoyable to study, and one that endeavours to secure the link between what the church teaches and the classroom by supporting teachers' planning, delivery and assessment opportunities.
The God Matters scheme is used throughout our school and is split up into different themes which are revisited and developed each year.
- Creation - Learning about the creation story and developing this learning to explore why we should look after God's creation.
- Prayer, Saints and Feasts - This unit explores our relationship with God and how we celebrate our Saints.
- Advent - Looks at how we prepare for Jesus birth
- Christmas - specifically looks at the story of Christmas and what it means to us.
- Sacraments - The children develop an understanding of each of the 7 sacraments within the Catholic Faith.
- Lent - Children develop an understanding of how we prepare for Jesus' death.
- Holy Week- Children will explore each of the different stages of Holy Week and empathise with Jesus' and the disciples feelings throughout this time.
- Easter - Children are given the opportunities to explore the sacrifice Jesus and God made at this time.
- Revelation - developing our knowledge of how we should follow God's laws and how we are waiting for Jesus to come again.
As teachers, we encourage all our children to apply the skills that they learn in other literary subjects to their religious education, and maintain that they should investigate the faith with the same enthusiasm and rigour as other subject areas.
Prayer Life
At Holy Family, we help our pupils to develop a reverential attitude in their prayer life and to make prayer a natural part of their daily lives. Children are exposed to a variety of prayer experiences, both formal and informal, private and communal. Children are encouraged to take an active part in school Masses and daily Collective Worship, including the preparation of readings and prayers.
Other Faiths
Community cohesion is central to our Christian faith and we value the rich and diverse community of Holy Family. We are committed to developing an ethos of respect for other faiths and welcome the contribution made by those of other religious beliefs. Through our curriculum, the children learn about the beliefs and rituals of Judaism, Hinduism and Islam and we provide opportunities to recognise other religious festivals throughout the year. Our outward looking and inclusive philosophy fosters an understanding of the many blessings of the world around us.
Relationship and Health Education (RHE)
Life to the Full
Following a consultation with teachers, parents and governors in 2020, the school decided to adopt the programme, Life to the Full, produced by the Catholic educational organisation, Ten Ten Resources.
The Life to the Full programme is based on the structure of 'A Model Catholic RHE Curriculum' by the Catholic Education Service. This model curriculum was highlighted as a work of good practice by the Department of Education so we therefore have confidence that the programme will be fit for purpose in supporting the growth and development of your child.
Life to the Full is much more than a series of lessons. It is an entire platform of creative resources that will engage, inform and inspire our children and, indeed, you as parents. The entire teaching is underpinned with a Christian faith understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God – created, chosen and loved by God. The programme is fully inclusive of all pupils and their families. This includes interactive video content, story-based activities, employing a wide range of teaching tools, original worship music and an accompanying programme of classroom prayers.
In addition, there is an online parent platform so that you, as parent and carers, can engage with the teaching and deepen the experience for your child. To access the online parent platform please visit: www.tentenresources.co.uk/parent-portal
School Username: holy-family-sn3
School Password: instrument-of-peace5
For the following two academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22, this programme of work was taught in the last term of the school year, meaning that Life to the Full was split and taught over a 2 year cycle (Cycle A and Cycle B). As a result of the parental and teacher consultation, and in conjunction with the Samuel Partnership Schools, we drew up a new RHE policy. (Available in the 'Download' section below.)
In October 2022, following the successful roll out of the scheme, we wrote to parents to advise that we had decided to teach Life to the Full across the whole school year.
Life to the Full is intended to be a partnership between home, school and church. We know that you already do a fantastic job and we see our new programme, Life to the Full, as a means to further develop, support and enrich the partnership between home, school and church so that your child is fully supported.