St Joseph's Catholic Primary School

INTENT

As a School of Faith - We help each child to grow in faith by learning to love God, themselves, others and His creation.

As a school of inclusion, we believe that all learning should be adapted to the needs of all children (SEN, EAL, more able, disadvantaged) and that the curriculum should be carefully planned to take account of everyone in the class so that all can succeed. All are made by God and are welcome at St Joseph’s. Community involvement is an integral part of our curriculum, inviting families and visitors to facilitate learning new skills and sharing experiences such as assemblies and curriculum outcomes. At our school every child is recognised as a unique individual. We celebrate and welcome differences within our diverse school community.

At the heart of Catholic education lies the Christian vision of the human person. This vision is expressed and explored in religious education. Therefore, at St Joseph’s we believe that religious education is never simply one subject among many, but the foundation of the entire educational process

The Aims of Religious Education

• to promote knowledge and understanding of Catholic faith and life
• to promote knowledge and understanding of the response of faith to the ultimate questions about human life, its origin and purpose
• to promote the skills required to engage in examination of and reflection upon religious belief and practice.
• to promote a close relationship between home, school and parish.

Programme of Study:

To fulfil the above aims and to address the 4 areas of study outlined in the Curriculum Directory – Revelation, Church, Celebration and Life in Christ  - The Way, The Truth and The Life programme is used as recommended by the Diocese.

From 2019 we also follow the Diocese implementation of the “Virtues to live by” a collection of Virtues that coincide with the Church Year that are taught throughout the 3 terms. Children learn about the Virtues, links to the Bible, Jesus’ teachings  and their everyday life. Through Liturgies, assemblies, collective worship and circle time they explore these virtues and are commended for living them in their daily lives. We aim to teach our children to display virtues to others and carry out our Mission. 

Link to the Virtue site : https://www.virtuestoliveby.org/

All the planning for each year group, with key I can statements can be found here : https://www.dioceseofleeds.org.uk/education/education/primary/way-truth-life.php

Other Faiths

Other Faiths are taught in classes as part of the syllabus, the Way, the Truth and The Life. We also hold special days/ weeks around certain religious festivals to make aware their importance i.e Diwali, Eid.

IMPLEMENTATION

At  St Joseph's Catholic Primary School we follow The Way the Truth and the Life RE scheme. This Programme of Study covers the teachings and the practices of the Catholic Church and how these impact the lives of people today. 

At St Joseph's we enrich this scheme through a Creative Curriculum approach, using a variety of activities and resources to bring to life the teachings of Jesus. Please click on the link at the left of the screen to see "The Way the Truth and the Life" planning and documentation

At the start of the year a monitoring timetable will be shared with staff highlighting key times / events through the school year.

RE long term plan and The RSE plan is shared with all staff.

 Mr Arnold, Head of School is RE lead and attends all RE coordinator meetings within the Trust. 

 Mr Arnold is the RE / Collective Worship Lead, sharing good practice and monitoring Collective Worship across school and ordering resources.

He also delivers the Sacrament programme in school for the children making their Reconciliation and Holy Communion.

We have a KS2 RE council that are vocal across school and lead Worships and highlight and lead key events through the Church year - Remembrance Day, leading the Rosary, St Joseph’s day, Advent and Lent.

Seven children in the current Year 6 are part of the Faith In Action group. They do special activities through the year demonstrating their Faith and sharing their beliefs with the whole school community.

Close links with the Church and Father Tony show children are involved in the Parish. We have a school choir that sing at Parish Masses, parish events ( i.e Christmas Dinner/ Summer Fair) We celebrate key dates : St Joseph’s Day; Trust day; May Devotion; Blessed Christopher Wharton in November; showing the whole Ethos of St Joseph’s is ever present, highly visual and the Virtues we teach are continuous through the year.

Friends of St Joseph : our Parent group was re-launched in September 2022 led by Head of School, Learning mentor and our SENCO. The aim is to share with parents their children’s love of RE and make strong links within the Parish and Community.

All parents are invited in through the year to see their child's classes Saint Liturgy and can attend special worship and masses.

IMPACT

A School of Virtues - We help each child grow in positive personal strengths, through our “virtues to live by”, part of the teaching of Catholic Character Education: to develop a good understanding of right and wrong, to love one another, to respect and treat each other as equals and become decent and responsible citizens. This is evident throughout school where the children can link these virtues to al parts of the school curriculum and the outstanding behaviour on display in school all stems from our Faith and belief in the Virtues we learn and live by.

Each year, as well as the document RE CSEd (Catholic Self-evaluation document)  RE is also on the School Development plan, 

We have the Canonical report which highlights key areas we are working on and have been successful in.

The data sheet we present to the trust shows % of age related and greater depth across school.

Each half term the teachers assess, use assessments through writing and creative RE and put data onto our Trust tracking system INSIGHT. This is reported to the Trust and to Parents on the annual report

Termly planning of Collective Worship, circle time and topic work will draw out elements of the Virtues and the Gospel Values to highlight to the children how important these teachings are in all subjects and everyday life. Everything we do has RE at the heart of all teaching.

The RE council, School council and the Mini-Vinnies lead pupil voice and have meetings with the weekly Virtues and Mission of St Joseph’s at the forefront of their actions.

Faith in Action with year 5 pupils demonstrates an eagerness to deepen their relationship with God and spread the teachings of Jesus.

Behaviour across school is outstanding, our Safeguarding is deemed good and Pupil and parent questionnaires back up this view of St Joseph’s being a caring, inclusive and safe school

Parent and Parent feedback from the annual questionnaire is evidence of our Impact and is shared with all stakeholders.