Intent

Religious Education (RE) is at the core of all the teaching at St Anselm’s. The Gospel values and teachings of the Catholic Church underpin every aspect of our School life. We aim to be a witnessing community, assisting parents in the task of helping children to know God and experience the Christian faith at home and at school.

To help the children develop knowledge of their faith, the school uses The Way, The Truth and The Life RE programme which is informed by the ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’ and the Religious Education Curriculum Directory for Catholic Schools. The curriculum content is:

• Revelation; Story, Scripture, Memory and Tradition of the Church
• Church; Community, Discipleship, Witness
• Celebration; Sacrament, Ritual, Prayer, Worship, Liturgy
• Life in Christ; Lifestyle, Morality, Values, Attitudes

Emphasis is placed on the teaching of scripture and to support this, the use of bibles is very much encouraged, particularly in KS2. To support the teaching of Catholic Social Teaching, the school uses the scheme, ‘Caritas in Action’. We also use the Building the Kingdom (BTK) initiative giving children the opportunity to explore big questions about life and faith within a broad Christ centred curriculum. We recognise the importance of teaching the children to value and respect the beliefs and traditions of other faiths so one week each of RE teaching is given to teaching other faiths.

The Catholic life of the school is enriched by our strong links with the parish of Our Lady of St Thomas of Canterbury and the support given by our Parish Priest. Prayer and worship are an essential part of our school life. Mass is celebrated by the whole school, prepared and led by children from different year groups and weekly Gospel and achievement assemblies are led by the senior leadership team. We also have a pupil GIFT Team, (Growing In Faith Together) who help to promote the spiritual and moral development of the school.