Religious Education

The Religious Education provided in a Catholic school cannot be confined to the teaching and learning specifically devoted to Religious Education.

We constantly seek to ensure that the message and spirit of the Gospel, permeates ALL aspects of school life, that informs the approach to and treatment of the whole curriculum and that it is reflected and communicated in the love, care and respect with which staff and pupils are treated.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel adopts the Archdiocese scheme “Learning and Growing as the People of God”.

The scheme provides progression from Early Years to Year 4 in the key areas of Revelation, Church, Celebration and the Life of Christ. It also allows opportunities for monitoring and assessment. The scheme links in with other curricular areas and is resourced by using Bibles, Sacramental programmes, Multicultural resources and other resources appropriate to the programme of study. Each half-term’s planning for RE is put on the class pages of the school website, and this helps parents to support the children in their learning.

Aims of Religious Education in our school:

• To enable the children to become aware of God in their lives and to uphold and teach Catholic doctrine, practices and teachings.
• To make prayer, worship and the liturgy real and educational experiences and to contribute successfully to the development of the faith of each individual in our school community.
• To ensure that the curriculum provides a Catholic Christian setting in which children can reflect and grow in understanding and in the acquisition of skills, attitudes and values.
• To meet the children where they are in the development of their faith and accompany them on their way to becoming thinking and mature members of the Catholic Church.
• To develop close and fruitful links between school, home and parish and to provide a variety of opportunities for involvement in the life and worship of their local community.
• To ensure that the pupils’ experiences within the school have a formative and significant influence on their understanding of relationships.
• To help each child to form moral judgements and acquire a set of Christian values which will guide personal behaviour.
• To acknowledge, preserve and promote the spiritual and moral qualities and the social and cultural values which characterise the non-Catholic members of our school community.
• To develop children’s understanding and respect for themselves, others, the natural world about them and religious traditions in other cultures.