Religious Education

RE Curriculum

The Religious Education Directory (RED), titled To Know You More Clearly, is a required guide for Catholic schools in England and Wales. Created by the Catholic Education Service, it offers a high-quality way to teach RE for ages 3–14, focusing on theology, the Bible, and discussion.

The Religious Education Directory:

• The Religious Education Directory is delivered through the scheme of ‘Lighting the Path’, in line with Diocesan expectations.

• The curriculum is divided into 6 branches which all year groups study throughout the year. The content aligns with the Church’s Liturgical year.

• The Religious Education Directory helps Catholic primary schools teach children about Jesus and Catholic beliefs, while also encouraging them to think critically, put their faith into action, and respect people of other religions.

• The ‘knowledge lenses’ clearly outline what pupils should know by the end of each age-phase. Content is divided into six lenses: four for Catholicism (Hear, Believe, Celebrate, Live) and two for other religions and worldviews (Dialogue, Encounter).

• There are three ‘ways of knowing’ which are present throughout the curriculum; understanding, discerning, and responding. Ways of knowing set out the skills that pupils should be developing as they progress through their curriculum journey.

• Religious Education has 10% curriculum time, as per the requirements of the Diocesan Directives.

   

Lighting the Path Overview

The Lighting the Path curriculum follows the requirements stated in the Religious Education Directory. It aims to use the pedagogy of story to inspire, provoke and challenge children in their thinking. Within the Bible are stories, histories, poems, prophecies, gospels and letters, which weave together a story of humanity’s search for God. Children engage with this great narrative not as a static text but through learning how it is lived out in the beliefs and actions of the global Catholic community.

The curriculum has six branches, which follow the liturgical cycle of the church’s year, enabling the children to make links with wider aspects to the catholic life of the school. The spiral structure enables children to build up layers of knowledge, deepening them year on year, through a growing understanding of scripture. Knowledge steps ensure progression and allow children to reflect on what their learning means for them.

The Six Curriculum Branches

Branch 1: Creation and Covenant – Explores God’s creation of the universe, the beauty of the natural world, and the foundational covenants made with humanity in the Old Testament.

Branch 2: Prophecy and Promise – Focuses on the prophets who kept hope alive, looking forward to the promise of the Messiah and the preparation of God’s people.

Branch 3: Galilee to Jerusalem – Follows the life, public ministry, teachings, miracles, and the ultimate journey of Jesus from Galilee to his passion and death in Jerusalem.

Branch 4: From Desert to Garden – Centers on the seasons of Lent and Easter, moving from the wilderness of testing and conversion to the new life of the Resurrection.

Branch 5: To the Ends of the Earth – Explores the early Church, the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and how the Gospel message spread globally through the actions of the Apostles and the Christian community.

Branch 6: Dialogue and Encounter – Engages with the wider world, studying other religious and areligious worldviews through respectful dialogue, shared human experiences, and Catholic social teaching.

Diocesan Resources

Visit the Diocese of Middlesbrough's website to discover more about religious education within our Diocesan primary schools:

Diocese of Middlesbrough - Primary Religious Education

'Life to the Full'

Relationship and Health Education (RHE) became statutory for all Primary Schools from September 2020.

The Life to the Full programme is the RHE scheme that we use at St Thomas More and is based on the structure of ‘A Model Catholic RSE Curriculum’ by the Catholic Education Service. This model curriculum was highlighted as a work of good practice by the Department for Education so we are confident that the programme supports 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 engage, inform and inspire our children and, indeed, you as parents. It includes interactive video content, story-based activities, employing a wide range of teaching tools, original worship music and an accompanying programme of classroom prayers.

Life to the Full offers an Relationships & Sex Education Policy so that you, as parent and carers, can engage with the teaching and deepen the experience for your child:

School Username: st-thomas-more-hu4

School Password: hanover-house-2

This Relationships & Sex Education Policy will help to give you an overview of the structure and content of the programme.

Life to the Full is a means to further develop, support and enrich the partnership between home, school and church so that your child is fully supported.