Religious Education

Religious Education at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School

Religious Education at St Mary Magdalene enables our children to grow in the knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith, and to know that God loves each one of them. We ensure Religious Education develops all aspects of their faith, spiritually, morally, culturally and socially. We also endeavour to encourage awareness and respect for other faiths.

Aims

We seek to guide children to live a Christian life, rooted in gospel values. We aim to enable children to integrate their life experiences and learning into an appreciation of their faith, in Jesus Christ. Religious Education enables reflection on life whilst presenting them with the same challenge and demands of other curriculum areas. We will offer the children a sense of their own self-worth through the experience of belonging to a caring community and an awareness of the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.

The Religious Education Curriculum

To fulfil our aims we use ‘To Know You More Clearly’ (the RED) programme of Religious Education as recommended by the Diocese of Northampton. This programme encourages the development of skills to explore, investigate, interpret and communicate and deepen the children's understanding of scripture and their Catholic faith. In addition to this the Christian ethos is created by the example set by all adults in the community. This ethos permeates all aspects of the school and provides a model for the children to follow.

Knowing Jesus more clearly is the main aim of the new curriculum. To know you more clearly programme ways of knowing:

Understand	Discern	Respond
See	Judge	Act
What will I see and hear to help me understand?	How will I discover more?	What can I do now?

Each term the children will follow a programme of study called "a branch". Completing 6 branches within the school year.

The six branches are:

Creation and Covenant
Prophecy and Promise
From Galilee to Jerusalem
From Desert to Garden
To the ends of the earth
Dialogue and Encounter

Each branch follows these lenses:

Hear
Believe
Celebrate
Live

At the end of each branch and lenses the children will:

Understand
Discern
Respond

Plan for rollout of implementation of RED:

Summer term 2024:
EYFS/Nursery to begin to deliver RE using RED

September 2025:
Year 1 and Year 6 deliver RE using RED

Summer term 2025:
Year 2 and Year 5 deliver using RED

September 2025:
Year 3 and Year 4 to deliver using RED

With a view to whole school compliance by September 2025.

Assessment

Awaiting content

Prayer and Liturgy

Prayer is part of the fabric of our school. Children are guided and encouraged to actively participate in all forms of prayer and liturgies. We also endeavour to include parents in our prayer life by consistently reaching out to parents to join us in prayer and liturgy and to pray as a family in the home. We are a worshipping community. We foster links with our serving parishes. Father Bernard Barrett, parish priest at St Francis de Sales and St Mary Magdalene, is a regular visitor to the school and helps the chaplaincy team formulate a liturgy plan for each academic year. Children learn formal prayers but also are given frequent opportunities to pray privately, attend prayer groups, participate in guided meditations and create their own unique prayers. Children participate and help plan liturgies and assemblies.

Prayer and worship are led by our Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher, other adults and pupils.

Collective Worship

Daily prayers are said in class at the beginning and end of each day, and before lunch. These may be teacher or child lead prayers or more well-known traditional prayers.

Children hear the word and have time to reflect when using Ten Ten prayer and liturgy resources. Our collective worship is delivered in the school hall or in the chapel:

Monday	Whole school	Gospel assembly, prayers, reflection linked to/based on the week’s Ten Ten theme
Tuesday	Songs of worship	Traditional and contemporary hymns, songs and carols which praise God
Wednesday/Thursday	Class worship	Prayer, stillness based on Ten Ten theme of the week
Friday	KS1/2 assembly	Learning about saints/values deepening our understanding of our faith

Other Regular Assemblies

Bridgebuilder Trust - The Christian message is shared in a fun and interactive way each half term.

Class-led assembly - parents invited to join a celebration of classroom learning through drama and music.

Visitor assembly - Local groups who support our prayer life and Christian faith often come into school - CAFOD, Parks Trust, NSPCC, Missio.

Themed Day assemblies - a whole day is set aside to explore a theme such as Anti-Bullying Day, World Book day, St Mary Magdalene day feast day.

Prayer workshops - Easter and Christmas Cracked for year 6 led by Bridgebuilder.

Prayer spaces - in the chapel during Lent for the whole school.

Prayers We Say

Prayers and Devotions

Prayer is a way of lifting our hearts and minds to God. It allows us to adore God, acknowledging His almighty power and it allows us to bring thanks, our petitions and our sorrows before our Lord.

It is important that children encounter a wide range of prayers so that they are familiar with Catholic traditions, texts and the language of prayer. These are introduced, explained and learnt at a stage that is age appropriate and suitable for the personal development of each pupil.

Daily Prayers

Throughout the day there is opportunity for short times of prayer which mark the rhythm of the school timetable:

Beginning of the day
Grace before lunch
End of the day prayer

Individual Prayers

Time for personal prayer and reflection is important at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School and it is facilitated during school and class worship. Often both individual and communal prayer become part of the same liturgy:

Spontaneous prayer
Stillness and silence
Meditation
Reflective music
Written prayers

Songs of Worship

St Augustine said “Those who sing well pray twice”. Music is integral to prayer and celebration as it accompanies and highlights aspects of any worship and helps children to remember texts and messages more easily. Singing is a joyful expression of prayer to support the liturgical season:

Hymns and chants
Sung mass responses
Secular Christian music

Sacramental Prayers

Prayers and responses at mass should be familiar to all Catholic pupils and will be recited together, with confidence:

Mass responses

Common Prayer

The tradition of Christians learning prayers by memory is valued at St Mary Magdalene. We believe that prayers learnt by heart will spring from the heart and can be called upon when needed. These prayers will be introduced to children according to Key Stage.

During EYFS

Sign of the cross
End of day prayer

During KS1/KS2

Grace before meals
The Lord’s prayer
Hail Mary
Glory Be
St Mary Magdalene school prayer

Angel of God
Eternal Rest

Liturgical Devotions

These are traditions of the Church relating to the liturgical year which lead us to a deeper understanding of the season we are celebrating:

Rosary
Blessing of Advent wreath
Epiphany door blessing
Stations of the Cross
Crowning of Mary

Praying at Home

During their time at St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School children are taught and encouraged to pray in a variety of ways and they enjoy many different experiences of prayer throughout the school day and school year.

As part of the ongoing spiritual development of our pupils we ask that you support their prayer life at home. You can do this by:

Teaching your child traditional prayers
Allowing opportunity for spontaneous thanks and prayer
Teaching prayers in your own home language
Singing your favourite hymns and carols
Sharing the seasonal prayer bags from school together
Asking about their RE lessons and collective worship
Thanking God for the happy times and offering prayers during sad family times.

Each child receives a school prayer book when they start school.

An Annual Plan of Prayer 25-26

Liturgy and Prayer Policy