Mrs Ruth Carless
Mrs Carless is one of our RE Subject Leaders
Mrs Paris Finnegan
Mrs Finnegan is one of our RE Subject Leaders
‘I really enjoy my RE lessons because we always have the chance to listen to Bible stories together and compare them to problems we may face today. We always ask ourselves ‘What would Jesus do?’’
Year 4 Child
At St. Teresa’s Catholic Academy, Religious Education (R.E.) has a special place at the heart of our school curriculum. Our primary intention is for all pupils to develop spiritually on their own personal faith journey with God. We, therefore, aim for our R.E. curriculum to work closely alongside our SAINTS Beatitudes to enable all children at our school to embed the Gospel Values and Virtues and achieve our vision statement of being “Safe, happy and successful, together with God”.
R.E. at our school is centred on Catholic Christianity and we aim for all children in our school to see RE learning as an opportunity to become part of the wider Catholic community. Our RE lessons are both faith-filled and accessible so each child feels they fully belong to our school community regardless of their own religious identity.
During their R.E. lessons, children will build their knowledge and understanding of religion, faith and theology. They will also be provided with the tools needed to actively and confidently respond to life’s big personal, moral and social questions and challenges. We also believe that our R.E. curriculum plays an important role in broadening the minds of our pupils and opportunities are planned throughout the year to explore and celebrate the diversity of faith and belief within our school and wider communities.
RE is given high prominence as a core subject in our school. In order to have the tools to know God, children from Foundation Stage to Year 6 will develop a knowledge and understanding of a broad range of scripture and related concepts, as outlined in the God Matters scheme from the Diocese of Portsmouth. We aim for children at St Teresa’s to meet the Diocese’s age-related expectations and fit the learner profile for their year group.
At St. Teresa’s we will give opportunities for our pupils to take ownership of their own religious education and development so that by the end of Year 6 they will have a firm grasp on what it means to be a person of faith in a Catholic community. Thanks to close links with our parish church community and regular Liturgies, children at our school will become accustomed to participating in acts of worship and spiritual reflection. We also aim for our pupils to put faith into action by making practical links with their learning in lessons with their personal actions, such as private prayer, leading worship, supporting charitable causes and spreading the key messages of the Gospel in the community.
