At St Elizabeth’s, we place Religious Education at the heart of the curriculum, in order to help us to fulfil our mission to educate the whole child, academically, personally and spiritually.

‘Religious Education is never simply one subject among many but the foundation of the entire educational process.’ 

^{(Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, 2000)}

As a Catholic school, 10% of our curriculum time at St Elizabeth’s is given to the teaching of RE.  We follow the ‘Come and See’ Religious Education Programme in line with guidance from the Southwark Archdiocese.  This programme is followed throughout school from Reception to Year 6.

Each term three RE topics are taught from the ‘Come and See’ programme. 

The ‘Come and See’ programme provides:

• Opportunities for celebration, prayer and reflection in implicit and explicit ways.
• Opportunities to meet the needs of all learners through creative, engaging and stimulating lessons.
• A 'literacy' in scripture, religious celebrations, places, stories, symbols and people.  Children have an opportunity to explore and analyse scripture and to make links between scripture, belief and practice.
• A 'systematic presentation of Church, Sacrament and Christian way of life' in ways appropriate to the age and stage of development of the child.  These themes are revisited each term in each year group to enable pupils to retrieve and deepen their knowledge and understanding about the key concepts and practices.
• Appropriate materials for teaching about other faiths.
• Academic respectability and equality as in other curricular areas – utilising appropriate stages from the National Curriculum.

At the centre of each RE topic is the 'Big Question'.  This encourages all children to have an opportunity to develop their critical thinking skills, to respond spiritually, to ask questions and to look at the world with awe and wonder.

Our parish priests support our RE curriculum by visiting the classes to talk about the sacraments of Baptism and Ordination.

Judaism is studied every year from Reception to Year 6 in the Spring Term.  Sikhism, Islam and Hinduism are taught on a three-year cycle in the Autumn Term.  Visits to places of worship are integral to the teaching of other faiths.  

Our RE curriculum teaches our children to be ‘Religiously literate’.  They are knowledgeable about God’s love, they learn about the Christian responsibilities and are provided with experiences of Catholic traditions and way of life.  Our children learn about their unique place within the home, school, parish and global community.  This impacts their choices and actions, and they know and understand that they have a responsibility to and for others.  The study of a range of religions and cultures encourages children to be respectful and knowledgeable citizens.

Catholic Social Justice

We want our pupils to look beyond the school community to seek justice and peace, responding to the needs of others, both in our locality and on a global level.  It is our aim that our RE curriculum should encourage our children, using the teachings of the Church as a guide, to recognise and challenge inequality and prejudice and understand that they can be a positive force for change in the world.  We give children the opportunity to recognise in others and develop in themselves the Gospel Values of faithfulness, compassion, humility, integrity, forgiveness and truth.

Click below to read our Religious Education Policy.