To Know You More Clearly

From September 2023 we are beginning our journey to follow the new Religious Education Directory and its program "To Know You More Clearly".

September 2023 - Reception Class

September 2024 - Year One, Year Two and Year Three

September 2025 - All other year groups

The new RECD  is an innovative and enriching new Religious Education program that seeks to deepen the spiritual journey of students by fostering a profound understanding of Catholic teachings and values.

This program goes beyond the traditional curriculum, encouraging students to explore their faith through a lens of curiosity and introspection. Through engaging lessons, thoughtful reflections, and interactive activities, "To Know You More Clearly" creates a dynamic learning environment that encourages students to connect with their spirituality on a personal level.

This program not only imparts knowledge but also cultivates a genuine and enduring relationship with God, contributing to the overall spiritual development of the students.

Scripture is the foundation of each Branch and will develop knowledge, understanding, skills, compassion and awe and wonder across the curriculum.

RECD Branches

 

The Ways of Knowing

The ways of knowing describe the skills that pupils develop as they progress though the religious education curriculum. These are:

Understand

In this way of knowing the aim is to help pupils understand deeply the meaning of sacred texts, religious beliefs, sacred rites, and the lives of individuals and communities who are shaped by these texts, beliefs and rites.

Discern

In this way of knowing the aim is to help pupils ne able to judge wisely in response to different interpretations of the meaning, significance and implications of texts, beliefs, rites, and ways of life so that they can arrive at justified conclusions about what is true, what is good and what is beautiful.

Respond

In this way of knowing the aim is to help pupils reflect personally and with integrity on what they have learnt and consider the implications for action these may have their own lives and the world in which they live. 

Knowledge Lenses

The knowledge lenses indicate what should be known by the end if each age phase. They are referred to as lenses since they are what we are looking at. 

Hear

The first knowledge lens is called ‘Hear’ and discusses the human capacity for God, Divine Revelation, and its transmission, Sacred Scripture, and the human response to God’s invitation. It is called ‘hear’ because it focuses on the Word of God which we hear.

Believe

The second knowledge lens is called ‘Believe’ and deals with the contents of the Creed. It is called ‘believe’ because it focuses on the content of the Church’s own profession of faith. In this lens we look at those doctrines that constitute our faith: trinity, incarnation, the Holy Spirit, the communion of saints, the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Celebrate

The third knowledge lens is called ‘Celebrate’ and is an exemplification of the Catechism that deals with liturgy and prayer. It is called ‘celebrate’ because it deals with the liturgy in which the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery of Christ. In this lens we look at prayer, liturgy, and sacrament, sacraments of initiation, the Eucharist, sacraments of healing, sacraments at the service of communion, and other liturgies and sacramentals.

Live

The fourth knowledge lens is called ‘Live’ and is an exemplification of Catholic social teaching and deals with the ways in which the disciples of Christ are called to be in the world. It is called ‘live’ because it focuses on the impact of faith on how Christians live. In this lens we look at the dignity of the human person; freedom, conscience, and virtue; law, grace, and sin.

 

The Study of other Religions and World Views

Dialogue

The fifth knowledge lens is called ‘Dialogue’ and is an exemplification of the Church’s teaching on the relationship between Catholicism and other Christian traditions along with Catholicism and other religions and worldviews. It is called ‘Dialogue’ as this is the only authentic way of living faithfully in a world that accepts difference.   

Encounter

The sixth knowledge lens is called ‘Encounter’ and is when children engage in a discrete study of other faiths, religions and worldviews. It focusses is on the importance of loving out neighbours and respecting other cultures and learning how to live peacefully with difference.

 

Curriculum Branches

The Curriculum branches are the way this programme of study presents its model curriculum.

The model curriculum presents the expected outcomes in six curriculum branches that correspond to the six half-terms of a school year.  The curriculum is rooted in the narrative of salvation history and leads pupils on a journey in each year that gives a sequence to the learning. As the children revisit each branch in each year of school they come to a deeper understanding of its significance for Catholic belief and practice, which allows them to make links between the four knowledge lenses within the context of the narrative of salvation history.

The six curriculum branches are:

Creation and Covenant

Prophecy and Promise

Galilee to Jerusalem

Desert to Garden

To the Ends of the Earth

Dialogue and Encounter 

World Faiths

The order that pupils learn about other world religions is based on the model provided by Pope St Paul VI in his encyclical Ecclesiam Suam.

The concentric circles show that we begin by deepening an understanding of Christianity, then encountering Abrahamic faiths, Dharmic faiths then other religious and non-religious worldviews. 

This branch is about more than food and festivals, instead it aims to encourage pupils to think about sharing a common humanity and working towards shared goals. 

The focus is how we exchange ideas and work with all people to promote the common good. For example, in Year 1, Dialogue begins by understanding that the Cross is the symbol of Christianity and invites them to look for the Cross in their local parish community, then Christian communities in a place outside their local community. It might be in a different geographical location or a nearby Anglican Church. Encounter in Year 1 invites pupils to learn about Judaism;  aspects of modern Jewish life in Britain, including specific vocabulary about the Jewish belief in one God and the Torah as a special text.