RE Curriculum – Our Lady's Catholic Primary

‘Loving, Learning and Reaching out to All’

At Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School, our mission statement shapes every aspect of school life. “Loving, Learning and Reaching Out to All” is not simply a phrase but a living expression of our Catholic faith and our daily commitment to one another. Rooted in the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church, we strive to follow Jesus’ example by placing love, learning and service at the heart of our community.

Our Vision is God’s Vision for us

Together, we strive to live out our mission of “Loving, Learning and Reaching Out to All.” In faith, hope and love, we prepare our children to embrace life with confidence, compassion and integrity, ready to make a difference in the world.

Our Religious Education Curriculum

Religious Education at Our Lady’s is the core subject in the curriculum and influences all that we teach and enables us to develop the whole person.

Through religious education teaching and learning, we aim to:

Provide each child with the opportunity to develop their relationship with God through hearing the scriptures.
Promote knowledge and understanding of Catholic faith and life and beliefs.
Develop awareness and understanding of the impact of faith upon our daily lives.
Foster attitudes of respect towards all who live in our society through dialogue and encounter.

With support from Liverpool Archdiocese, we introduced the new Religious Education Directory (RED) ‘To Know You More Clearly’ in Nursery, Reception and Year One in 2024/25. Years Two, Three and Four will embark upon this journey this year 2025/26. This is an exciting time for our school as we continue to launch this new scheme further, before rolling it out fully to all our children by September 2026.

Please see below for more information about our RE Curriculum:

EYFS, Y1, Y2, Y3 and Y4
The new directory (RED) presents the teaching of religious education in a sequential and progressive form, rooted in the liturgical year. The framework has four structural elements:

Knowledge lenses which indicate what should be known by the end of each age phase. These are split into hear, believe, live and celebrate.

The ‘ways of knowing’ are the skills which develop as the children progress through their curriculum journey. These are split into understand, discern and respond.

Expected outcomes are set for each age phase and indicate what pupils are expected to know, remember and be able to do.

Curriculum branches are the way the programme of study presents its model curriculum. There are six half term branches which are the same in each year group:

Autumn 1- Creation and Covenant – Encounter the God who creates and calls all people with a focus on the accounts of Creation.

Autumn 2- Prophecy and Promise – Explore the expectant waiting for the Messiah through the Advent season.

Spring 1- Galilee to Jerusalem – Experience the ministry of Jesus and the Word of God. They will learn through parables, encounters, miracles and teachings.

Spring 2- Desert to Garden – Study the season of Lent and its culmination in the events of Holy Week.

Summer 1- To the ends of the Earth – Study the events that flowed from the Resurrection and Ascension in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work of the apostles and early Church.

Summer 2- Dialogue and Encounter – Learn how Christians work together with people of different religious backgrounds, building an understand that all people work towards a common good and should respect all humanity.

The documents below provide more detailed information.
Religious Education

To Know You More Clearly – Overview of the year

Year 5 and Y6
In 2025/26, Years 5 and 6 continue to follow the Archdiocese of Liverpool programme “Come and See”. Each class covers 3 topics each term which link to a whole school theme. The information and documents below provide more detailed information.

The ‘Come and See’ curriculum offers the opportunity to search, to explore, to discover, and to respond. The ‘Come and See’ document supports the central belief of Christ being at the centre of all that we do.

In each of the terms it addresses 3 key questions to be explored through the teaching and learning in the different topics:

Where do I come from? (Autumn)

Who am I? (Spring)

Why am I here? (Summer)

Across the academic year, our children will study 9 themes/topics. The themes are explored over a 4 week period, with time dedicated to exploring the basis of the theme, revealing the meaning of scripture and the Church’s teaching and reflecting on the child’s learning and experiences. During the year we also explore other faiths; Judaism is included every year and the other religions covered over a 3 year cycle are Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism.

There are three different types of themes within the programme, which are covered once per term. They are:

Church themes

Sacramental themes

Christian Living themes

Each theme is explored through a different topic in each age group.

The documents below provide more detailed information.
Religious Education

Come and See – Overview of the Year

Big Questions

Vocabulary

Come and See