RE, Prayer and Liturgy
Subject Lead - Mrs Leanne Phillips
Religious Education
'St Thomas More is an outstanding Catholic primary school.'
(Diocesan Inspection 2022)
St Thomas More Catholic Primary School is implementing the new Religious Education Directory. This will be fully implemented by September 2024. The new Religious Education Directory includes six branches. One branch for each half-term of the academic year. One half-term is dedicated to studying world faiths.
The aims of Religious Education are:
- To engage in a systematic study of the mystery of God, of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, the teachings of the Church, the central beliefs that Catholics hold, the basis for them and the relationship between faith and life.
- To enable pupils continually to deepen their religious and theological understanding and be able to communicate this effectively.
- To present an authentic vision of the Church’s moral and social teaching to provide pupils with a sure guide for living and the tools to critically engage with contemporary culture and society.
- To give pupils an understanding of the religions and world views present in the world today and the skills to engage in respectful and fruitful dialogue with those whose world views differ from their own.
- To develop the critical faculties of pupils so to bring clarity to the relationship between faith and life, and between faith and culture.
- To stimulate pupils’ imagination and provoke a desire for personal meaning as revealed in the truth of the Catholic faith.
- To enable pupils to relate the knowledge gained through religious education to their understanding of other subjects in the curriculum.
Values Education
Every month children are introduced to a new value, which permeates whole school assemblies and class led assemblies.
Values Education creates a school climate for teaching and learning that fosters the development of academic standards. It helps to provide a positive school ethos that is more harmonious because of the direct correlation between values education and behaviour.
Liturgy
We come together as a community to praise God through a variety of Liturgies, services and celebrations throughout the year, including beginning and end of term Masses; Harvest Festival; Christingle Service in Church; Advent Carol Service with our Catholic schools in Peterborough; Christmas performances; Ash Wednesday; Reconciliation in Advent and Lent and Feast Days throughout the year.
On the feast of St Thomas More, any child who has received their First Holy Communion in this academic year is invited to join the school community to celebrate with us again at a very special Mass.
As well as liturgical celebrations, the children take part in daily class prayers, class liturgies in our Community Prayer Room, whole school, phase and class assemblies.
Whole school assemblies are led by members of the Senior leadership Team every Monday at 1.30pm and are used as a time for reflection on Sunday’s Gospel, time to reinforce the Value of the Month, time to come together as the family of St Thomas More and time to prepare for the week’s learning.
Class assemblies are based on the current RE topics, value of the month and linked to the liturgical calendar.
Our school Chaplain, Father Adam Sowa visits school regularly and leads us in prayer and worship. He is available to support teaching and learning in classes and provides pastoral care for children and staff alike.
