Mission Statement

Faithfully following in the footsteps of Jesus,

we serve, love and learn together

inspiring each other to excellence.

Religious Education Curriculum Statement

We follow the Religious Education programme recommended by the Archdiocese of Liverpool, 'Come and See'. It is engaging, inspiring and challenges our pupils' thinking.

The programme was developed to respond to the needs of children today in their faith journey, to enable them to grow in their religious literacy and understanding in a way that is coherent with current educational principles. It is designed to support teachers in their delivery of Religious Education. It integrates the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Standards of Attainment and the Religious Education Directory.

At the heart of the programme is the mystery of God's self revelation of love through Jesus Christ. Come and See gives pupils the opportunity to explore the mystery of faith through Scripture and Tradition. Throughout a pupil's school journey, they will each have the opportunity to explore different faiths and religions as part of this curriculum.

Curriculum Intent

Religious Education makes a unique contribution to the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our children and supports wider community cohesion by promoting mutual respect and tolerance in our diverse society.

For all children the programme will raise questions and provide material for reflecting on their own experience.  It will help them to explore the beliefs, values and way of life of the Catholic tradition and where appropriate of other Faith traditions. 

Throughout a pupil’s school journey and in keeping with Archdiocesan guidance, our children will each have the opportunity to explore different faiths and religions as part of this curriculum.

At St Patrick's School, we are proud of our strong links to the Church and we work closely with Fr. John, our parish priest at St Patrick's and St Maries.

Curriculum Implementation

At St Patrick’s, we follow the ‘Come and See’ Religious Education Programme in line with guidance from the Liverpool Archdiocese. This programme is followed throughout school from Early Years through to Year 6.

This programme provides:

• Opportunities for celebration, prayer and reflection in implicit and explicit ways.
• Children with the language of religious experience - a 'literacy' in religious activities, places, stories, symbols and rituals, people and objects.
• A systematic presentation of Christian event, message and way of life in ways appropriate to the age and stage of development of the child.
• That for its implementation and production it requires the adults involved to understand the underlying theological as well as educational principles.
• Appropriate materials about other faiths.
• Academic respectability as in other curricular areas – utilising appropriate stages from the National Curriculum.

The programme explores the religious dimensions of questions about life, dignity and purpose within the Catholic tradition. Links are made with the children's own experience and with universal experience. It will raise questions and provide material for reflection by the children on their own experiences. It will enable them to explore the beliefs, values and way of life of the Catholic tradition and where appropriate other faith traditions.

Overview of Content

'Come and See' is taught through a series of 9 topics exploring:

Community of faith – Church

Celebration in ritual – Sacraments

Way of life – Christian Living

Other faith traditions are also explored through discrete topics.

The process for delivering the topics in 'Come and See' has three stages - Explore, Reveal and Respond which enable the pupils with the development of knowledge, understanding, skills and the fostering of attitudes. 10% of teaching time is dedicated to the teaching of RE.

The Process:

Explore (1 week)

This is the introduction to the topic where the children's life experience is explored, the questions it raises are wondered at, shared, investigated and their significance reflected on.

Reveal (2 weeks)

This is the heart of the programme where knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith is revealed through the Word, in Scripture, Tradition, doctrine, prayers, rites and Christian living.

Respond (1 week)

This is where the learning is assimilated, celebrated and responded to in daily life. This reflective work is collated in the class Celebration journals which travel up through the school with each class.

Other Faiths and Religions

Judaism is studied during the Autumn term and during the Summer term, we study either Hinduism, Islam or Sikhism – the religion focus is carefully selected with consideration given to the most relevant and appropriate in light of each class and current local, national or world-wide events.

Curriculum Impact

Ongoing informal assessment against the Standard Indicators and Formal Assessment Tasks set by the archdiocese are used to inform planning and to identify areas for focus and support. Assessment is moderated internally and externally within cluster meetings.

In addition to the R.E. assessment at St Patrick’s, we endeavour to make our school a place where God's love for us is shared and nurtured. A place where the teachings of Christ can be seen as relevant and active within each individual’s experience ensuring our children leave us with not only a sound understanding of the word of God, but a sound understanding of how to live out the Gospel values through their thoughts, words and actions.

School Mission Day 2022

We had a very special day in school on Thursday 15^th September as we all celebrated our Mission Statement, which underpins everything we do here at school. School was a hive of creativity with children exploring what the Mission Statement means to them and how it makes school such a special place.

As part of the day, each class worked on a ‘Smile Challenge’ making things to share with the local community in order to make them smile.

 Please see https://www.stpatrickschurchtown.com/class-pages/  on the website to watch a short video of the children singing our Come & See song as part of the celebrations. Photos of the day will feature on class pages shortly.

Our School Mission Day

On Thursday 16th September 2021, we celebrated and reflected on our Mission Statement as a school community. This was a truly wonderful day and we enjoyed special times of worship, singing, dancing and creative activities. We thought carefully about how we try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by serving, loving and learning together.

Since January 2022, pupils in Years 3 and 4 have enjoyed gathering together for Collective Worship and listening to God's Word. Worship Warriors are invited to lead aspects of our reflections and over the past few weeks, we have celebrated the themes; Thanksgiving, Laws and obedience, Peace.

We are learning lots of new hymns to sing together and we find these special times joyful.

Ash Wednesday 2022

Our visit to Church was enjoyed by all pupils and staff today and we joined in with special Lenten prayers and songs. Pope Francis calls everyone to pray for  peace and we raised our hands to God and prayed together with Father John for the people who are suffering in Ukraine.

Each class were given a vessel of holy water to take back to school and during Lent, we will bless our children during Collective Worship and encourage them to continue to grow in God's love. Today was a truly special day.

Each year Mission Together produce beautiful resources to help children journey through the season of Lent. We enjoyed sharing the Lenten liturgies and calendar reflections in school. Enjoy browsing through the slideshow of photographs which feature some of the  lovely activities pupils enjoyed from making  crosses for the Parishes of St Patrick's and St Maries, chalk drawings of Easter symbols on the playground in the sunshine and visiting church during Lent.

Fr John kindly gave each pupil and member of staff a prayer pebble on Ash Wednesday to display on our focus tables in class. We use them during times of Collective Worship and they will later be displayed in St Patrick's Reflection Garden outside Church.

We welcomed Bishop Tom Williams to our school on Thursday 14th March. We celebrated St Patrick's Mass together in Church and enjoyed asking him lots of questions about his role as a bishop.

Thank you Father for such a wonderful morning.

Learning about and embracing other religions

Prity Mistry, a practising Hindu visited our school in May to talk to us about her faith. We enjoyed learning about Hindu Festivals and worship, exploring Holy scriptures and writing in sanskrit. Pupils had the opportunity to dress up in traditional clothes, have a henna design on the palm of their hand and learn dances and games.

Enjoy looking at the photo gallery of some of the wonderful moments we shared with Prity this week.