Religious Education
Religious Education at Holy Ghost
At the heart of our school, is our Catholic mission, which gives us our identity as a school and reaches into every aspect of our work.
In keeping with our mission statement, we aim to work alongside parents to bring children to a deeper understanding of the truths of their Catholic faith.
Through explicit teaching about Jesus and the Church, and the development of prayer and worship in school, we provide daily experiences where children live the gospel values; have respect for the opinions and beliefs of others, and grow in their faith.
Our curriculum is Christ-centred and daily school life is permeated with activities which promote the Catholic life of the school. Every classroom has a focal point designed to lead the children to pray; interact with their faith, as well as to reflect current learning in Religious Education. Our priests visit the classrooms each week. The children regularly attend Mass with the Parish, and the school assists the parish programmes by delivering the teaching and preparation for First Holy Communion and First Confession for our Year 3 pupils. The school organises Confession for pupils during Advent and Lent.
We have a Christ - centred curriculum
Religious Education is taught using “The Way, The Truth and The Life” scheme. This acts only as a starting point to our teaching of RE and teachers take the learning much deeper to allow for a greater level of learning and understanding. We focus on helping the children to think theologically, ethically and spiritually. The teaching of other faiths is also an important aspect of our RE curriculum.
Our RE teaching encourages our children to gain a better understanding of the scripture messages and to make links with other scripture as well as their own lives.
Aims
- Develop their knowledge and understanding of the Catholic Faith.
- Engage and know key stories from the Bible.
- Promote their innate capacity for wonder, mystery and spirituality.
- Understand, know and discuss how their beliefs and moral values are influenced by others.
- Develop their awareness and understanding of other faiths.
- Engage in prayer respectfully and maturely, to develop their interpersonal relationship with God.
- Have an understanding and awareness of the meaning of scripture and lessons taught.
- Develop a thirst for learning of their faith and an appreciation that it is a life-long pursuit guided by the spirit and the presence of Christ, in the service of God and others.
- Encourage independent study, investigation and reflection.
Relationships and Sex Education
Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) is provided in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church, and in such a way that it encourages pupils to consider morals, and the value of family life.
Relationship and Sex Education Curriculum Overview
Relationship and Sex Education Policy
Holy Ghost use the Ten:Ten schedule to delivery RSE lessons, please see our details below to login and look at the resources on offer for you:
https://www.tentenresources.co.uk/parent-portal/
username: holy-ghost-sw1
password: ocean-5-sw1
The Class Knowledge Organiser
Please see each classes knowledge organiser for this term and their topic. These organisers provide you with the key vocabulary used and taught within these units and the lessons outcome (LO) for each lesson.
Reception - Getting to Know Jesus
Year 1 - Families and Celebrations
Religious Education in the classroom
Each week we shall be sharing some of our classroom learning and how we celebrate our faith.
Spring Term 2025
Why do we go to Church?
Year 1
Year 1 explored the question, Why do we go to Church? We visited the Church to identify important items that help us understand its significance, including the Bible, lectern, crucifix, candles, and pews. We identified how we celebrate Mass with our church community, how we listen to God’s word from the scripture, how we pray and sing together, and how we feel God’s presence at mass. In class, we 
reflected on our visit through a liturgical dance, using symbols to express why we go to church and celebrate God’s love for us. To conclude, we wrote a short note on how we will go forth and celebrate Mass next time we attend. Additionally, we wrote sorry notes to God asking for forgiveness for something we have done wrong. We learnt that we all make mistakes and God wants us to say sorry, so that we can move forward and be forgiven. 
Jesus
Reception
In RE, our Reception class has been learning about Jesus as part of our topic. This week, we explored His love for us and reflected on ways we can show love in return. We drew pictures of the people who love us and were amazed to discover that Jesus loves us even more! We also read Matthew 19:13-15 and worshipped through a liturgical dance to Jesus Loves Me. To express our love for Him, we then made a card for Jesus, depicting how we can show our love for Him in return. Some of our ideas were: 'praying,' 'sharing' and 'giving someone else a fork and knife at lunch.'
Exploring the Mass
Year 6
In Year 6, we have been focusing on ‘Exploring the Mass’ during our lessons. The children have been exploring the meaning that Jesus is the bread of life. They have been incorporating scripture into their writing, such as ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst’ (Jn 6: 35)’ and discussing the significance of spiritual nourishment. They have learnt that at the heart of the Eucharistic celebration, the bread and wine become in reality Christ’s Body and
Blood. We have reflected on what the Penitential Act and Liturgy of the Word means for us as we attend Mass and go forth. The children discussed how the Liturgy of the Word is an important part of the Mass because it is when we hear God’s Word, which nourishes and strengthens our faith. This provides us with time to reflect on the meaning of God’s teachings.
Inspirational People
Year 5
This half term, Year 5 are looking at ‘Inspirational People’. We have talked about what a disciple means and how we can be followers of Jesus. This has meant we have looked at some very inspirational people who have lived their lives following Jesus’ footsteps – one of these was St Damien De Veuster. St Damien worked tirelessly to become a priest in order to help others, and he sacrificed his health by helping those with contagious diseases. In order for us to truly learn how we can live our lives to be good followers of Christ we have been looking at the Beatitudes, these blessings from Jesus in Matthew 5: 3-11 teach us how to live as a child of God’s Kingdom. In our lesson this week we were looking at which Beatitude we thought would be the most important to be a good disciple and why.
Jesus the Teacher
Year 4
Year 4 have started the new topic of 'Jesus, the Teacher'. We started off the topic by discussing
what qualities Jesus has that would make Him a good teacher. We then looked at the story of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple and we wrote newspaper stories, reporting the events that took place in this story. We reflected on the importance of Simeone and Anna in the story, and how they could recognise Jesus as the Son of God. We thought about how this is important in our own lives and what we can do to share God's light with others.
Autumn Term 2024
Advent
Year 3
Year 3 have been focusing on how we can prepare our hearts and minds for the birth of Jesus during Advent. Together, we created a special Advent calendar. Each child was given a number and wrote their own Advent promise, a prayer or a kind message. This activity helped us reflect on the importance of showing kindness, love and faith as we get ready to celebrate the joy of Christmas.
Year 2
As part of our Advent preparation for the coming of the Saviour at Christmas, Year 2 re-enacted the story of the birth of Jesus in the Holy Ghost nativity. The children all worked incredibly hard to learn their lines and acting roles, not to mention the huge amount of effort they put into practising the songs and actions. In retelling the story of the Nativity, the children reflected on the importance of the roles of Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the Kings in the birth of Jesus. We considered how important it is for us to also open our hearts to God, and help to spread His messages of hope, peace, joy and love to our community during the season of Advent.
Year 1
Year 1 have begun learning about the special season of Advent. We have been
learning that during Advent we reflect and prepare our hearts for the arrival of Jesus' birth and that it is a time of promise and hope. We have learnt that we represent Advent by the colour purple, because the colour purple signifies royalty and that we are waiting for our saviour Jesus to be born. We created our own Advent candles and wrote our own promises. Year 1 also enjoyed listening to reflective Advent music, thinking about Jesus's love for us and discussing ways we can reflect that love. We finally created our own liturgical dance to visualise how we can go forth in our own lives to prepare for this special season of Advent.
Reception
Reception has been exploring the story of Jesus' birth and the season of Advent. We learned that Advent is a special time to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. To reflect this, we created Advent promises on ornaments to hang on our Christmas trees, connecting the physical preparations we make for Christmas with the spiritual ones. Additionally, we have been sequencing the events of Jesus' birth and deepening our understanding of the story. Using our outdoor blocks, we built a stable and brought the story to life by re-enacting it together.
All Saints' Day
For All Saint's Day, each class dedicated an afternoon to celebrate their class Saint. We explored the lives of our class Saints and how each Saint lived out Catholic Social Teachings. We reflected on how we could follow their examples and each class decorated their doors with ideas of how we can live our lives inspired by their Saint.
Reception - St Francis of Assisi
Year 1 - St Oscar Romero
Year 2 - St John Paul II
Year 3 - St Teresa of Avila
Year 4 - Sister Thea Bowman
Year 5 - St Therese of Liseaux
Year 6 - St Mother Teresa