The primary purpose of Catholic Religious Education is to come to know and understand God’s revelation which is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. The Catholic school is ‘a clear educational project of which Christ is the foundation.’ In the person of Christ, the deepest meaning of what it is to be human — that we are created by God and through the Holy Spirit united with Christ in his Incarnation — is discovered.
This revelation is known through the scriptures and the tradition of the Church as taught by the Magisterium. Religious Education helps the pupil to know and experience the meaning of this revelation in his or her own life and the life of the community which is the Church. Hence ‘the promotion of the human person is the goal of the Catholic school.’
Religious Education Curriculum Directory 2012
Whatever their status – Voluntary Aided, Academy, Sixth-Form College or Independent – our Catholic schools and colleges are established to support Catholic parents in their responsibility for the academic, physical, spiritual, moral and religious education of their children in accordance with the teachings of the Church. Catholic education endeavours to make the person of Jesus Christ known and loved, and to place Him and the teachings of the Catholic Church at the centre of the educational enterprise. In placing Christ at the Centre, Catholic education seeks to invite all into a life of discipleship within the Body of the Church.
Catholic Education in England and Wales – CES
“The duty of a good teacher, all the more for a Christian teacher, is to love his or her more difficult, weaker, more disadvantaged students with greater intensity. Jesus would say, if you love only those who study, who are well educated, what merit do you have? And there are some who make us lose our patience, but we must love them even more! Any teacher can do well with such students. I ask you to love the “difficult students more… those who do not want to study, those who find themselves in difficult situations, the disabled and foreigners, who today pose a great challenge for schools.”
Pope Francis
In September 2020 the Department for Education (DfE) made Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools in England and Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools, as well as making Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools. Schools are free to determine how to deliver the content, in the context of a broad and balanced curriculum and, importantly, in the context of a Catholic School. Catholic Schools are also required to deliver RSE in accordance with the teaching of the Church, so to support schools with this the CES and the Diocese have provided guidance and resources to sit alongside DfE guidance.