RE Curriculum

Curriculum Statement – Religious Education 2026-27

Intent

At Mount Carmel, our mission is clear: to provide the very best Catholic education for the families of our community. We teach that Jesus is alive in each one of us and we are called to make Him known to the world.
Rooted in this mission, and guided by the Religious Education Directory (RED), we are committed to forming children who know, love, and follow Christ. We aim to:

• Ensure that Religious Education is a rigorous academic subject, central to the life and identity of our school.
• Support pupils in developing religious literacy so they can articulate and live out their faith with understanding, confidence, and compassion.
• Provide opportunities for spiritual growth and reflection, helping each child to recognise Jesus at work in their lives.
• Foster a sense of vocation, service, and mission in response to the Gospel message.
• Encourage respect and dialogue with people of all faiths and backgrounds, while deepening understanding of the Catholic tradition.

Truth, love, and living life to the full underpin the unique learning journey each child experiences at Mount Carmel, including in Religious Education.

Implementation

At Mount Carmel, Religious Education is taught as a core subject, receiving 10% of curriculum time in compliance with RED (2023), Catholic School Inspection and diocesan expectations.

In implementing the Religious Education Directory, we:

• Deliver a curriculum structured around the RED’s key theme: To Know You More Clearly
• Use high-quality, RED-aligned resources and diocesan guidance to ensure a progressive, theologically sound curriculum across all key stages.
• Embed Catholic Social Teaching and the liturgical year throughout the curriculum, assemblies, prayer life, and school celebrations.
• Engage in regular professional development and support through the Diocese of Salford to ensure staff confidence and subject expertise.
• Monitor and assess progress in RE using the diocesan assessment framework, ensuring that all pupils are supported and challenged appropriately.
• Promote cross-curricular links and whole-school themes that reinforce Gospel values, Catholic Social Teaching and a Catholic worldview.

RED Implementation:

The RED programme is a programme that has been developed by the Archdioceses. All Catholic schools are expected to be following the Religious Education Directory by September 2026.

It is a programme that allows children to develop their understanding and beliefs of God, Jesus and the world around us through stories from the Bible. It is developed through four elements; Knowledge lenses, Ways of Knowing, Expected outcome and Curriculum branches. 

Knowledge Lenses

Knowledge lenses set out the object of study for pupils; they indicate what should be known by the end of each age-phase. They divide the content of the programme of study into four systematic subsections for the study of Catholicism and two additional lenses for the study of religions and worldviews, which together comprise the six knowledge lenses of hear, believe, celebrate, and live (the study of the Catholic religion), dialogue, and encounter (the study of other religions and world views).

6 Branches

There are 6 branches throughout the year, which build on previous knowledge, as children continue on their journey through school. 

Creation and Covenant - where pupils encounter the God who creates and calls people

Prophecy and Promise - where pupils explore the Christian understanding of the teaching of the prophets, as they point to the fulfilment of God's promise in a messiah, Jesus Christ

Galilee to Jerusalem - where pupils will experience the ministry of Jesus, the Word of God. 

Desert to Garden - where pupils will study the season of Lent and its culmination in the events of Holy Week. 

To the ends of the Earth - where pupils will study the events that flowed from the Resurrection and Ascension in the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work of the apostles and the early church.

Dialogue and Encounter - where pupils will learn how Christians work together with people of different religious convictions and all people of goodwill towards the common good, respecting the dignity of all humanity.

Branches and Lenses

The model curriculum presents the expected outcomes in six curriculum branches that correspond to the six half-terms of a school year. Pupils revisit each branch in each year of school they come to a deeper understanding of its significance for Catholic belief and practice, which allows them to make links between the four knowledge lenses within the context of the narrative of salvation history.

Expected Outcomes

Pupils will be assessed against the expected outcomes which are a synthesis of the content outlined in the knowledge lenses and the skills described in the ways of knowing. Each age-phase will have a prescribed set of outcomes that will indicate what pupils are expected to know, remember, and be able to do, using the language of the ways of knowing and applying it to the discrete knowledge within each lens.

Dialogue and Encounter

The two lenses called ‘dialogue’ and ‘encounter’ set out the requirements in relation to the teaching of other religions and worldviews. The first of these two lenses is called ‘Dialogue’ and is an exemplification of the Church’s teaching on the relationship between Catholicism and other Christian traditions, between Catholicism and Judaism, between Catholicism and other religions, and between Catholicism and non-religious or atheistic worldviews. In addition to understanding what the Church teaches about its relationship to other faiths, religions, and worldviews, pupils are also engage in a discrete study of other faiths, religions, and worldviews. This is done through the teaching that to love our neighbour is also to respect and esteem their culture, and to live peaceably with difference. As pupils progress through school, pupils will study:

• Other Christian denominations
• Judaism
• Islam
• Dharmic religions and pathways
• Other religions and worldviews, including non-religious worldviews.

To ensure Mount Carmel would be be fully prepared for the implementation of the new RED from September 2026, we took a pro-active approach by trialling resources for Salford Diocese during the academic year 2024-25. In addition, the whole school began implementing to the RED from September 2025 using the resources available from Lighting the Path for EYFS to Year 2 and adapting resources provided by Salford Diocese.

In order to deliver the Religious Education Directory, at Mount Carmel we will be following the Salford Dioceses endorsed scheme ‘Lighting the Path’. From September 2026, all year groups will be using ‘Lighting the Path’.

RE lessons at Mount Carmel always begin with prayer requesting that the Holy Spirit guide our learning and that God supports us to Understand, Discern and Respond effectively during the lesson. This then leads into a Flashback of prior learning (last lesson, last branch, last term and last year) before the new learning begins to support children in remembering and strengthening previous learning. This helps to build confidence, allows misconceptions to be addressed and supports children in connecting new learning.

RE is not confined to the classroom at Mount Carmel — it is woven into the fabric of daily life, shaping the relationships, ethos, and direction of our school.

Impact

The impact of Religious Education at Mount Carmel is seen in the faith-filled lives of our children, their knowledge of Catholic beliefs and practices, and their ability to reflect spiritually and act justly.
Our children:

• Develop a deep, age-appropriate understanding of the Catholic faith and the person of Jesus Christ.
• Live out the school’s mission by recognising Jesus in themselves and others, and responding to His call to serve.
• Demonstrate respect, empathy, and love in their interactions, inspired by Gospel values.
• Speak confidently and thoughtfully about their faith and the beliefs of others.
• Take part in liturgy, prayer, and charitable outreach with reverence and enthusiasm.
• Leave Mount Carmel equipped not only with knowledge but with a sense of purpose and hope rooted in Christ.

Through RE, we fulfil our mission to form children who live life to the full — as Christ intended — in truth, in love, and in joyful witness to the world.

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