Religious Education

As a Catholic school, our R.E. is both part of the School's overall Spiritual Life and an academic subject in its own right. We seek to:

• Instill a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith from the Catholic perspective.
• Promote a reverence for the Sacred Scriptures, the Creed and the values of the Gospels and their application to every day life, so that love of God and one's neighbour are the pivotal features in each young person's life.
• Develop awareness of religious language and imagery and appreciate the creative power of religious belief and its inspiration for so much of mankind's greatest achievements in such fields as art, poetry, music and architecture.
• Discover our religious heritage and be inspired by the saints and great people of the past as well as the present.

All pupils take the Short Course GCSE in R.E. at the end of Year 10 (a year earlier than the rest of their GCSEs). This course has a unit on Sacred Art, and our students learn how to 'read' a religious painting and uinderstand its symbolism, visiting the National Gallery to see great religious art first hand. They also study a unit on Vocation. During Year 11 they can add a second Short Course GCSE or follow a non-exam course.

Religious Studies is offered at A-level in which Ethics and Scripture papers are studied. All 6th Formers also have non-exam discussion-based R.E. sessions.