Religious Education
As a Catholic school, R.E. is both part of the School's overall Spiritual Life and an academic subject in its own right. As such the R.E. Department and School Chaplaincy work very closely together.
All students undertake Religious Studies throughout their time at St Edward’s. Our school mission statement gives central position to following R.E. as an academic discipline.
We seek to:
- Instil a deeper knowledge and understanding of the Christian faith from the Catholic perspective.
- Promote a reverence for the human person as created in the image of God. We also seek to instil an understanding of the Gospels and other sacred texts 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.
- Discover our religious heritage and the contributions that faith communities make to 21st Century life.
All pupils take the Short Course GCSE in R.E. at the end of Year 10 (a year earlier than the majority of their GCSEs). This course is a study of the Catholic branch of the Christian tradition. During Year 11 they can add a second Short Course to make a full GCSE or follow a non-exam course.
Religious Studies is offered at A-level in which OCR Philosophy of Religion and Religious Ethics are studied. This is an increasingly popular option for A Level students and reflects the national trend for popularity of the subject at Higher Education.
All 6th Formers also have non-exam discussion-based R.E. sessions.
All students in Year 7 – 11 will spend a minimum of one day per year away from school on ‘Days of Recollection’ visiting a variety of local sites and developing the wider aspects of their personality and spirituality.
