At SS Peter & Paul Catholic Primary, Religious Education is at the very heart of our curriculum and our Catholic life. It is through RE that our children come to know and love Jesus Christ, deepen their understanding of the Catholic faith and discover how God calls each of us to live with love, hope and purpose.

Our Religious Education reflects our school mission:

‘Building our future, together in Christ on a firm foundation of love, learning and service’

As part of St. Gabriel the Archangel Catholic Multi-Academy Trust, within the Archdiocese of Birmingham, we are committed to providing an ambitious, faithful and engaging Catholic education in which every child is encouraged to flourish academically, spiritually and morally. Our work is rooted in the Birmingham Diocesan Education Service mission of “Forming Christ-centred pilgrims of hope with kind hearts, questioning minds, a thirst for knowledge, and a hunger for justice.” Through this mission, we seek to nurture children who value themselves and others, embrace difference, develop a love of learning and are inspired to contribute to a more just and compassionate world.

🌿 Discerning Disciples

From September 2026, Religious Education at SS Peter & Paul’s  is taught through Discerning Disciples, the Religious Education curriculum developed for Catholic primary schools across the Archdiocese of Birmingham.

Discerning Disciples is rooted in the Religious Education Directory (RED), To Know You More Clearly, providing a carefully sequenced journey of faith from Nursery through to Year 6. Learning builds upon what children have encountered before so that their knowledge and understanding of Scripture, Catholic teaching and the life of the Church grows progressively as they move through school. The curriculum is carefully sequenced via branches  so that pupils build their religious knowledge and understanding as they progress through school. Each branch is studied sequentially each year and revisited with increasing depth and challenge.

The Six Branches include:

1. Creation and Covenant

2. Prophecy and Promise

3. Galilee to Jerusalem

4. Desert to Garden

5. To the Ends of the Earth

6. Dialogue and Encounter

🧠 KNOW • ❤️ DISCERN • 🙌 RESPOND

Central to Discerning Disciples are three interconnected elements:

🧠 KNOW – children encounter and remember important knowledge about Scripture, Jesus, God, the Church and the Catholic faith.

❤️ DISCERN – children think deeply, ask questions, make connections and consider what is true, good and beautiful.

🙌 RESPOND – children consider how their learning can shape their choices, actions and the way they live their lives.

These three elements are central to every lesson and allow children to move from secure knowledge towards meaningful reflection and thoughtful response.

All Religious Education lessons will follow the DISCERN model lesson structure, which places purposeful dialogue, strong subject knowledge, carefully planned support, collaborative discussion, responsive assessment and independent thinking at the heart of high-quality RE teaching. This approach is designed so that all pupils, regardless of their starting point, can flourish as discerning disciples.

• Dialogue – from the beginning and throughout the lesson. Unlock pupils’ prior knowledge through discussion.
• Introduce recall – I do. Introduce the Direct Knowledge Statements relevant to the lesson.
• Scaffold Support – Teacher to model and design and remove scaffold so all pupils move from secure knowledge to meaningful discernment.
• Collaborative Conversation – We do. Pupils discuss discovery questions with teacher guidance.
• Evaluate understanding – Teachers use hinge questions to assess the understanding of all pupils before moving on.
• Record responses with discernment – You do. Pupils independently record their understanding and response.
• Next steps and notes – Use age-appropriate reflection and feedback to evaluate learning and inform next steps.

🙏 Prayer, Scripture and the life of the Church

Our RE curriculum helps children encounter the richness of the Catholic faith through Scripture, prayer, reflection, discussion, sacred art, liturgy and the teachings of the Church.

Children learn about prayer and the sacramental life of the Church, explore the liturgical year and are encouraged to recognise God’s presence in their own lives and in the world around them. ✨

RE also works alongside the wider Catholic Life and Mission of SS Peter & Paul’s, helping children understand that faith is something we do not simply learn about — it is something we are called to live.

🕊️ Forming Discerning Disciples

Ultimately, our ambition is that every child leaves SS Peter & Paul’s as a discerning disciple: someone who has a secure knowledge of their faith, thinks deeply, asks thoughtful questions, treats others with dignity and compassion, and recognises their own responsibility to make a positive difference in the world.

We want our children to grow as Christ-centred young people with kind hearts, questioning minds, a thirst for knowledge and a hunger for justice.

All pupils become actively engaged with the Sacramental Preparation in Years 3 and 6. Children who receive the gift of a Sacrament understand how this milestone takes them further on their journey to faith. The rest of their peers demonstrate the true ethos of our school by supporting them in keeping their Sacramental promises, through friendship. Our youngest learners at SS Peter and Paul begin important learning about friendship, showing an impressive awareness for our golden rule. Sacramental Preparation sits separately and in addition to the RE curriculum. It doe snot form part of the 10% of curriculum time we allocate and adhere to.

🔗 Find out more

Further information about Catholic Education and Religious Education within the Archdiocese of Birmingham can be found through the Birmingham Diocesan Education Service (BDES) website.

On the BDES website, visit Catholic Education, where families and schools can find information about the work of the Diocesan Education Service. The Diocesan Primary Resource Base is also signposted from this page and contains the latest guidance and resources for schools.

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