RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

All children from Yr 0 – 8 are taught Religious Education from the National Council Religious Studies Religious Education programme. This programme is based on 6 major strands and 2 more minor strands. The major strands build each year on one another.  This ensures children are being taught at a level appropriate to their age.

The children will work on a variety of topics through out the year from God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit, The Church, Sacraments and The Saints. You will be asked to help your child discuss and complete tasks that are sent home. These will be related to the topic in the classroom. The ultimate aim of the Religious Education programme is to assist your child to develop a relationship with God and to know and understand the beliefs tenets, celebrations and prayers of the Catholic Church.

We ask you to help your child with this by taking an interest in the programme through discussion on related topics, praying with them and helping them in their understanding. Our day always begins with Prayer.  This will begin in each classroom at 9:00am and we expect the children to be present in the classroom at this time.  We consider this to be a very important part of our day. We encourage families to purchase a Family Whanau Book which explains each of the strands the children will be learning at each level,  level  1 – 8.  The cost of these books is $13 and can be purchased from the school office.

Traditional prayers of the child such as The Our Father and Hail Mary are still very much part of our prayer life and if the children had some knowledge of these, that would assist in them feeling part of prayer time.  Along with traditional prayers your child will be exposed to other forms of prayer during their years at St Joseph’s School.