Introduction to 5-14 Religious Education: Roman Catholic Schools
The 5-14 Guidelines for Religious Education in Roman Catholic schools were produced under the auspices of the Scottish Office Education Department and the Catholic Education Commission. This commission is the principal advisory body in educational matters to the Conference of Scottish Catholic Bishops. The cooperation of these two bodies recognised the distinctive context for Religious Education in Catholic schools.
Context
The particular context for Religious Education takes account of the Catholic school as a community of faith. The school shares with home and parish the responsibility of communicating the message of Jesus Christ. The context and the aims of Catholic Religious Education are explained more fully within Section 1 of the document, entitled 'Rationale'.
Content
The content which pupils study is divided into three 'attainment outcomes'. These are knowledge and understanding, skills and attitudes in relation to:
- Christianity
- Personal Search
- Other World Religions.
Within these outcomes, particular 'targets' for learning are organised into 'Strands' specific to Religious Education in Roman Catholic schools. Details of strands and attainment outcomes are outlined in Section 3 of the document.
Resources
The core approved resources for Religious Education in Roman Catholic schools are the 'ALIVE-O' programme for primary schools and the National Syllabus for S1 and S2 in secondary Schools. The levels of attainment and the Religious Education resources are related in the following way:
- Level A: ALIVE-O, ALIVE-O 2, ALIVE-O 3
- Level B: ALIVE-O 4
- Level C: ALIVE-O 5
- Level D: ALIVE-O 6, ALIVE-O 7
- Level E: National Syllabus for S1 and S2.
Further information about these publications is provided by the Scottish Catholic Education Service.
Programmes of study
Since this document was written the Religious Education programme in Catholic primary schools has been revised. The 'ALIVE-O' programme is in use from P1 to P7. All of the Christianity and Personal Search targets for Levels A-D are addressed through the 'ALIVE-O' programme. Additional resources need to be used for Other World Religions.
The programmes of study for Christianity and Personal Search in this document (Section 4) refer specifically to the former Religious Education programme, known as 'Veritas'. The programmes of study for these two outcomes are, therefore, outdated.
However, almost all Catholic schools use Religious Education Forward Planning Exemplars produced by the Diocese of Motherwell. These exemplars make very specific links for teachers between the 5-14 targets for Christianity and Personal Search and the 'ALIVE-O' programme.