Religious Education in Years 7-10

At a time when society is becoming increasingly secular, and some people even question the existence of God, there is an even greater need for young people to benefit from a high quality Religious Education curriculum.

Students in Years 7-10 are invited into a deeper and more intimate relationship with God through their exploration of the Scriptures, their participation in personal and communal prayer and their living out of Catholic social and moral teaching. All students enrolled in Sydney Catholic Schools are required to study Religious Education.

The Religious Education Curriculum contains five broad content strands, each containing content modules, for specific year groups.

Five content modules, one drawn from each of the strands are allocated to each year of study. Each of the content modules will be studied for 20 hours and will on their own comprise the Religious Education course throughout Years 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Strands

A statement for each strand encapsulates the Catholic theological understandings to be explored and developed with students throughout their years of Catholic education. The strands while separate are interconnected.

Strand A – Scriptures and Jesus

Strand B – Church and Community

Strand C – God, Religion and Life

Strand D – Prayer, Liturgy and the Sacraments

Strand E – Morality and Justice

Strand A – Scriptures and Jesus

God’s revelation is freely and lovingly communicated through: the natural world; the tradition of the people of Israel; the early Christian Church; and most particularly through Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are texts of faith, mediating this interaction. 

Christians engage with the Bible as the living Word of God in human words, giving meaning to their lives. They also use it in liturgy and ritual, and pray with it as a means of encounter with Jesus Christ (link to Prayer, Liturgy and Sacrament). Texts of other traditions are appreciated in the light of the relationship that Christians have with the Bible (link to God, Religion and Life). This content area grapples with the questions, ‘How can I know God? What does God ask of me?’

Strand B – Church and Community

Church is the community of Jesus’ disciples, united in and through the Word of God as expressed in Scripture and the living Tradition (link to Scripture and Jesus). The Word of God  continues to be encountered, celebrated and lived out in the Church. The mission of the Church  is to build up the common life of believers and to reach out in dialogue and shared action for the common good (link to God, Religion and Life). Each generation of the Church discerns the message of the Word of God for the contemporary context (link to Morality and Justice). This  content area grapples with the questions, ‘Where do I belong? How can I make a difference?’

Strand C – God, Religion and Life

Human beings seek meaning, value, and happiness in life, both individually and in relationships  with others. Many religious traditions propose that this search is met and responded to by a  transcendent power. From this encounter with the transcendent come worldviews, rituals and ethical norms that characterise a religious tradition (link to Prayer, Liturgy and Sacrament).  Christians recognise this transcendent other in the relational Trinitarian God (link to Scripture and Jesus) who is both the source and fulfilment of the human quest for unity, truth, beauty and  goodness (link to Morality and Justice). This content area grapples with the questions, ‘What is  life? How do I find meaning?’

Strand D – Prayer, Liturgy and the Sacraments

Public rituals and personal prayer practices are central to many religious traditions, which  express the human quest for spiritual union (link to God, Religion and Life). Catholics understand sacraments as the mediation of divine grace through rituals, of the supernatural through the natural, where the sacred is encountered in the everyday. As the source and summit, the Eucharist leads members more deeply into the communal life of the Church (link to  Church and Community) and the mystery of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, providing  nourishment for Christian living (link to Scripture and Jesus). Prayer and sacraments promote an inner, personal response and a commitment to the Church’s mission in the world (link to  Morality and Justice). This content area grapples with the questions, ‘Where is God? In whom do I trust?’

Strand E – Morality and Justice

In the light of the Scriptures, the human person is understood to be created ‘in the image and  likeness of God’ (Gen 1: 26) and called into a new existence through Christ (link to Jesus and  Scripture). This call gives rise to the unique freedom, dignity, and responsibility of human  beings. It requires a process of moral discernment that holds together our nature as humans  and the Christian vision of freedom and dignity in all areas of life: personal and relational integrity, economic and political participation, technological and ecological responsibility. Christians cooperate with all people to foster human flourishing, right relationship and the common good (link to God, Religion and Life). This content area grapples with the questions, ‘Who ought I be? How must I respond?’

What does this look like for each year group?

Each year group will study the following units of work – not necessarily in the order shown. For example, it makes sense to start the Year 7 curriculum with the Unit “What it means to be Catholic” as it provides a transition for our students who have not studied religion before, have come from non-Catholic feeder schools, or may not be practising Catholics. 

Religious Education in Sydney Catholic Schools brings faith into dialogue with life and has the capacity to be a source of wisdom, a stimulus to lifelong learning, a means to personal transformation and a call to missionary discipleship.

Religious Education is a scholastic discipline with the same systemic demands and the same rigour as other disciplines. Each year group will have 3 school based assessment tasks. Further, the students in Years 8 and 10 will sit the Archdiocesan RE Test in Term 4 which assesses their knowledge in stage 4 and stage 5 Religious Education respectively. 

The curriculum develops deep knowledge, understanding and skills of the faith, in light of Jesus and the Gospel. It fosters capacities and skills of discerning, interpreting, thinking critically, seeking truth and making meaning.

The Religious Education Curriculum of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, administered by Sydney Catholic Schools, and St Ursula’s College Kingsgrove, as authorised by His Grace, Anthony Fisher OP, the Archbishop of Sydney.

Julie Monk
Religious Education Coordinator