Religious Education

Catholic life of the school

St Illtyd's Catholic Primary School is a caring Catholic community which embraces the partnership between the school, home and parish.  It aims to offer each member the opportunity to deepen their relationship with Christ through prayer and liturgy and demonstrate their Christian values in their daily actions. A recent Estyn inspection reported that:

"Pupils at St Illtyd’s Roman Catholic Primary School thoroughly enjoy coming to school and have a deep sense of belonging. ‘With God’s love, we play, learn and grow together’ clearly reflects the aims of the school and underpins its Christian values."

"The school benefits from strong links with the local church to support pupils’ spiritual development. Pupils discuss and reflect on their own beliefs and values including those of other faiths confidently. They have a comprehensive understanding of religious and moral issues, and events that are happening in the wider world. Staff provide relevant opportunities for pupils to distinguish between right and wrong successfully. The school reinforces pupils’ community values by involving the pupils in supporting local charities"

Religious Education Directory 

Our new Religious Education Directory – To Know You More Clearly needs to be in place in our school by September 2026

Titled To Know You More Clearly and published by the CES, the directory sets out the purpose of RE from Early Years Foundation Stage to Year 9 and features a programme of study with a model curriculum, corresponding to the six half-terms of the school year.

Based on the constitutions of the Second Vatican Council and rooted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the objective of the curriculum is religiously literate and engaged young people, with the knowledge, understanding and skills to reflect spiritually, think ethically and theologically, and recognise the demands of religious commitment in everyday life.

This new curriculum will transform our Religious Education lessons and support us to develop Disciples of Christ.

Prayer and Worship 

Prayer and Liturgy at St. Illtyd’s Catholic Primary School provides opportunities for pupils and staff to come together to worship God. We always endeavour to provide quality experiences of prayer and liturgy that support pupils’ spiritual development and help each individual in the school community to foster their own relationship with God. These communal acts of prayer and the liturgical celebrations of the Church form part of everyday life in our school.

Every child is given the opportunity to pray by giving praise and thanks to God using traditional prayers of the Catholic Church.  We encourage the children to nurture a relationship with God through words, symbols, song, gestures and silence.

Other opportunities for prayer take place within the classroom at the start of each day, before and after lunch and again at the end of each day. Prayer in the classrooms and in assemblies always includes use of symbols and a focal point for prayer which is appropriate to the liturgical season, for example, Lent, Advent or Easter.

RSE- Ten Ten- 'Life to the Full'

RSE parent newsletter

RSE Programme

Ten Ten’s new programme for Catholic primary schools, Life to the Full, will teach Relationships Education and Health Education within the context of a Christian understanding of human sexuality rooted in the wisdom and teaching of the Catholic Church.

Given that RSE will become a statutory subject for all schools , we are embracing “the challenges of creating a happy and successful adult life” by giving pupils knowledge “that will enable them to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health and relationships” (DFE Statutory Guidance).

We will deliver this teaching through the prism of Catholic RSE.  The framework of our programme is taken from the Model Catholic RSE Programme by the Catholic Education Service, which has been highlighted by the Department of Education as a work of good practice.

Life to the Full is a fully resourced Scheme of Work in Relationships Education for Catholic primary schools which embraces and fulfils the new statutory curriculum. Taught with a spiral approach to learning, in which pupils will revisit the same topics at an age-appropriate stage through their school life, the programme includes teaching about personal health, physical and emotional wellbeing, strong emotions, private parts of the body, personal relationships, family structures, trusted adults, growing bodies, puberty, periods, life cycles, the dangers of social media, where babies come from, an understanding of the Common Good and living in the wider world. The entire teaching is underpinned with a religious understanding that our deepest identity is as a child of God – created chosen and loved by God. The programme is fully inclusive of all pupils and their families.

Policies are included in the school policy pages