Religious Education Years 7 to 10

Year 7

The Year 7 Religious Education course is based on the Catholic Education “To Know, Worship and Love” RE curriculum. We invite the students to search for God in the world and to live their lives framed by the life and words of Jesus Christ.

Three areas of school life: the formal classroom curriculum, the prayer, sacramental and liturgical experiences and the living culture of the Catholic school, in the Ignatian tradition combine to create an atmosphere that nourishes and supports the Faith obtained in the home.

For students who may be from a different religious tradition or may have no religious background there is the invitation to explore, understand and come to know the essential elements of the Catholic Christian tradition in a spirit of openness and respect.

Year 8

Religious Education offers students a knowledge and understanding of Catholic traditions and teachings. Students are informed of the importance of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as a teacher for Christians. Students are taught the skill of reading and interpreting Biblical scripture. They learn to reason and respond to Christian teachings and question how these teachings are relevant to them and the greater world today.

Year 9

The Year 9 Religious Education course is based on the Religious Education Framework for Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne “To Know, Worship and Love”. The topics include: Key Catholic Church Teachings, Good and Evil, The Catholic Church in Australia, Spirit Led People, Jesuit Social Services and Mary the first disciple.

Year 10

All Year 10 students will undertake one VCE unit of Religion as part of their core R.E. program at Year 10. Religious Education is based on the Catholic Education Office guidelines ‘To Know, Worship and Love’, and incorporated within the program is VCE Unit 2 Texts in Society. In this unit texts both religious and secular are studied as a means of investigating themes such as justice, racism and gender roles, including consideration of the social context within which the texts were produced and the ways in which they are shaped, and are shaped by the content of their message.

Religious Education Year 11

Year 11

VCE: It is compulsory to study Religion & Society during Year 11.

What is Religion and Society Units1-4

Religions are defined as those forms of belief and practice through human beings express their sense of ultimate reality. Such beliefs and practices form an important part of human experience and this experience is both individual and collective. Religious communities are formed and traditions of belief and practice developed. This study proposes that religions can be understood in a general way as meaning systems that have eight interrelated aspects through which the religious tradition is studied.

VCAL: Students in the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning pathway at Saint Ignatius College will take part in a School-based Religious Education program that will enable them to continue this study into the School-based Religious Education program that is offered at the Year 12 level.

Students in this Senior School Pathway will have their eye on their future as they embark on learning more about the world of work. The College sees that it is important that students revisit Ignatian principles and values of Competence, Compassion & Conscience in order to discover how they can be applied in the workplace and life settings.

Over the course of the year students will be:

• Offered opportunity to revisit prior understanding of Catholic teaching

• Challenged to reflect on what they believe and value, in the light of Ignatian spirituality

• Encouraged to consider where they are going in life and how they can contribute to society and indeed, the world as men and women of service.

As part of their work in the Personal Development Strand, students will undertake programs that involve Community Service. During Religious Education classes, students will investigate the reasons for taking part Community Service and how as students in a Jesuit-partner College, they can relate their work to the teachings of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.

Religious Education Year 12

Year 12

Students choose one of the Religion options during Year 12.

A: Religion (School based)

What is Religion (School-based) all about?

The Year 12 School-based Religion course has been designed with a focus on preparing students for active adult Christian citizenship. It reflects on the Christian values instilled through the example of Jesus and the Gospel teachings and through examination of the role of the Church and the individual in fulfilling the reign of God on Earth. Students will be encouraged to explore how faith and spirituality can shape identity and give purpose and meaning to life.

Who can I see about this?

Religious Education: Mr Caleb Ryan, Learning Area Leader
Mission and Formation: Mr Paul Lewis, Deputy Principal

Guidelines to the Units

Objectives

• To develop and raise awareness of the call to become active citizens within a Christian faith context.

• To examine key aspects of practising a living faith where all are called to be Christ’s witness through: prayer and developing a sense of spirituality and living Gospel values.

• To undertake an exploration of Catholic teachings within the context of an ethical issue.

• To encourage participation and experience with bringing the practice of Gospel values to the wider community through engagement with a Social Justice Project design initiative.

• To explore faith through the study of examples in biographical documentaries and studies of film.

• To develop study skills and goals as a means of maintaining a vocational and study focus throughout Year 12.

Learning Focus

1. Reflect on Gospel accounts of key turning points in Jesus’ life and his call to prayer.

2. To understand the positive role of doubt, failure and a sense of crisis in the process of growth in maturity and faith.

3. To compare Jesus’ growing sense of identity and vocation with their own unique search for identity and vocation.

4. To reflect on their own faith and its impact on their lives.

5. Recognise the personal and social implications of the challenge of the Gospel to build the reign of God in the world.

6. Respond to the call to discipleship through active citizenship and as a member of the school community.

7. Reflect on and trace our faith journey and to reflect on the faith journey of others.

8. Establish goals for vocation and study objectives and subject them to regular review

Or

B: Religion and Society Units 3 & 4

What is Religion and Society all about?

Religious Education is undertaken by all students in Years 11 and 12. At Saint Ignatius College we offer the VCE Units 1 – 4 in Religion and Society and a School-Based curriculum at Year 12. These studies offer students the opportunity to explore the core beliefs of religious traditions (Christianity and Islam), religious identity and ethics at Year 11, while at Year 12 students explore the expression of religious beliefs, life experience and the challenges religious traditions have faced over time.

Who can I see about this? Mr R Nieuwenhof

Guidelines to the Units

Unit Three: The Search for Meaning (as a sequence with Unit 4)

This unit focuses or core religious beliefs and the ways in which they express meaning for religious communities and individuals within them. Beliefs refer to ideas about reality held by individuals, groups, organisations and whole societies.

Areas of Study
1. Meaning in religious traditions.
2. The continuity and maintenance of religious beliefs
3. Life experience and religious beliefs

Outcomes
1. To explain and evaluate the significance of a range of core beliefs within one or more religious tradition/s.
2. To draw conclusions about the interplay between religious beliefs and significant life experiences.
3. To explain continuity in a core religious belief or beliefs within one or more tradition/s.

Unit Four: Challenge and Response

Religious traditions change and develop over time. They respond to the needs of their membership, and to changes in society, while seeking to maintain their convictions and credibility. Religious traditions themselves can provide the impetus for social change, or they may respond to external challenges.

Areas of Study
1. Historical challenges to religious traditions
2. Contemporary challenges and their impact

Outcomes
1. To analyse how one or more religious tradition/s responded to a significant internal challenge, and evaluate the outcome for the tradition/s.
2. To analyse the interplay between religious beliefs and the vision of each tradition for society, and the way one or more specific issues are confronted in attempting to implement the vision.