Category: Curriculum

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Catholic Education Week Article 2022

At the end of Catholic Education week, we would like to share the article that was read at Mass in the parishes by our CREDO pupils.

CEW 2022: Communion, Participation, Mission

Catholic Education Week provides the perfect setting for two significant events in the life of Turnbull High School this year. Firstly, our Patronal Feast Day (21st November) gives us the opportunity to renew our consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as our guide to knowing, loving and serving the Lord Jesus. Secondly, 2022 sees a significant review of our School Vision Values and Aims; the climax of several years of prayer and discernment involving all members of our school community.

As we consider the theme of Catholic Education Week – Communion, Participation, Mission – we reflect on how these headings give expression to our common identity and shared mission as a school with a uniquely Catholic identity.

Communion

As the young people, parents and teachers of Turnbull High School, we are united by our common choice for Catholic Education. In ‘coming together as a community’, as our school prayer says, we pledge ourselves to growing together in faithfulness toward our calling from God to be a ‘Community Of Faith Engaged In Learning’, ‘Centred on Christ’. The vision of Catholic Education put forward by the Church has been richly enhanced in Turnbull High School in recent times by the process of renewing how we articulate our shared identity. Guided by the Charter for Catholic Schools, input from Australian Catholic University, Notre Dame University (Ireland) and partners closer to home, we have all engaged with the key themes of what it means to be a Catholic school, bound together by our common values. Remembering that communion relies on love and that true, self-giving, sacrificial love comes from God, we are called to reflect on our level of communion with Him and how that unites us to each other as brothers and sisters of the Kingdom. This process gained new depth when, as a whole school, we engaged in the final consultation phase of our Vision, Values and Aims review as part of our feast day this week.

 

Participation

Our school brings together many people from varied backgrounds and offers a wide variety of opportunities for all of us to develop our academic achievement, skills and, most importantly, our life of virtue; that is, the habitual commitment to The Good.

The Second Vatican Council taught that the Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life. It is in the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus that we learn the extent of love, a life laid down, a body broken and risen to new life. Just as many grains of wheat form the Host set aside for consecration, so Jesus’ Mystical Body in the world is formed from all who share the life of grace and are united with the Lord in Holy Communion. In this way, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament signify and bring about the deepest participation that we can have in our common life. Those who do not yet share this level of communion with the Church are no less called to participate in prayer as far as they are able and are invited to open their hearts to the Lord and one another.

Through our varied chaplaincy programme, the whole school community has opportunities to participate in the life and faith of Turnbull High School. Through formal and informal prayer, traditional and contemporary devotions and music, everyone is called to participate in prayer and discipleship.

Our policies and shared practice in our day to day work offers additional opportunities to participate in the shared mission of the Catholic school since everything we do should aim to reflect Jesus, to seek the face of Christ in others. Most recently our journey towards the use of restorative practice seeks to enable us to imitate the mercy of the Father, practice reconciliation and inspire virtue.

Participation in our Christ-centred community extends beyond our families, associated primaries and parishes and partners through our charity and outreach work. Through our commitment to upholding the dignity of others through meeting their physical and spiritual needs, our shared values impact all those who we seek to support through Mary’s Meals, Aid to the Church in Need, Pro-life work and most recently in our efforts to support the Shoebox Appeal and local foodbanks, to name only a few.

 

Mission

In Redemptoris Missio, Pope St John Paul II said that

“The time has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to the New Evangelisation. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples.”

Turnbull High School is a centre of the New Evangelisation, a place where the Good News of salvation through Christ Jesus is proclaimed with renewed ardour, the only path to authentic human flourishing.

In every aspect of school life, we are called to help our young people to engage with the Gospel on personal and societal levels, to develop a life of discipleship and to become missionaries in whatever circumstances they find themselves, now and in the future.

At this exciting stage in our communal life, may we, by our reliance on the Holy Spirit speaking through the Church, continually grow in our fidelity to Jesus and in our enthusiasm for participating in the mission of bringing others to the joy of a life lived in Him.

Please pray for us as we continue on this journey to know, love and serve the Lord. Thank you.

 

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New Placemats in RE

Over the last couple of years we have been sharpening our focus on what makes excellent learning and teaching in RE.

The Good Lesson Structure, Co-construction of Success Criteria using HOTS language, skills development and BLP strategies have all become part of our everyday learning- not just WHAT we are learning by HOW.

To make this metacognitive approach that bit easier and to increase pupil agency in their learning, we have developed a new placemat that has everything that we need to be successful learners right at our finger tips!

Let’s see what impact they make on the learning!

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S5 & 6 disprove Arianism!

Our S5 and 6 pupils have been doing great work in RE! Whilst learning about the person of Jesus through the Creed they have studied the Arian heresy and formed and accurate understanding of Jesus by comparing the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed.

So many skills being applied and developed AND deepening our faith in the Lord Jesus! What’s not to love!

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S3 Confessions

Please pray for our S3 pupils who had the opportunity to go to confession as part of our Sacraments of Healing unit.

May they always seek God and find their true identity in his loving forgiveness

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Term 1 Feedback and Impact

Check out the impact that our learning in RE has made on pupils across the year groups! These statements are taken from our new online PLPs.

 

S1- Me and My Community (Image of God)

The unit has reminded me on the faith that I do and how important it is

I have learnt about the importance of God in every day life.

I have learned more about what God wants for me

I understand how to treat others

I feel closer to God

I have learned about sin and all types of things and It makes me proud.

I know why I am made in the image if god and that I have my life planned before I was in the womb.

I have learned about the Holy Trinity and I now know how I am made in the ‘Image of God’.

The impact of the unit has helped me understand myself and God more than before.

In this unit , I have learned that me and everyone else I made in the image of God and god new us before we were born , I’ve learned about the effects of sin and how it separates you from God.

It has taught me that God is made up of three persons- the Father,  Jesus and the Holy Spirit it has also taught me that God has had a special plan for us even before we where in our mother’s womb and just like Jerimiah we are set out for a special purpose

This has had an impact on how I treat others with respect

I can now understand how my actions and attitudes affect others around me .

to follow god more and sin less

I have learned that god has created me in his image and that he will forgive my sin

That it has been a really good thing to learn and to learn about god

That I should treat others the way I want to be treated and make the right decisions

It impacts me a lot as I want to get closer to god and learn to be like him

This has made me find out how class I can be to god and the different ways I could be more like god and be closer to god.

It has shown me how much of a difference my life has experienced by knowing about the marvellous works of God

I feel like l know more about god and how l was built in his image l also know more about the holy Trinity

I now understand about being made in the image of God and the Holy trinity. I understand more about our faith

To get us to know about how god wants us to be

I have learnt that god gives us gifts to use

During this unit, I have learnt that we are not made in the image of god on the outside, it’s on the inside. Also, this has taught me that God will forgive you no matter what you have done but all you have to do is ask for forgiveness. I have enjoyed learning about the image of God because it’s helped me to understand and be grateful for what I have.

I’ve learned that through my faith I have a choice on the decisions that I make, I hope that with having a strong faith I can make good decisions.

I have learned how to treat others with respect and that I am made in the image of god, on the inside and outside.

The impact of this unit of my learning and faith is that I know about The Image of God, how he  gave us free will and my relationships with him and others.

The impact that this unit has had my learning and faith is that I reflected on how God has made me and that I always have free will and choice but I should use it responsibly.

The impact of this unit on my learning & my faith has been quite big. It made my faith become clearer and stronger. In learning i now know a lot more and I can easily tell others facts about sins etc.

I have realised that I’m made in the image of god on the inside. I’ve also learned what my gifts are.

 

S3 Belief in God

It has impacted my faith by helping me understand how God really exits and helped me link faith and science to give examples of why God exits

it has helped me believe in god a bit more and has helped me realise the connection between scientist and the church they are both searching for the same thing but in different ways

This unit has impacted my faith by giving me different views about the existence of God and has made me think about the different possibilities that God is real or not.

Though this unit has not affected my view on god I thoroughly enjoyed it and it had to be my favourite topic I’ve done.

I believe in God in a different way than before and I now realise the church is more open minded to science than I originally thought.

It has helped me realise that faith and science look both look for the truth

 

S6- The Introductory Rites & Caritas Award

In my faith life I have been able to acquire a deeper understanding of the nature of the Holy Mass, through the ‘Four Ends of the Mass’; Adoration, Atonement, Thanksgiving and Petition. I learned the Introductory Rites of the Mass, including the opening of the Mass and the Penitential Rite, where we ask for Gods mercy and forgiveness from sins of commission and omission. Furthermore the topic on sin has allowed me to reflect and appreciate Gods mercy and justness.

I learnt how the Love of God which is shared Between the three persons (Trinity) is applicable on our lives and how we humans are made for love.

I now know so much more about my faith especially about truth. I understand everything a lot better now and in more detail

It has given me more learning and insight into how God reaches us and how I can better pray to him, I learned better the meaning of Mass and understand more how it helps my relationship with God.

Overall, I think this course has helped me become more self-aware – I use the knowledge I’ve learned on what makes a good person , and now use these values in daily life to improve myself and how I treat others . It has also motivated me to want to give back to my community as I’m always looking up to very generous people in the catholic community who influence me majorly.

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Resources for August Learning

Welcome back!

 

It has been brilliant getting to see all of our young people again and we are all looking forward to another year of academic and spiritual formation in RE!

Starting this year, each time we begin a new topic, the resources will be uploaded to glow and linked right here on our blog. This means that if anyone would like to look ahead or revise anything, the course materials are easier to find. A general outline of our curricula can be viewed using the menus at the top of the blog.

Here we go with the first topics for each year group

S1- Me and My Community (Made in the image of God)

S2- The Sacraments of Vocation

S3- Belief in God

S4- The Beatitudes

S5- The Introductory Rites

S6-The Introductory Rites

To view the materials, follow the links and log in with your usual glow details.

 

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How to share your faith…

Something that is always on my mind when creating lessons or retreats is how we link robust learning about the faith (Catechesis) with living and sharing our faith (Evangelisation).

In our lesson plenaries we often apply our learning by creating responses to critiques of Catholic teaching (Apologetics) and often reflect on ‘why is this Good News for the world?’ but I wanted to share some memorable bullet points for how to SHARE the Good News (Gospel) with those who have not encountered the Lord Jesus.

Use these points and add your own examples. This is called your ‘testimony’ and gives a witness to what God has done and is doing in your own life.

 

Find more info on our Prayer and Discipleship Page

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Lent 2021

Listen to this blog post here- Lent 2021 Blog Post

My first thought on Lent 2021 is that lockdown 1 started during Lent 2020! It’s crazy to think that a year has gone by.

Over the centuries, Catholics have not only celebrated the faith in the Church and through the Liturgy. This is the high point of our prayer- the Mass is the ‘source and summit’ of the Christian life. Catholics, however, have also celebrated the faith in the home with prayers, recipes and parties! I have noticed even more of this spirit even among my non-Catholic neighbours this year.

Window decorations for significant days show that the religious instinct to celebrate what is important is still within us, even if we have not yet made it to the fullness of truth in the Catholic faith. Maybe this is also because, during times of trial, we all need to keep our spirits up!

Given all that we have gone through, we could fall into the trap of seeing Lent as a tedious trial that we just don’t need at the moment. Who is going to voluntarily do something difficult when so much else is going on?!

Let’s take a brief look at why this view would be missing the point and why Lent can be a time of refreshment and positivity!

Penance

During Lent we do penance. Penance is when we make satisfaction for our sins. When we go to confession we make a resolution to turn away from sin and turn back to God (Repentance) and our Penance makes this desire visible and puts it into practice.

From the beginning, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God,  sin has messed up our relationship with God, creation and others. So the Church gives us the antidote to each problem-

Prayer- Prayer reconnects us to God who is the source of love and peace. During Lent we make a special effort to take up some additional prayer, even something really small, and we become rooted in the one who made us, loved us, died and rose again for us.  (If you don’t pray much, how about a Hail Mary when you get up and when you go to bed? It’s a start 🙂 ) Image result for fulton sheen prayer and fasting

Fasting-Fasting disconnects us from our unhealthy attachment to material/created things. What are the things that I turn to instead of God? What are the things that take up so much time and attention that I neglect my duties or my family?

Almsgiving (Giving)– Giving to others teaches us to love our neighbour even when it costs us. We all like to help people who help us, but this can be a bit selfish. What about showing love to those who may not give anything in return. You could give to charity, give money, give your time…Pray about it and see what God sends your way.

In conclusion, Lent provides us with an opportunity to disconnect from the things that give us a short term happiness and reconnect to God who is our ultimate joy.

In RE, young people will be learning about the significance of 40 days in the Bible- always a period of purification, turning to God and getting rid of the baggage that weighs us down.

Someone who is getting fit has a goal and they use their will power to turn away from unhealthy food and turn towards exercise, we have the goal of realising our spiritual potential- holiness, sainthood. Penance isn’t a negative thing, it is just like getting fit but for our soul.

At the end of our 40 days of purification and conversion we will be ready to contemplate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus who emptied himself for love of us and calls us to love him in return.

 

Lent Resources

Ash Wednesday Service for use at home

Resources for prayer and growing in the faith

 

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Feedback during Online Learning

Turnbull young people have been submitting some outstanding work for RE during the last few weeks. From S1 exploring the literary styles in scripture, S2 analysing the person and natures of Jesus to S4 and 5 creating presentations on the sanctity of human life to S6 analysing the Nicene Creed and refuting the Arian heresy…I have been so impressed by their commitment to their learning.

Feedback is a key component of learning in any classroom and in RE, pupils often reflect on their engagement in self and peer assessment, formal and informal learner conversations, use of learning intentions, success criteria and PLP learning statements to track the learning and set new goals.

We are not in a classroom at the moment, however, so how can a young person gauge their success and areas for development within the online RE context?

Here is a list that was drawn up in our S2 RE tutorial this morning.

 

RE Online learning:
Feedback

–Traffic light grades– Red/Amber/Green. Green means that you have met the success criteria, Amber means you have met some but not all and you need to self-asses your work against the success criteria and plug any gaps. Red is very rare- no one has been given a red yet! Your teacher would be in touch to help you before it came to this!

–Written comments (**?)– two stars and a wish- short comment from the teacher. This is usually given for more substantial tasks. Sometimes pupils may expect a written comment every time but written comments are only one method of feedback and aren’t always the best fit.

–Verbal feedback during tutorials– common challenges or tricky bits are explained during the tutorial. Where appropriate, I am now recording audio of the lessons and issuing them to pupils as a podcast that can be revisited.

–Live marking during lesson– the teacher uses example work (with the name of the pupil removed!) to show desirable aspects of work and things that could be improved.

–MS Forms– Percentage Mark is given automatically, correct or incorrect answers show you your strengths and areas to revise and pop-up messages give hints along the way

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Advent Learning and Teaching in RE

Advent is one of my favourite seasons of the Church year and every year I discover new layers of meaning in the prophecies of the Old Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament. There are also so many beautiful ways that the liturgy and devotions unwrap the layers of the greatest gift ever given.

This year is the first that all of the BGE classes have all been engaging with our brand new courses.

S1 started by studying life in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth and its place in salvation history or ‘God’s Timeline’. By applying their literacy and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), pupils engaged with a variety of Biblical and video resources to gradually build up a picture of the political, cultural and religious climate for the people of God at that time. S1 had a good idea of what God’s people were expecting from the Messiah and began to think about how Jesus fulfilled this.

S1 then went on to explore ways in which we practice our faith in Advent, dividing the learning into ‘Liturgy’ and ‘Devotions.’

S2 built on what they learned last year by studying the Old Testament prophets in the last part of November. They worked in groups to track God’s Timeline, analysing the messages of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos. They saw that God is always faithful despite his people’s infidelity ad recognised the promise of the Messiah, the rescuer.

S2 continued to work in their groups through December to explore the clues of what the Messiah- The Anointed One- would be like. They studied the figures of the Old Testament who were anointed- Priests, Prophets and Kings and began to explore how Jesus would be the ultimate priest, prophet and king.

S2 concluded their study by analysing the O Antiphons and selecting ones that complemented their learning. Sadly, we could not sing them this year but maybe next year’s S2 will get a chance!

S3 expanded their prior learning by exploring the concept of Covenant in more depth. Applying their HOTS, pupils engaged with Biblical texts to identify the Covenant characteristics that they had learned. Again, by tracking salvation history and the development of the covenant through Noah, Abraham and Moses, young people then drew conclusions about the New and Eternal Covenant that Jesus was going to institute.

Image

Unusually, S4 were in school for lots more of Advent this year due to the Absence of prelims. They followed the first episode of Word on Fire’s Catholicism series, deepening their understanding of the role of the Messiah and the paradoxical way in which God chose to rescue his people.

Advent Adoration

In harmony with the curriculum, our chaplaincy programme offered opportunities for prayer and meditation on our need for the coming of Jesus in our own lives and in the world. This was most powerfully evident in our Advent Adoration on Monday lunchtimes- the Advent of Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament at the heart of our school.

Prayers and Devotions

In place of Mass, which is not possible at this time, pupils and staff joined in morning prayers, novenas and other devotions. An adapted version of our Bearing Gifts retreat was undertaken for each class, reflecting on the Annunciation, the poem ‘In the bleak midwinter’ by Christina Rosetti and ending with the Angelus.

What can I give him poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb. If I were a wise man, I would do my part, yet, what I have I give him,

Give my heart.

Family Learning

Advent is a season that is very rich in liturgy ad devotions and so our families were provided with a one-stop-shop for living Advent in the home. This blog post featured prayers, crafts, recipes and even playlists of traditional and modern Advent music!

Advent Service

On the last day of term we joined for an Advent Service on Teams in which we reflected on the promise of the Messiah, his Advent to us in the present and our readiness for his coming in glory at the end of the world.

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