Turnbull High School Religious Education and Chaplaincy
Educating for Eternity
It was a delight to celebrate All Saints’ Day with our young people again this year. Period 3, BGE pupils participated in a live-streamed Mass from St Andrew’s Bearsden and period 5 SP pupils participated in Mass streamed from our own Oratory.
The Caritas class read beautifully and the atmosphere of reverence was touching. Sometimes teachers don’t get to pray so much as supervise but yesterday it was a privilege to pray alongside our young people who participated with such love and respect.
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!
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!
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
On the 5th of September 2021, the Catholics of Scotland descended on the National Marian Shrine, Carfin Grotto. The National Pilgrimage is an annual Mass with the Bishops of Scotland which had been cancelled due to Covid and it was a joy to see families, religious and clergy arriving by the bus load. A delegation from our Caritas class attended the event as they always do, and seemed to be the only school group in attendance. The pupils were struck by the variety of the church in Scotland beyond their own parish experience and were impacted by the presence of the bishops- our living connection to the apostles.
For years, an important part of our school community has been our lunchtime charity clubs. These clubs have not only been an important part of keeping the Catholic ethos alive within our student body, but it has also had a big hand to play in bringing pupils together, teaching them important leadership, organisational and communication skills, inspiring a charitable and compassionate spirit within them and educating them on worldwide issues and the importance and how we are all affected by them spiritually.
Unfortunately, these lunchtime groups were put on hold due to lockdown and then new COVID-19 related restrictions caused numbers to dwindle, and it seemed that some of them would be discontinued. However, thanks to an ingenious idea by Mr Pearce, head of RE, all the clubs would continue, as CREDO.
The name CREDO comes from the first line of the creed, and means ‘I believe’, and the club consists of previously independent clubs within the school. The club is made up of four departments: Aid to the Church in Need, Mary’s Meals, Baby Steps and The Holy Events department. Aid to the Church in Need’s mission statement is to help lift the oppression of Catholics all around the world, and famously holds the Red Wednesday Bakesale every year. Mary’s Meals’ mission statement is to promote education in underprivileged countries by feeding children at least one meal a day at school and has also been successful in twinning our school bathroom with another school bathroom in Liberia. Baby Steps is the only new and original club- it’s a Pro-Life club which aims to support pregnant mothers by doing things such as donating or fundraising for important items like baby clothes.
Finally, The Chaplaincy department helps organises events within the school, like important Masses or the recent S1 retreat. The different departments within CREDO are all run by the S6 Caritas pupils, and all are supervised by Mr Pearce. The club takes place on Tuesday lunchtimes for BGE pupils, while beforehand the S6 pupils prepare activities for the younger pupils during their earlier lunch break. New members are always welcome if you want to support the school ethos and learn more about Catholicism worldwide!
Murron, S6
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.
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
To view the materials, follow the links and log in with your usual glow details.
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
