St. Paul’s is a Church of England Voluntary Aided School and as such the Governors are required by law to determine the RE curriculum in accordance with the school’s Trust Deed. Our RE curriculum is therefore informed by the teachings of the Anglican Church. However, we also recognise that times have changed since the formulation of the Trust Deed and we need to equip the children for life in a multicultural society; it is not the practice of the school to preach or to convert the children. We introduce the children to the other major world faiths throughout the two Key Stages. We wish to be an inclusive community but recognise that parents have the legal right to withdraw their children from Religious Education. However, in view of the Christian ethos and distinctive Christian character of our school, we would hope that all children admitted will participate fully in RE, and that anyone wishing to withdraw their child would discuss this with the Head teacher before making this decision.

The RE curriculum is based on the Understanding Christianity units of work and the Hertfordshire Agreed Syllabus (HAS). RE teaching, which is planned and delivered using a cross curricular approach, incorporates the whole school values programme and enhances the children’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It is linked to the Church year and many religious festivals which occur throughout the year.

We believe that RE involves both specific areas of learning and also the creation of an inclusive, caring and sharing ethos of the whole school community and supports and strengthens what we aim to do in every aspect of school life, Our school motto; Love to learn; Learn to love, inspired by the story of the Good Samaritan is based on the greatest commandment   “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.. Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12;31).