Search Learning Area
Level Description
Students in Years 7 and 8 continue in Religious Education their learning of the Christian understanding of the meaning and purpose of being human, Catholic beliefs, practices and ethical values, and the contribution of the Catholic Church in the lives of believers and wider society.
The content of the Religious Education curriculum is organised as three interrelated strands: Knowledge and Understanding, Skills for Learning (Inquiring and Communicating), and Skills for Living (Discerning and Making Connections). The Knowledge and Understanding content descriptions are aligned to the core doctrinal concepts of the eight elements around which the curriculum is structured and which are: Jesus Christ, Prayer, God, Church, Sacraments, Christian Life, Religion, Culture and Society, and Scripture. These elements are integrated through meaningfully and coherently sequenced units of learning for the explicit teaching of the prescribed content and Understandings that enable students to develop their knowledge and understanding of the Catholic faith.
The Skills for Learning (Inquiring and Communicating) and the Skills for Living (Discerning and Making Connections) strands provide students the opportunities to acquire, develop and apply skills that enable them to engage with the content in ways that, over time, help them to apply in their lives the knowledge and understanding gained.
Knowledge and Understanding
Through their study of Scripture and Catholic Tradition as sources of Divine Revelation, students will reflect on the mystery of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - revealed in God's Word, Jesus Christ. They will explore God's loving covenant-relationship with humankind and the call to each person to respond. They will examine the impact of sin, understood as living for oneself at the expense of others, that harms our relationship with God, each other and all of creation. In doing so they will investigate how honouring the natural laws and natural systems created by God and choosing to act with care for self, others and all of life honours God, and His call to loving relationship.
In their study of Sacred Scripture, students will become familiar with the library of sacred books that form the Bible, identifying the Old and New Testaments and exploring how God’s word is presented in different genres and in ways that reflect different historical, social and cultural settings. Students will consider the development of sacred texts over time and reflect on the Spirit-inspired authorship of the Scriptures.
Students will deepen their knowledge of Jesus, His Person, life and teachings, through their exploration, prayerful reading and study of the New Testament, becoming familiar with the structure and content of the Gospels and the writing of the Apostles. Through their study they will explore that Jesus Christ, fully divine and fully human, proclaims and embodies the Reign of God, lived out in right relationship with God, others and all of life. They will consider that Jesus offers hope to the world that is affected by sinfulness. They will reflect on his challenge to each of us to offer hope by creating a more compassionate and just world for all, especially the poor, calling his followers to discipleship. They will reflect upon Jesus’ promise to be with his disciples always through His Spirit, to guide and strengthen them for mission and service. Through engagement with the story of Pentecost and their research of the events and lives of its people throughout history, students will consider how the Church continues to “read the signs of the times” in service of God’s mission to proclaim the Good News to people from every nation. Students will investigate and experience different ways in which the life, prayer and worship of the Church are expressed, reflecting the light of Christ for all peoples.
Students will learn that the Church recognises and celebrates the Sacramental presence of God. They will investigate that in the celebration of the Sacraments, words, actions and symbols are used to communicate God’s presence and action, effecting graced-encounters in people’s lives. They will learn that Jesus Christ's loving actions of nourishing, healing, forgiving, etc, are present in the Sacraments of the Church through the Holy Spirit. They will consider the Sacraments of Initiation, Healing and Communion for Service, the symbols, words and actions used in celebration of the Sacraments, and the deeper reality of the action of the Spirit. They will be supported to recognise that through Baptism and the Eucharist Christians are born into and nourished in the life of Christ and transformed by the action of the Spirit, reflecting on the celebrations of Sacraments as experiences that sustain Christian life.
Students will explore how Christian life is centred on relationship with Christ within a faith community and is based on the life, teachings and values of Jesus Christ. They will consider how Christian living is a response to the call to act on the basis of informed and graced-decision making, guided by a well-formed conscience. They will reflect on our inclination to sin, to live for self only, and how our personal response to a change of heart through God’s grace leads us to lives of real love, really lived. Students will consider ways to respond with compassion to suffering within our community and the wider human family. In this, they will be supported through their growing knowledge of Catholic teaching on the dignity of the human person and the common good and through their investigation of the lives of Spirit-filled people inspired by the example of Jesus.
Students will consider that prayer and Christian life are inseparable and that effective Christian prayer transforms us and leads to a deeper love for God and one another. They will reflect upon Jesus as the model of prayer and will engage prayerfully with His own prayer, the Our Father. They will explore and experience a range of traditional Christian prayers and prayer practices (e.g.Sign of the Cross, blessings, Christian Meditation, Holy Week and Easter prayer experiences, Lectio / Visio Divina, Examen, Angelus, Rosary, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament). Students study and meditate on the Scriptures, the Word of God, which reveal God’s love and they explain how this study and prayer can nurture relationship with Jesus and can help guide our lives.
Skills for Learning and Living
Students will develop skills for learning by drawing from a variety of Catholic Christian sources to investigate, reflect on, summarise, discuss and to communicate their developing knowledge and understanding about the Catholic Tradition. Key sources include Liturgy, Scripture, Magisterial documents, writings of Saints, contemporary Christian authors, iconography, architecture, sacred art and sacred music.
Students will develop skills for living including the reading, reflection on and interpretation of Scripture, using both literal and spiritual senses, as a “light for the path” of their daily living (Ps. 119:105). They will begin to consider ways to transfer their learning of Catholic teaching to their own life, by developing the skills of examining and reflecting on personal attitudes, values and behaviours.
God is Mystery:
- God is Mystery and Love.
- Through the action of the Holy Spirit we grow in understanding of the one, loving relationship of Father, Son and Spirit. The Trinity is a communion of love.
- The forgiveness, compassion and mercy of God are revealed in Jesus.
Relationship:
- Reaching out in loving relationship, God has entered into a covenant with humankind and has continued a faithful relationship with people throughout human history.
- Right relationship is damaged through sin when we choose to live only for ourselves and, in love, we are called to change of heart.
Giver of all life:
- Through Jesus’ resurrection, humankind and all of creation are swept up by Christ into the life of God.
- We honour God by living in loving relationship, caring for self, others and all of life.
God, revealed in Jesus, enters into a relationship with humankind and calls each person to respond. (TCREK033)
God is Mystery:
Students will engage with relevant texts from Scripture and from Christian writings to support reflection on God as Mystery and Love.
They will be invited to use a variety of strategies and resources (Scripture, Church documents, Catholic Christian authors, sacred art and music) in order to consider prayerfully the living unity of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to use a variety of means to depict their growing understandings.
Through exploring the lives and writings of Christian models they will be supported to identify and to give examples of how the Holy Spirit helps us to grow in understanding of the living unity of God, Father, Son, and Spirit.
Relationship:
Through exploring some of the Covenant narratives, students will identify how God has continued a faithful relationship with humanity throughout human history through covenant fulfilled in Jesus.
Engaging with Scripture texts, including, The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Lk 15: 3-7); The Parable of the Lost Coin (Lk 15: 8-10); The Parable of the Loving Father, the Prodigal and His Brother (Lk 15: 11-32), students will prayerfully reflect on the forgiveness, compassion and mercy of God that is revealed in Jesus.
They will examine the impact of sin, identified as living for oneself at the expense of others. They will describe and explain how this harms our relationship with God, each other and all of creation and will consider Love’s call to change of heart.
Giver of all life:
Students will observe and reflect on God, as giver of all life. They will investigate how we honour the natural laws and natural systems created by God and will explain / illustrate how we are called to respond.
Students will consider how choosing to act with care for self, others and all of life honours God and will identify ways of responding to the call to loving relationship.
- Jesus of Nazareth lived in a particular historical, social, political and religious context.
- Through his teaching and through the way he lives Jesus, fully divine and fully human, reveals God as love and shows us how God wants us to live.
- Jesus Christ, who offers hope to the world, embodies the Reign of God that is lived out in right relationship with God, others and all of life.
- In his call to discipleship, Jesus challenges us to help offer hope and create a more compassionate and just world for all, especially the poor.
Jesus Christ offers hope to the world and calls his followers to discipleship. (TCREK034)
Students will investigate aspects of how Jesus lived in a faithful Jewish family. They will then examine Jesus’ ministry in the context of the Jewish community, religious traditions and practices and the society of his day.
Throughout this process they will consider how Jesus Christ, God’s Word, reveals who God is, offers hope to the world and shows how God wants us to live.
They will explore and reflect on selected texts of the Gospels in order to identify what Jesus taught about the Reign of God. Similarly, they will examine how Jesus Himself embodied the Reign of God.
They will reflect upon Jesus’ call to discipleship and its challenge to relate to others, especially the poor, with justice and compassion.
Students will prayerfully consider and discern realistic and practical ways through which, in discipleship, they can live out the Reign of God and offer hope to the world of today.
- The Church is a community of Christians guided by the Holy Spirit, seeking to proclaim the Good News and serve God’s mission in our world.
- Across the ages the Church, ”reading the signs of the times”, has revealed its missionary and prophetic nature.
- The life, prayer and worship of the Church are expressed differently in different cultures, manifesting the light of Christ for all peoples.
The Church proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ and is missionary and prophetic. (TCREK035)
Students will engage with the story of Pentecost and will explore how the Apostles, led by Peter, began to proclaim the Good News of Jesus to people from every nation.
They will reflect upon Jesus’ promise to be with his disciples always through His Spirit, to guide and strengthen for mission and service, and will research examples of this in the lives of individuals and events in the Church’s story.
Through exploration of Scripture, the events in the Church’s history, the lives of its exemplars, and the Church’s “reading the signs of the times”, students will gain understanding of “missionary” and “prophetic”.
Students will consider how the Church’s mission is lived through the school Charism as it proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ and witnesses to God’s presence in the world.
Students will investigate and experience different ways in which the life, prayer and worship of the Church are expressed, reflecting the light of Christ for all peoples.
The Old Testament:
- The Old Testament writings tell the story of the Israelite people and their covenant relationship with God.
- The authors of the Scriptures wrote the word of God with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
- The sacred texts of the Old Testament present God’s word in different literary forms and in ways that reflect different social settings.
- These sacred texts are to be interpreted in their historical, cultural and literary contexts.
New Testament - Gospels / Christian Scripture:
- The New Testament teaches us about Jesus, His person, life and teachings and about the life and messages of the early Christian communities.
- The Gospels, central to Christian faith and life, are at the core of the Church’s prayer and at the centre of Church teaching.
Prayer / Living:
- Studying and meditating on the Scriptures can nurture relationship with Jesus and can help guide our lives.
Studying and meditating on the Scriptures as the Word of God reveals God’s love and deepens Christian understanding of who Jesus is. (TCREK036)
Sacred Scripture:
Students will investigate the library of sacred books that form the Bible; they will identify the Old and New Testaments and will explore how God’s word is presented in different genres and in ways that reflect different historical social and cultural settings.
Students will consider the development of sacred texts over time and reflect on the inspired authorship of the Scriptures.
They will explore the concept and reality of covenant, reflecting on God’s constant love, revealed and brought to fullness through Jesus.
New Testament - Gospels / Christian Scripture:
Students will identify the structure and content of the New Testament and will have the opportunity to become familiar with the writings of the early Christian Church. The New Testament contains a) the Gospels which tell of Jesus, His person, life and teachings and b) the writing of the Apostles who continued to share the Good News.
Prayer / Living:
Students will engage prayerfully with the Scriptures. They will be encouraged to identify and memorise brief scripture phrases that hold meaning for their lives and, using Scripture as “ a lamp for my feet and a light for my path” (Ps 119:105), they will meditate and reflect on the presence and action of God in their lives.
Signs of God’s loving presence i) in all of life ii) in the actions of Jesus:
- i) A sacramental way of viewing the world sees God’s presence in every-day things and events.
- ii) Through language, gestures and actions, Jesus revealed the action and wonder of God’s love and presence in all of life.
God’s presence and action in the Sacraments:
- Sacraments are sacred actions of the Church through which Jesus’s actions continue and which bring about encounters with God in people’s lives.
- In the celebration of the Sacraments, words, actions and symbols are used to communicate God’s presence and action. Each Sacrament has its own history, symbols and rituals.
The Spirit’s action in the Sacraments:
- Through the Sacraments, Christians are born into and nourished in the life of Christ and transformed by the action of the Spirit.
Being signs of God’s presence to others:
- Celebration of the Sacraments nourishes and strengthens the Christian's life of faith and mission.
The Church recognises and celebrates the Sacramental presence of God through ritual, sign, symbol and word. (TCREK037)
Signs of God’s loving presence i) in all of life ii) in actions of Jesus:
i) Students will be offered opportunities to deepen understanding that people, life’s events and the world around us are signs of the presence of God.
ii) They will be supported to see how Jesus used words, actions and the things of the world (voice, touching, anointing, food / meals) to communicate God’s loving presence.
God’s presence and action in the Sacraments:
Students will explore how Jesus Christ's actions of nourishing, healing, forgiving, etc. are present in the Sacraments of the Church through the Holy Spirit. They will reflect on Baptism, the basis of the whole Christian life, as the doorway to life in the Spirit and the Eucharist is its fullness.
The Spirit’s action in the Sacraments:
Students will reflect on the Sacraments as sacred actions of the Church which effect encounters with God in people’s lives. They will consider the grouping of the Sacraments into those of Initiation, Healing and Communion for Service. Through considering some of the key symbols, words and actions used in celebration of the Sacraments they will explore the deeper reality of the action of the Spirit.
Being signs of God’s presence to others:
Using analogy or metaphor (e.g. meeting places / encounters, experiences, celebrations on the journey of life) students will reflect on the Sacraments as gifts of encounter and grace that enable and challenge us to live lives of loving service. Students will identify links between the Sacraments and living with God and others. They will prayerfully reflect on the celebrations of Sacraments as experiences that nourish us for Christian living.
- Through Christian prayer we respond to and open to the loving call to encounter God.
- Individuals and the wider Church are enriched by forms of Christian prayer from different spiritual and cultural traditions.
- Christian prayer, at once personal and communal, grows out of and nourishes both the individual and the community.
- Christian Prayer and Christian life are inseparable.
- Jesus’ prayer to God shows us how to pray.
Prayer and Christian life are inseparable. Effective prayer transforms us and leads to a deeper love for God and one another. (TCREK038)
Students will engage with texts and enter into experiences, both personal and communal, that invite and facilitate encounter with God.
They will reflect upon Jesus as the model of prayer and will engage prayerfully with His own prayer, the Our Father.
They will experience forms of personal prayer linked to the realities of their lives.
Students will investigate approaches to prayer in differing historical, social and cultural contexts and identify the enduring characteristics of authentic Christian prayer.
Through praying, through reflecting and through researching the lives and experiences of Christian models of prayer they will identify ways in which prayer transforms the heart, mind and actions towards each other and towards creation.
Students will engage with and reflect upon experiences of Liturgical prayer as a source of nourishment in Christian life (including the Divine Office).
They will explore and experience a range of traditional Christian prayers and prayer practices (e.g.Sign of the Cross, blessings, Christian Meditation, Holy Week and Easter prayer experiences, Lectio / Visio Divina, Examen, Angelus, Rosary, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament) and will reflect on and draw from the contemplative practice of Dadirri, gifted to us by our First Nations peoples.
- Christian life is centred on relationship with Christ and is lived within a faith community that is true to his example and teaching.
- Christian life calls us to act on the basis of informed and graced decision-making. Conscience is a person’s inner guide (the echo of God’s voice) that helps in making moral decisions.
- We are inclined to sin, to live for self only and are called to constant change of heart and ways. God’s grace leads us to lives of real love, really lived.
- Inspired by the example of Jesus, informed by the Church’s teaching and guided by Spirit-filled exemplars, we can respond with compassion to suffering within our community and the wider human family.
- Human Dignity and the Common Good are foundational principles of Catholic Social Teaching.
Christian life is based on the life, teachings and values of Jesus Christ and requires informed decisions and appropriate actions. (TCREK039)
Free to choose, called to love:
Students will examine conscience as the inner guide, the voice of God within, and will consider its place in moral decision-making.
Students will reflect on human nature’s inclination to sin, expressed as living for oneself only. They will explore the nature and impact of sin and will consider examples of initial choices or of changes of heart that brought/bring right order and peace, experienced in their own lives or observed/ recognised in the lives of others.
Through engaging with chosen Gospel characters and some exemplars from the Church through the ages students will explore the nature, process and experiences of those who choose or who reject goodness and life. Through considering these models, students will explore how morality / ethics flows from encounter with God in Christ Who reveals Love itself. They will consider how Christian life and loving decision-making is nurtured and lived within a faith community.
Students will engage with a simple Examen process as a support for reflecting on their own attitudes and actions, contrasting with Jesus’ teaching and values. They will compose or engage with prayerful expressions of sorrow and change of heart.
Jesus’ teaching - Scriptures, Church documents, writings, exemplars:
Students will engage with some scriptural accounts of how Jesus chose His courses of action and will identify and reflect on His practices. They will prayerfully consider examples of His actions and His teaching, e.g. Matthew 25: 35-40, about committing to love and compassion.
Students will consider how the witness of good people challenges and inspires us to act in support of others. They will compare and contrast various examples in order to identify the characteristics of “lives of real love, really lived” for God, for others and for all of life.
They will explore the principles of Catholic Social Teaching through researching parts of some key Church documents, e.g. Pastoral Statements of the Church, Encyclicals and Apostolic Letters, and will apply these principles in considering and responding to social issues.
Currently under review.
Every person is a spiritual being whether this is acknowledged through religious practice or not. (TCREK040)
Currently under review.
TCREI013
The students will identify and use a variety of Catholic, Christian sources to investigate, reflect on, summarise and discuss key findings about the Catholic Tradition.
Elaborations- Sources may include Liturgy, Scripture, Magisterial documents, writings of Saints, contemporary Christian authors, iconography, architecture, sacred art and sacred music.
TCREI014
The students will begin to read and interpret Scripture using literal and spiritual senses.
ElaborationsComing soon
TCREI015
The students will communicate their knowledge and understanding of key doctrinal concepts using appropriate forms, vocabulary and terms.
ElaborationsComing soon
TCRED015
The students will reflect on their reading and interpretation of Scripture as a "light for the path" of their daily living (Ps. 119:105).
ElaborationsComing soon
TCRED016
The students will identify, examine and reflect on personal attitudes, values and behaviours in the light of Catholic teaching.
ElaborationsComing soon
TCRED017
The students will consider ways to transfer into daily life (through attitudes, values and behaviours) understandings gained of Catholic teaching.
ElaborationsComing soon
Achievement Standards
By the end of Year 8, students indicate developing understandings of the living unity of God: Father, Son and Spirit and of God as Mystery and Love. They explore, reflect on and describe God’s covenant relationship with humanity and the related loving call for each person’s response. Describing sin as a choice to live for self at the expense of others, students can explain how this damages relationship with God, others and all of life and calls for a change of heart. Students explain how Jesus Christ, in revealing God as love, offers hope to the world and calls his followers to discipleship. They identify how Jesus Christ, fully divine and fully human, embodies and brings about the Reign of God. Describing the Church as a community of disciples sent out, they explain how it proclaims the Good News and seeks to serve God’s mission. They describe the Church’s missionary and prophetic nature and explain how the action of the Spirit continues to guide and inspire Christians in reading and responding to the signs of the times. Students explain that a sacramental way of viewing the world sees God in every-day things, people and events. They give examples of how, through the Sacraments, the Church recognises and celebrates the transformative presence of God through ritual, sign, symbol and word. Students explain how living the Christian Life grows out of and is sustained by relationship with Jesus. They reflect on and detail how the life and teachings of Jesus, the teachings of the Church and the lives of Christian witnesses and the practice of prayer can inform conscience for decision-making and action. They will identify examples of how our sinfulness, to choose to live for oneself at the expense of others, contrasts with Jesus’ teaching and values. Students study and meditate on the Scriptures, the Word of God, which reveal God’s love and they explain how this study and prayer can nurture relationship with Jesus and can help guide our lives. Students recognise that effective Christian Prayer is transformative and they identify examples of prayer leading to a deeper love for God and to growth in loving care for one another and all of life.
Students investigate, reflect on, summarise and discuss key findings about the Catholic Tradition using a variety of Catholic Christian sources. They begin to demonstrate their application of the literal and spiritual senses for the interpretation of selected Scripture. They use appropriate forms, vocabulary and terms to communicate their doctrinal knowledge and understanding. Students self-reflect on their reading and interpretation of selected Scripture. They identify and reflect on their attitudes, behaviours and values, examining and identifying ways to transfer their knowledge and understanding of Catholic teaching to their own attitudes, values and behaviours.