Religious Education
Religious Education in Terenure College is an integral part of the school curriculum. The College believes that it plays an essential role in the holistic development of our students. Students in Terenure study the Junior Certificate Religious Education Examination Syllabus while Leaving Certificate students are offered the option of studying the Leaving Certificate Religious Education Examination Syllabus. Furthermore, students also take part in the RE catechetical programme in Senior Cycle.
The following pages provide you with information about our Religious Education Programme:
Religious Education in Terenure College
Junior Certificate Religious Education
Leaving Certificate Religious Education
Transition Year Religious Education
Fifth Year Religious Education
Sixth Year Religious Education
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Religious Education in Terenure College
Religious Education in Terenure College is committed to catechesis and embraces its role in the Church’s evangelising mission. As an RE faculty, we aim for our students…
To develop and mature in their personal relationship with Jesus Christ
To be formed in the wealth and richness of the Christian, Catholic and Carmelite ethos and tradition
To be informed about this ethos and tradition and learn about the sacraments, liturgy, sacred scriptures, social and moral teaching of the Church.
To learn about and appreciate the different religious traditions in our world today.
To appreciate the richness of a spiritual and reflective life, the responsibility of material wealth and value of good friends.
To take informed responsibility for life choices and decisions.
To be "filled with great zeal for the Lord of Hosts."
As educators and adults we seek to…
Help our students grow in their faith and relationship with God.
To travel alongside our students as they journey towards a mature faith.
To form and inform the students in the tradition of the Christian, Catholic and Carmelite ethos.
"The RE Programme is comprehensive and relevant and is implemented in a creative and sensitive manner. As well as the provision of formal classes the pupils are required to participate in:
- a Retreat experience for each year;
- Prayer Services arranged both for special occasions and as part of the school day;
- School Liturgies at the beginning and end of the academic year and on other significant occasions;
- social activities and projects that support the under-privileged in our society." (Mission Statement for Terenure College, pg 8)
The RE faculty seeks to provide students with the most comprehensive, informative, relevant and enriching religious education possible, realised in both an individual and collective manner.
Religious Education Faculty 2007 – 2008
Junior Certificate Religious Education:
1.1 Fr Eoin Moore
1.2 Kelly O’Reilly
1.3 Meeda Byrne
1.4 Meeda Byrne
1.5 Roisin McArdle
2.1 Kelly O’Reilly
2.2 Sean O’Connor
2.3 Sean O’Connor
2.4 Eddie Geraghty
2.5 Meeda Byrne
3.1 Eddie Geraghty
3.2 Fr. PJ Breen
3.3 Kenneth McCabe
3.4 Kelly O’Reilly
3.5 Kelly O’Reilly
Leaving Certificate Religious Education:
5th Year – Kenneth McCabe
6th Year – Eddie Geraghty
Fourth Year Religious Education:
Fr. PJ Breen
Kelly O’ Reilly
Eddie Geraghty
Kenneth McCabe
Fifth Year Religious Education:
Eddie Geraghty
Mary Carroll
Kenneth McCabe
Sean O’Connor
Brendan McCauley
Kelly O’Reilly
Sixth Year:
Mary Carroll
Kenneth McCabe
Fr. Eoin Moore
Brendan McCauley
Sean O’Connor
Kelly O’Reilly
Junior Certificate Religious Education
The aim of Junior Certificate Religious Education is to provide students with a framework for encountering and engaging with the variety of religious traditions in Ireland and elsewhere. It seeks to promote an understanding and appreciation of why people believe, as well as tolerance and respect for the values and beliefs of all. The students are invited to reflect on their own experience and their commitment to a particular religious tradition and/or continuing search for meaning will be encouraged and supported.
To view the Junior Certificate RE Syllabus, visit: http//www.ress.ie/junior_syllabus.asp
1st Year
Aims:
To explore the nature and pattern of human communities.
To identify the characteristics of communities of faith/churches.
To examine these characteristics as they occur in communities of faith/churches in local, national and international examples.*
To explore the context into which Jesus was born.
To identify the Gospels as the main source of knowledge about Jesus
To examine the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus for his followers, then and now.
To have an understanding of how particular places and times come to be significant.
To have an understanding of the importance of prayer in the lives of individuals and in religious traditions.
To be able to differentiate between different types of prayer.
*This will involve the students completing a project on the Carmelites and researching their own parish.
Catechetical Aims:
To allow the students to explore and gain an appreciation for their own parish community.
To give the students the opportunity to learn about the Carmelite community and their way of life (vocation).
To give the students an appreciation of the relationship with different Christian denominations and to foster an understanding and an openness to the differences between the Catholic Church and these denominations (ecumenism).
To teach students about the Church as the Body of Christ/The Pilgrim people of God.
To teach students the key elements of their Catholic Christian faith:
The Incarnation (God becoming human in Jesus)
How to live out the Kingdom of God in daily life
The importance of the Eucharist as meal, memorial and sacrifice in the catholic faith
The Paschal Mystery (Salvation and Redemption)
The Trinity
2nd Year
Aims:
To explore in detail two major world religions.
To examine the impact of these religions on their followers today and on other individuals and communities.
To show how ritual and worship have always been part of the human response to life and to the mystery of God.
To identify how communities of faith express their day-to-day concerns in various forms of ritual.
To explore an experience of worship.
To explore the situation of religious faith today.
To identify the situation of religious faith today.
To identify the beginning of faith and the human search for meaning
To recognise the expressions of human questioning in modern culture.
To examine challenges to religious faith today.
Catechetical Aims:
To situate the study of world religions within the Church’s teaching – The Church respects and is open to the seeds of truth found in these faiths and encourages the study of world faiths.
To give the students an appreciation of the common relationship between the Church and other world faiths (especially the three monotheistic faiths) and to foster an openness and understanding of the differences between them (inter-faith dialogue).
To teach the students about the significance of the sacraments in the Catholic Church (as the means through which Jesus is made present in people’s lives) and to discuss the role they have played in the students’ lives.
To teach the students the structure of the Mass and the importance of the Eucharist (the primary sacrament) in their lives (through the 2nd year class Masses).
To explore with students the characteristics of faith and the cultural and personal challenges they experience in their daily lives.
To study the faith of the Church through its creeds and ‘professions of faith’.
To study examples of faithful people in the Christian tradition (especially Mary who perfectly embodies the person of faith).
To teach the students ways of living out their Christian faith as teenagers.
To teach students the importance of prayer, different types of prayer (through lessons, visits to the meditation room and class prayer) and to discuss difficulties associated with prayer.
3rd Year
Aims:
To explore the human need to order relationships at the personal, communal and global levels.
To explore how this need can be expressed in a variety of ways.
To identify how this need is expressed in civil and other legal codes.
To show how religious belief is expressed in particular moral visions.
To explore the moral visions of two major world religions, one of which should be Christianity.
To analyse the impact of these visions on the lives of believers and non-believers in considering some current moral issues.
To explore the relationship between religion, morality and state law.
To complete Journal Work.
To revise the syllabus for the Junior Certificate Religious Exam.
Catechetical Aims:
To explore with students how Jesus is the example of how to live a truly Christian moral life.
To identify the Hebrew Scriptures/The New Testament and Church tradition as the source of Catholic moral teaching.
To teach students the Christian concepts of
Stewardship
Justice
Respect for life
Conscience
Sin
Forgiveness and Reconciliation
To give the students opportunities to reflect on their own lives and their struggle to live a Christian life (through reconciliation services).
To help the students forge a connection between their journal work and their Christian faith.
Leaving Certificate Religious Education
The aim of Leaving Certificate Religious Education is to help students explore the search for meaning inherent within each person, to identify how understandings of God and religious traditions have contributed to their culture and how these continue to have an impact on personal lifestyle, inter-personal relationships and communal relations. The exploration of these issues contributes to the spiritual and moral development of the student as well as preparing the student for active and participatory citizenship for the future.
To view the Leaving Certificate RE syllabus, visit: http//www.ress.ie/leaving_syllabus.asp.
5th Year
Aims: (SECTION A)
To present religions as systematic responses to perennial questions common to all peoples about the meaning of life in the world.
To develop an understanding of the nature of this search for meaning through an examination of questions arising in personal experience.
To examine philosophical and religious answers to the questions of the meaning of life and its ultimate grounding.
To examine the philosophical and religious answers to the questions of the existence of God, and the nature of divine revelation.
To examine the role of religion in the secular world
And:
(SECTION B)
To develop an appreciation of the early Christian movement and to correlate this with contemporary expressions of Christianity.
To identify the distinctive features of Christianity within the historical, social, and religious context of both the Palestinian and Greco-Roman society of the first century C.E.
To recognise the diversity and adaptability of the movement in addressing the search for meaning that was a feature of life at that time.
To examine contemporary religious and Christian identity in the light of our understanding of its founding vision and its earliest expressions.
6th Year
Aims: (SECTION B)
To develop an appreciation of the early Christian movement and to correlate this with contemporary expressions of Christianity.
To identify the distinctive features of Christianity within the historical, social, and religious context of both the Palestinian and Greco-Roman society of the first century C.E.
To recognise the diversity and adaptability of the movement in addressing the search for meaning that was a feature of life at that time.
To examine contemporary religious and Christian identity in the light of our understanding of its founding vision and its earliest expressions.
Section E – Religion and Gender
Section F – Issues of justice and peace
Section H – The Bible: literature and sacred text
Section I – Religion: The Irish Experience
Transition Year Religious Education
"The Moral Person"
Theme:
The theme for transition year RE is The Moral Person. This theme is explored in a theoretical and practical way. The content of each module will focus on this theme in varying degrees while Care Week allows for further moral development through providing students with an opportunity to care for those who need it most in our society.
Modules:
Transition Year Religious Education classes will take the form of four six-week modules. The following modules are presented in transition year:
The Search For Meaning (Mr Geraghty)
Students will grapple with the great questions of life through studying the giants of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) and by taking a critical look at contemporary society. They will learn the importance of searching for meaning, the need for understanding, for questioning and dialogue, all of which are an integral part of moral development.
Moral Choice (Ms. O’Reilly)
Students will explore the process of making moral decisions by studying their own assumptions, their logic in making decisions, their use of language, their prejudices and the importance of conscience in moral decision- making. A key factor in this module will be the study of the feature film "12 Angry Men." This module seeks to inform students how one can make a mature moral decision and that the decisions we make reflect the person we are.
Spirituality and Faith (Mr. McCabe)
This module explores the importance of the spiritual life for the adolescent. It defines spirituality as simply "waking up" and explores what is involved in this. Through the use of film (‘Bruce Almighty’) and music, students will reflect on their own spirituality and faith journey and will learn how spirituality and faith (who they are) is an integral part of their moral development (who they wish to become).
Relationships and Sexuality Education (Fr. PJ Breen)
his module challenges the students to take a closer look at their own attitudes to relationships and sexuality. It particularly focuses on the area of sexual health through the study of human reproduction and the risk of STI’s that result from promiscuous sexual behaviour. The importance of responsibility and respect for oneself and others is reiterated through the study of Catholic sexual ethics.
Care Week:
Care Week is an integral part of Transition year and a very important part of our Religious Education programme as social justice is an integral aspect of Christian morality. It gives the students an opportunity to experience and work with those people in our society who are in need of care in their lives. Care week allows the students to participate in "social activities and projects that support the under-privileged in our society." (Mission Statement)
Students prepare for this time during Care Week Preparation Week. They will receive classes on social justice and listen to speakers from different organisations such as CARP (working with drug addicts), SPIRASI (working with refugees and asylum seekers), the Simon Community (working with the homeless) and the Pathways project (working with ex-prisoners).
Care Week Preparation: March 31st – April 4th (See Pictures)
Care Week 2008: April 7th – 11th
Fifth Year Religious Education Programme
"Reflections on the journey towards a mature faith"
The Fifth Year RE Programme aims to continue to build on the foundations of the Transition Year programme by helping students grow towards a mature faith. Thus, the programme modules address key elements of this stage of faith – images of God, a healthy prayer life, mature faith, the need for self-reflection and the integral relationship between faith and justice.
The following modules are presented in Fifth Year:
The Existence of God (Ms. O’Reilly)
This module addresses the key question that is a part of the journey towards a mature faith….does God exist? Students will explore and grapple with the classical arguments for God’s existence and reflect upon the signs of God’s presence in the world today. They will examine the relationship between science and religion and further reflect upon the reality of God through contemporary media and literature.
Praying Prayer (Mr. McCauley)
An integral aspect of a mature faith is the importance of prayer. Prayer begins with the question "who am I?" and situates this question in relation to others and God. This module explores traditional and contemporary prayer such as Lectio Divina, the rosary, matins, centring prayer and meditation.
Spiritual Reflection - On self, others and God (Ms. Carroll)
The belief that "the unreflected life is not worth living," is the basis of this module. Self-awareness is an important factor in mature faith and this module gives the student an opportunity to take time to reflect upon his relationship with self, others and God. This is done through group work, meditation (focusing on the unique gifts of each individual), the enneagram and the use of Prognoff’s Journaling.
Justice and the Individual (Mr. Geraghty)
This module challenges the students to look at themselves and ask the fundamental question – am I a just person? This is done by exploring their own personhood and giving the students input on character building and behaviour. Moreover, students will reflect upon individual and communal justice, the process of decision-making and the importance of an informed conscience in this process.
Being A Christian Today (Mr. McCabe)
There is no question that being a Christian today can be difficult especially for young people. This module helps the students to explore the challenges of being a Christian in today’s world and offers fresh insights into facing these challenges by returning to the person of Jesus and applying his teaching to the students’ lived experience.
World Religions (Mr. O’Connor)
To develop a mature faith, one must not only learn from his/her own tradition but also glean from the wisdom/truths found in other world faiths. This module explores world faiths such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism etc in order to acquaint the students with their beliefs and practices, explore their links with Christianity so as to give students an appreciation of their common beliefs and foster an openness and understanding to the differences between them.
Sixth Year Religious Education Programme
"Bread for the Journey"
The focus of the Sixth Year RE Programme is to give the students a firm grounding in faith and spirituality, building on the solid foundations laid down by their previous five years of religious education, that will nourish them as they leave Terenure College to embark on their life journey.
The students will be offered opportunities to discuss their faith, religious beliefs, spirituality and life experiences with their teachers and each other. Essentially, this will be a dialogue that hopes to enrich and challenge their faith and religious beliefs.
Structure:
(i) Double-Class
Small Groups
The teacher facilitates a discussion on a pre-prepared topic connected with the student’s life experiences and faith. Both students and teachers are active participants in a "learning" and "teaching" situation.
Large Groups
Throughout the year speakers will be invited to give a presentation to the year on various issues. Some topics addressed by speakers will be disability, alcoholism, sexual attitudes, homelessness, world poverty, refugees/asylum seekers, sex trafficking and prostitution etc. These talks aim to challenge the students’ attitudes to the above issues and to help them seek a meaningful Christian response to them. (See pictures)
(ii) Single Class
Teachers will take a class group for five single classes and present a module for student discussion and reflection. The following modules will be presented:
Scripture Study: John’s Gospel (Mr. O’Connor)
In this module, the students will explore the historical background and themes contained within the Gospel. They will study and reflect upon how Jesus is revealed in the gospel and learn from the various encounters that people have with the Johannine Jesus. This gospel is one the student can identify with as it deals with questioning, scepticism and the real meaning of faith. Just as in the gospel, the students will be challenged in this module to make their own response to Christ.
Building Self-Esteem (Ms. O’ Reilly)
Integral to mature development and a holistic spirituality is the need for healthy self-esteem. This module allows the students to look at their hopes and goals for the present and the future and gives them the opportunity to examine what personal qualities will achieve these goals and how these qualities can be used to better themselves and others. Through the study of poetry, students will be able to reflect on how we often hide who we really are and how we really feel. This module offers the student a firm grounding in how to develop positive self-esteem for their journey ahead.
Meditation (Ms. Carroll)
In this module, the students will be taught the importance and benefit of quiet and reflective time and prayer. Through the meditative techniques of breathing, visualisation and centring, the students will learn how to relax and become in touch with themselves and God. Furthermore, this module teaches the students a positive way to deal with life’s stresses.
Perspectives on Relationships (Mr. McCauley)
This module challenges the students to examine their attitudes to and their experience of relationships. Notably the students explore the differences between male and female relationships, their relationships with fathers and their attitudes towards love and sex. The module aims to promote the need for respect and understanding in regard to relationships. Fundamentally, the module begins with the premise that that an important ingredient for a successful life is good, sound relationships.
Jesus (Mr. McCabe)
This module studies the person of Jesus in a historical and theological light. The students will explore the Jesus of history (e.g. background, historical sources, miracles, death) and wrestle with the mystery of the resurrection (e.g. redemption, does it mean anything?). They will explore popular images of Jesus and the cultural challenges that are found in today’s society. Essentially, the students will be challenged to look at their own beliefs about Jesus and answer the fundamental question "Who do you say that I am?"
Growing in Knowledge of Self (Fr. Eoin)
In this module, students come to an appreciation of their strengths, weaknesses and possibilities, grounded in their Christian faith with the assistance of personality indicators. The modules vision is based on Jn 10:10; "I have come that you may have life and have it to the full."
RETREATS
Sixth Year Retreat
Over the last number of years, the sixth year retreats facilitated by RE teachers have been very successful. This retreat allows the students, as a whole year group, to reflect upon the gifts of the Holy Spirit they received in the sacrament of confirmation and to recall, appreciate and celebrate their years in Terenure College. (See Pictures)
Kairos Retreat
The Kairos (meaning God’s time) retreat is also offered to sixth year students. It is an optional four-day retreat and there are a limited number of places available. The retreat, which takes place in Grace Dieu Retreat House in Waterford, is directed by the student’s peers under the guidance of members of the chaplaincy team and the RE faculty. (See PowerPoint).
