God’s Loving Plan is the title of a document published by the Scottish Catholic Education Service to give guidance on the teaching of relationships education in Catholic primary schools in Scotland. The first draft of this document is now under revision, following comments recevied during consultation. It is anticipated that the docment will be published in final form in early September 2014.

Background

Christian moral teaching positively affirms all human life as precious and worthy of development.  Based on the belief that all people are created in God’s image and are loved in a unique way by God, our faith encourages us to appreciate the value of our lives, to develop self-respect and to live life to the full, as God intended.  So, the basis of Christian morality is that God has a loving plan for each of us – to help us to find love in our relationships with family, with friends and, for some, in the lifelong, exclusive loving relationship which is marriage.

Parents are the very first teachers of their children and they must take responsibility for helping their children to know their own worth and to know that their lives are precious to God.  Working with parents, teachers play a very significant role in helping children to inform their consciences, to understand God’s loving plan and to follow it throughout their lives.

Themes

God’s Loving Plan uses four main themes to organise the learning experiences and outcomes:

• God gives me life.
• God delights in me.
• God calls me to love.
• God’s loving plan guides my choices.

Using these themes, it groups together the relevant core learning from This Is Our Faith, with the experiences and outcomes from RERC and HWB.  In this way it indicates how, in the Catholic school, appropriate coverage of the religious education curriculum can also overtake the Health & Wellbeing E/Os which relate to relationships and parenthood.