Script for Parent Information Night:

Welcome:
Good evening everyone! I would just like to start out by saying a very big thank you for
taking time out of your night to come here, I really appreciate it. We have a very full and
exciting term 3 planned within our Religious Education program.

Just a run through of this evenings plans. We will start with a prayer, then talk about the
unit of work for the next 5 weeks, I will discuss the role of both the student and you as
parents in your child’s Religious Education. I will provide an overview of how I will be
assessing your child throughout the unit and then I will finish up with a questioning session.
In this time, you can address anything you did not understand or need clarifying. I will do my
best to answer any questions.

Before we start, does everyone have a handout. If not, put your hand up and I shall give you
one.

Prayer:

Light candle, prepare a statue of Mary, table cloth, bible - all on the prayer table

We gather today to celebrate that we can show love as Mary did and love our parents and
families by doing what is good for them, as Jesus asks us to.

We remember how Mary was strengthened by the Holy Spirit to say “yes” to being the
mother of Jesus. We remember that Jesus always loved and obeyed Mary and Joseph when
he was a child.

Hail Mary, full of grace.

Our Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

I invite you to reflect on times you have shown love towards your family and friends. How
has someone showed you love?

I will now read another pray in response to our reflection and focus on love.

Dear God,

We thank you for the gift of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
 We thank you, too, for Jesus who
teaches us that God calls us to love our families by working out and doing what is best for
them. We pray that we may always try to do this and be loving members of our
families.
 Amen.


Those gathered make the Sign of the Cross.


I chose to use this prayer tonight, as Mary the mother of Jesus plays a large role in our unit
of work. Mary was given strength from the Holy Spirit which guided her to love all even
when times were hard.

Unit of Work:
The unit of Work we are focusing on during this term is called Empowered to Love and it
links to the Sacrament of Confirmation.

One of the most important things in a human’s life is to love and to feel loved. To empower
people to love, Jesus shares with his followers, his Church and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit
gives us the strength to love even when times are hard, the Holy Spirit is strengthened
through the Sacrament of Confirmation. This unit of work will begin the preparation for
Confirmation, which your child will receive in the coming years.

The unit of work is broken into three main focus areas. The focus areas include: the human
experience of love, how the Holy Spirit strengthened Mary to love personally and finally,
ways in which Christians are called to love their parents. I will give a brief outline of what we
will be covering in those areas.

Human Experience of Love: In the first topic, we will cover what love means and it is
important to emphasise that love means different things to different people. We will be
discussing and sharing ways people can love for others by doing what is good for them. A
very important topic to discuss is that sometimes we show love in ways that do not please
others. Children need to understand that we cannot always please everyone. This may be
relevant at home when your child wants to stay up late on a school night, but because you
love them you make sure they get a good night of sleep so you send them to bed at a
reasonable hour. We will also explain the circle of love - this demonstrates appropriate ways
to love people, as we don’t show love to everyone in the same way. The love circle includes
strangers, acquaintances, friends, family and themselves. Once students have an
understanding of love, we will move onto discussing that God loves each of us personally.
We will be discussing what God has given us to demonstrate that he loves us. After we focus
on the human experience, we will move onto Jesus’ love for us personally and how the Holy
Spirit Strengthens us.

Jesus Loved us personally: This topic focuses highly on Jesus’ love for Mary and Joseph and
the ways he showed his love. Then it moves onto how the Holy Spirit helps his followers to
love personally. In the beginning of this part the students will be focusing closely on one
scripture text - called Jesus in the Temple. I will be breaking down the story for the students
so they gain a full understanding of the text. Students will be able to identify how Jesus
demonstrated his love towards his parents. We will then move onto unloving behaviour -
students will have to identify what it means and examples of unloving behaviour. We will
then use that information to explain that with the Holy Spirit, we are given the strength to
overcome unloving behaviour and show loving behaviour only.

Ways in which Christians are called to love their parents: The last topic in this unit of work
focuses on ways in which Christians are called to love their parents personally. During this
part of the unit students will be looking closely at scripture stories and how they strengthen
our love. In our stories, we will focus on Mary and her hardships in life and how she used
the Holy Spirit to strengthen herself to love personally. Students will then look at examples
of how Jesus’ followers love their parents - students will have a personal input here. They
will discuss how they love you as parents personally. Then we will finish the unit with a
revision task.

Throughout this unit of work, I will be providing various tasks to teach out content, this will
give each student the opportunity to succeed. I have tried to limit the amount of writing,
but of course it is still an important skill that needs to be practised. In our religion sessions,
there will be a lot of discussions and brainstorming, which our students know we respect
everyone’s opinions. There is also a lot of drawing and creation activities. I will be mixing it
between singular, pair, group and whole class work throughout the unit.

So that is an overview of the unit - now I will discuss the different roles.

Role of the Student:

The role of the student is to be present and always try their hardest in the Religious
Education lessons. When we have class discussion and are doing group work, I ask that the
students are active participants. This means that I want them to answer questions, give
ideas and ask questions when they don’t understand a part of the learning topic. I want
students to be accountable for their learning. By this I mean take responsibility of their
behaviour - listening during mat sessions and discussions, don’t call out and respect other
students in the class. In terms of accountability for their learning - I want them to complete
all tasks and make sure it is the best work they can do. I want students to engage in this unit
of work and ensure they get the most out of it.

Role of the Parents:

As parents, you play a very big role in your child’s success and learning! You are your child’s
role model, so I ask that you work alongside us during Religious Education and help students
where possible. As love is our topic of the unit of work, when at home talk about the term
love. Identify ways you demonstrate love in your house. Tell your kids you love them and
why. If you are doing something at home that doesn’t please your child, discuss with them
that you are doing it out of love. Children will then make the link from the class to home. If
you have a spare couple of minutes for bed, instead of watching TV or going on iPad’s read
your child some scripture. If you need help finding any I am more than welcome to provide
that. During the reading, wonder with the children, how does this demonstrate love?
Another way you can help your child succeed, is by sharing personal experiences about love.
What does love mean to you? How do you show love? When is a time you found it hard to
love, but the Holy Spirit guided you?

Assessment:
Let’s now discuss the “dreaded” word of assessment. I just want to emphasise, please do
not stress about assessments. I do not want your children or you to stress about them. The
purpose of assessment is for me, as the teacher, to gain an understanding of how well your
student is doing throughout the unit of work. I use the data gained from the assessments to
plan my teaching. If I notice a large percentage of students are struggling with a topic
covered, I will replan my lessons to go back and reteach that topic in another way. It also
helps me understand in what way the students best learn. This could be group work,
discussions etc

I want to make very clear that I am not assessing the child’s belief on the Catholic faith,
rather I am assessing their knowledge and skills gained throughout the Religious Education
Program.

I have included various types of assessment for the students so they have the ability to
shine utilising their own learning style. As an example, I will be using work samples,
discussions, role playing and pieces of art to assess the students’ knowledge.

Work samples are any writing or activity sheet that we complete throughout the unit of
work, such as their wonder cloud (appendix 7). On this wonder cloud, they have to answer
the question, “What does it mean that Mary is filled with the Holy Spirit”. Which we would
have focused on in that lesson.

Discussions are any conversations we have throughout the lesson, these can be both formal
and informal. In Religious Education, we have a lot of conversations about the topics to
ensure that students are gaining a full understanding. I would write my own notes on
anything interesting or important that the child says.

Role playing is the acting we complete in Religious Education. Within this 5-week unit, the
students will be given two opportunities to take part in role playing. They will work in
groups to demonstrate unloving vs loving behaviour. I would record the role play on my iPad
so that I can re-watch at a later stage.

The art pieces are drawings that students complete during the unit. It is an interesting task
to get students to draw what a particular topic means to them. It gives me, as the teacher,
an understanding of their perspective. Each person takes a different meaning from a
scripture text or religious teaching.

In terms of marking the student’s assessment pieces, I will be utilising checklists, rubrics and
anecdotal notes. I will choose an assessment tool that is most appropriate for the task.
Checklists are usually used for tasks that have a simple yes or no answer. Rubrics are used
for more in depth tasks, in which the students can have very different end products.
At the end of the semester, I will be reporting on the Religious Education band, utilising the
A-E reporting scale. This is for an overall grade of where your student is sitting. I will also
provide a comment on your child’s progress.

Questions:
Does anyone have any questions about anything I covered tonight?

Conclusion:
That is all for tonight’s Religious Education Parent Information Night! Thank you so much
once again for taking time out of your night to come here. I hope you all have a better
understanding of the first unit of work for Term 3. If you have anything you want to
personally ask me, feel free to stay back after everyone leaves or book an appointment with
me for a later time.

Thank you, drive safe! I shall see you tomorrow for another exciting day with your children.