Religious Education

Religious Education

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The school’s vision and educational aims for religious education are to provide a rigorous academic curriculum that is ambitious, challenging, enriching and inclusive.

We aim to develop young people with a high level of religious interpretation and an understanding of the social, historical, political and cultural factors which impact religious and non religious belief and expression.

 

The school’s vision and educational aims for religious education are to provide a rigorous academic curriculum that is ambitious, challenging, enriching and inclusive. 

This is in line with the school’s aim to encourage high aspirations in order to maximise progress and to enable all pupils to experience the joy of success in an inclusive environment.

Our aims and vision for RE also reflect the intent of the locally agreed syllabus which are to support pupils’ personal search for meaning by delivering engaging, interactive and engaging lessons to build excellence and resilience in all our students.

Our intent is to provide an academic RE curriculum that enables pupils to hold balanced and informed conversations about religion and worldviews.

Year 7 Curriculum

Term Topic and key questions
Autumn 1

Bridging unit from RE at primary school. This unit covers an introduction to studying RE and philosophy at secondary

school, the role of religion in society and where and how people worship God. Students will begin to develop key thinking skills to analyse the impact of faith on a believer.
Autumn 2

Holy Books and Sacred texts. Students will explore why religious writings are important to believers. Students will

explore sacred texts in different religions before analyzing

and evaluating their significance for believers and non- believers.
Spring 1 Rites of passage. In this unit students will learn what rites of passage are and study a number in depth exploring how rites of passage mark key events within different faiths and the impact on the development of an individual. Students will look at how the beliefs of different faiths affect the rites of passage and how this is shown in the events.
Spring 2
Summer 1 Faith study – Buddhism. Students will look in depth at Buddhism as a religion and a philosophy. Students will look at the origins of the faith, key beliefs and how this philosophy affects the life of a Buddhist.
Summer 2

Pilgrimage and the effect on a person. Students will learn what a pilgrimage is and look at examples in different faiths

of pilgrimage. In each they will analyse and evaluate the impact on a believer and their faith.

Year 8 Curriculum

Term Topic and key questions
Autumn 1 Wealth, poverty and equality. This unit introduces students to issues over the differences in wealth across the world and different religious viewpoints on issues of equality. During this unit we also look at prejudice and discrimination and how religions work to challenge this.
Autumn 2
Spring 1 Festivals. In this unit we explore different religious festivals celebrated in the UK and worldwide. We will begin to explore the variations within religions and how different beliefs are demonstrated in the practices of festivals. We have in depth studies looking at Christmas, Eid, Passover and Easter. In the in depth studies students will explore the relationship with the story behind the festival and how current practices today reflect the religious belief of followers. We will explore what questions might be raised by non-believers.
Spring 2
Summer 1 Philosophy and the problem of Evil.  This unit is a philosophical study into a variety of topics, concluding with an investigation to explore why some people may lose faith in God when bad things happen. We explore the nature of faith and how people may question God as all-loving and all-powerful. We then go on to explore religious reasons for not losing faith and critically assess how effective these are at countering the problem of evil. 
Summer 2 Religion, conflict  and war. In this unit we look at the relationship between religion and conflict over the last 2000 years.. Students are taught to discuss and interact with the topic sensitively and objectively to help with promoting a positive, cohesive community. We explore why some people link different religious groups with peace, conflict and war, and how others challenge this thinking.

Year 9 Curriculum

Term GCSE Units
Autumn Christian beliefs
Spring Muslim Beliefs
Summer Living the Christian life

Year 10 Curriculum

Term GCSE Units
Autumn Living the Muslim Life
Spring 1

Crime and punishment

Peace and Conflict
Spring 2
Summer Marriage and Family
Summer 2 Revision and Mock exam

Year 11 Curriculum

Term GCSE Units
Autumn Matters of life and death
Spring Revision and Mock exam
Summer Recap and GCSE Exam
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