Curriculum Intent
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 students to experience the joy of success. Our intent is to provide an academic RE curriculum that enables students’ to hold balanced and informed conversations about religion and worldviews*.
Our aims and vision for RS fulfils the Church of England’s statement of entitlement. “In a Church school the pupils and their families can expect an RE curriculum that enables pupils to acquire a rich, deep knowledge and understanding of Christian belief and practice, this should include the ways in which it is unique and diverse”. RE statement of Entitlement for Church of England page 2. [1]This is assisted through our use of the Understanding Christianity units in key stage three.
* A person’s way of understanding, experiencing and responding to the world. It can be understood as a philosophy of life or an approach to life. This may also include religions as well as Humanism, Secularism and Atheism or a personal world view.
[1] https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/RE%20Statement%20of%20Entitlement%20for%20Church%20Schools.pdf
Student Learning Journey
As a Church of England School, students in Key Stage Three will learn in the main Christianity (at least 50% of curriculum time) in each year. They will know and understand about Christianity as a diverse global living faith. They will also gain knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and worldviews showing appreciation of diversity, continuity and change within those being studied. As well as showing an understanding how religion has a continuing influence on Britain’s cultural heritage and in the lives of individuals and societies, in different times, cultures and places. They will also explore their own world views and how they have been influenced by religious, spiritual and philosophical ways of living, believing and thinking.
At Key Stage Four, in line with the Churches requirements all students who are in mainstream education follow full course AQA GCSE RS; non contextual studies Christianity and Islam. As in Key Stage Three, students will continue to explore through this course what it means to be a Christian in a local, national and global context. Alongside understanding how belonging to a religious worldview affects beliefs and behaviours. This is for both Christianity and Islam. Students will also understand and evaluate how these truth claims affect attitudes to ethical issues through the thematic paper studied.
In Year 7 students will initially focusing on introducing the concept of world views and the different disciplines within Religious Education that they will encounter and develop throughout their time with us. They will begin to develop an understanding of Christianity following the Understanding Christianity course from REToday. Beginning to develop an understanding that Christianity is a diverse living faith. Students will also explore what it means to be Jewish today and make connections with Christian teachings. They will begin to look Islam as an Abrahamic faith and what it means to be a Muslim today.
In Year 8 students will build on developing their understanding of Christianity through units from the Understanding Christianity course. This will help further develop their understanding of Christianity as a diverse living faith. Students will also explore two other Dharmic faiths of Hinduims, Buddhism and Sikhism and how these worldviews impact the way in which believers act. They will reflect on the social sciences discipline of Religious Education through REToday’s Anti-Racist RE. Students will continue to develop their understanding of the truth claims explored and evaluate them. They will also be given opportunities to reflect on how their worldviews are impacted or altered by these.
By Year 9 students should be able to understand and evaluate the impact that Christian beliefs have on the way in which is a lived diverse faith through the remaining Understanding Christianity units. Students will understand that Christian beliefs and practices also differ locally, nationally or globally. They will also continue to explore in more depth the other disciplines in RE of philosophy and social sciences. As in previous years students will be given opportunities to reflect and evaluate these truth claims and assess the impact, if any they have their own worldviews.
At KS4, students complete an in depth study of Christianity and Islam as well as ethical issues. The AQA syllabus is studied, this offers an interesting and engaging balance between theological study and ethical consideration that provides scope to teach beyond the test. The schedule for teaching the content of the course encourages students to revisit theological topics (Year 10) during the ethical modules (Year 11), preparing them for their final examination. The assessment methods provide the opportunity for students to engage well with the subject material. And enhance their abilities to evaluate worldviews, including those of a religious nature and their own. Students within the EAL provision will follow an alternative curriculum offer. They will complete the RE units of the WJEC Humanities Entry Pathways level 2 or 3. Students will complete the following units; festivals, places of worship and people who have experienced discrimination. Specifically focus on Christian and Muslim experiences.
In line with the Church of England’s Statement of Entitlement, all students who embark on KS5 courses will attend two drop days. In year 12, students will complete the first of the two days understanding different religious world views from local faith communities. In year 13, students will complete a visit to Westminster Abbey and the National Gallery to examine the role and impact of the Christian Church.
How is Religious Education taught?
Depending on the topic being covered lessons will either start with a retrieval practice task or a stimulant that leads into the learning for the lesson. And an introduction to tier two and three words linked to the lesson content. Students will then be introduced to new beliefs/concepts followed by a discussion with high order questioning. Tasks set will be based on new content and linking to beliefs/behaviour/belonging to the world views being studied. Students will evaluate the truth claims and reflect on their worldviews. Throughout the lesson mini plenaries will be carried out to check progress so far and find out what learning has taken place.
At key stage four, lessons will also include sources of authority linked to the content as well as practice exam questions. This is also true at Key Stage Five. *
Lessons will finish with a plenary that enables the teacher to assess the students understanding of the concepts covered and inform any future planning and assessment. This is often a practice exam question at Key Stage Four and Five in line with the exam board requirements.
*Where appropriate lessons will involve modelling and scaffolding of exam style questions.
Homelearning in Religious Education
Homelearning is set in accordance with school policy with one piece being set each week and should take no longer then twenty to thirty minutes to complete. It will either consist of practising previously taught content or preparation for the next lesson. Homelearning is set to help students consolidate learning and enhance their long term memory through retrieval practice.
At Key Stage Three, most tasks will be based on the lesson content. Such as creating a piece of art work based on concept/ belief studied, guided research about an issue/topic or learning key vocabulary for low stakes quizzing. In Key Stage Four, tasks will be one of the following; short exam based practice questions, preparing by learning vocabulary or low-stake quizzes. And in Key Stage Five, homelearning will consist one of the following for each paper; learning key vocabulary, reading material in advance for the lesson or practice exam questions.
