Religious Education

Welcome to the Religious Education department

Teachers

Miss Feltham

Mrs Hassett

How the Religious Education Curriculum has been adapted following the Covid-19 Pandemic

Following the Covid-19 pandemic we have adapted our curriculum to offer students more opportunities to explain their views orally through presentations, class discussion and debates. We have found that their communication skills with their peers are struggling due to remote learning for long periods and we want to address this.

We have added ponder time to all year groups this academic year to continue to build students skills at independent learning but also their ability to use their own initiative as remote learning work in some cases was very prescriptive.

Religious Education

Religious Education at The Bay CE School is not just about learning about religions. This subject is all about learning about yourself, giving you the opportunity to explore your own views, opinions and beliefs. It involves a lot of oral work with lots of debates and discussions surrounding your views and the reasons you have for these ideas. We will challenge stereotypes found in our society and beyond, explore different cultural views as well as religious belief systems and make comparisons between our beliefs and those that are important to others. We will cover a range of topics, not all will be based on a single religion or faith, while developing the five core skills in RE through enquiry based learning. You will be challenged to not only explain but to evaluate, demonstrating an understanding of a range of views in detail and having the ability to then weigh these up and come to your own conclusions which you are able to back up with evidence.

All students will do Core RE in every year group. On top of this students can also opt to do GCSE Religious Studies in Years 10 and 11.

Click here to view the Whole School RE Curriculum. Click here to view the Parent Guide to Living Difference IV and Understanding Christianity

Core RE

Phase 2 (Years 7, 8 and 9)

Year 7 Topics

Autumn

Introduction to RE.

The cycles of enquiry will be; Truth, Commitment and Hope.

Buddhist beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Dukkha, Nirvana and Sangha.

Spring

Buddhist beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Dukkha, Nirvana and Sangha.

Christian beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Agape, God and Church

Summer

Christian beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Agape, God and Church

Ponder Time

An Independent Project where they pick their own question. In year 7 this is under the general heading of parables.

Year 8 Topics

Autumn

Jewish teachings and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Torah, Tradition and Remembrance.

Ponder Time

An Independent Project where they pick their own question. In year 8 this is under the general heading of persecution and will link with the work just studied on the Holocaust in the Remembrance cycle.

Spring

The World

The cycles of enquiry will be; Care, Serve, Protect.

The World

The cycles of enquiry will be; Care, Serve, Protect.

Summer

Christianity

The cycles of enquiry will be; Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Atonement.

Christianity

The cycles of enquiry will be; Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Atonement.

Year 9 Topics

Autumn

Muslim beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Islam, Ummah and Jihad

Muslim beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Islam, Ummah and Jihad

Spring

Medical Ethics

The cycles of enquiry will be; Life, Choice and Death.

GCSE taster sessions will be run for three lessons so students can make an informed decision about whether they would like to do the additional GCSE RS.

Ponder Time

An Independent Project where they pick their own question. In year 9 this is under the general heading of ethical choices.

Summer

Christian beliefs and teachings

The cycles of enquiry will be; Authority, Prayer and Sacrament

Christian beliefs and teachings

The cycles of enquiry will be; Authority, Prayer and Sacrament

Phase 3 (Years 10 and 11)

Year 10 Topics

Autumn

Humanism

The cycles of enquiry will be; Rationalism, Responsibility and Value of Life.

Humanism

The cycles of enquiry will be; Rationalism, Responsibility and Value of Life.

Spring

Philosophy of religion

The cycles of enquiry will be; Existence. Design and Evil

Philosophy of religion

The cycles of enquiry will be; Existence. Design and Evil

Summer

Ponder Time

An Independent Project where they pick their own question. In year 10 students are free to choose any belief system (present or more historical) of their choice and come up with a question about it they wish to answer.

Jesus

The cycles of enquiry will be; Incarnation, Gospel and Salvation

Year 11 Topics

Autumn

Buddhist Ethics (a comparison with Christianity)

The cycles of enquiry will be; Metta, Karuna and Stewardship

The Elements (a comparison with Christianity)

The cycles of enquiry will be Fire, Water and Earth and feature a range of belief systems including Zoroastrianism, Wicca and Baha’i.

Spring

The Elements

The cycles of enquiry will be Fire, Water and Earth and feature a range of belief systems including Zoroastrianism, Wicca and Baha’i.

Ponder Time

GCSE Option AQA Religious Studies

Year 10 Topics

	Term 1	Term 2
Autumn	Christian Beliefs	Buddhist Beliefs
Spring	Theme E: Crime and Punishment	Theme A: Relationships and Families
Summer	Theme A: Relationships and Families	Buddhist Practices

Year 11 Topics

	Term 1	Term 2
Autumn	Christian Practices	Theme D: War, Peace and Conflict
Spring	Theme D: War, Peace and Conflict	Theme F: Human rights and social justice.
Summer	Revision of content and examination practice	N/A Examinations are both in May.

Support available

Websites

The school has set up a google classroom for students to use.

Pixl and GCSE pod can only be used for Christianity (25% of the course).

Intervention

For the GCSE option students additional lessons are held one evening a week and one lunch time a week (dependant on the year group).

How parents can support

Homework	Year 11 students have a short activity (no longer than 12 minutes) to complete every week day from September to the date of the examination. They had paper copies and also available on the google classroom. GCSE students also get regular homework. Core students get a homework project every term.
Reading	Revision Reading made by staff are provided for all 8 units in the GCSE.
Revision Guide	AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (9-1) Christianity and Buddhism revision guide. (Oxford University Press). This is one comprehensive guide which covers all the content in both the GCSE exams. We recommend all students purchase this at the start of the course and do not wait till year 11 to do so.
Exam Practice	Year 11 receives daily activities. Walking talking mocks are embedded the schemes of learning for all GCSE students. We also do exam practice regularly in lessons.
Resources	As well as the revision guides Oxford University Press have produced workbooks to help students revise. We will be using these. We make revision reading books for each unit of the GCSE in house too. These are more individu ally designed to cater for different students and will include exam practice and questions to use to check their reading.

Career Opportunities

Religious Studies encourages a number of skills which are useful in many fields, developing particularly the following skills:

clear and logical thinking
research skills
planning and organising
evaluation of ideas
applying abstract ideas to the world
an ability to empathise and understand conflict
problem-solving skills
understanding of the impact of conflicting ideologies
an appreciation of human diversity, different belief structures, social, cultural and spiritual experiences

These skills are particularly useful for future careers in law, education, social work, politics, medicine, administration, the civil service, public services such as nursing or the police, or the media.