Religious Education

Religious Education Reading List

Religious Education:

Overview

RE aims to deepen the knowledge and understanding that students have of the world's major religions, whilst also helping students to become enquiring and inquisitive individuals, who are curious about the world around them.  Students are encouraged to consider, explore and discuss their own viewpoints on different ethical and philosophical issues, whilst also considering those from different religious or non-religious viewpoints.

Key Stage 3:

In Year 7, we explore the Abrahamic faiths, where we learn in-depth the beliefs, teachings and practices of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We find out how these three large monotheistic religions all link together and share much of the same source material.

In Year 8, we focus on the eastern religions, where we explore the beliefs, teachings and practices of Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Students will explore eastern concepts such as reincarnation and karma as well as learning about beautiful temples and the captivating lives of Buddha and Guru Nanak.

In Year 9, we look at themes and ideas across a range of religions. For example, we explore different beliefs about the afterlife, music and art, the Palestinian conflict, famous religious leaders and the representation of religion in film and media.

Key Stage 4

Over years ten and eleven, students study for their Religious Studies GCSE (AQA board, specification A).

The first part of the course focuses on the study of two religions; Christianity and Islam. We learn, analyse and evaluate the key beliefs, teachings and practices for each religion. All this learning is assessed in Paper I, an exam which lasts one hour and 45 minutes.

The second part of the course focuses on thematic studies, where we begin to apply religious viewpoints to ethical and philosophical issues. The themes we explore are relationships and families, religion and life, the existence of God, and peace and conflict. This content is assessed in Paper II, which is also one hour and 45 minutes long.

Key Stage 5:

From this September we will be teaching the excellent OCR Religious Studies A-level course.

The course consists of three components:

• Philosophy of religion: ancient Greek philosophers, the nature of the soul, arguments for God and their critics, the problem of evil, the nature of God and religious language. Assessed over a two-hour exam.

• Religion and ethics: normative ethical theories, the application of ethical theory to two contemporary issues of importance, ethical language and thought, debates surrounding the significant idea of conscience and sexual ethics. Assessed over a two-hour exam.

• Developments in religious thought: religious beliefs, values and teachings, their interconnections and how they vary historically and in the contemporary world, sources of religious wisdom and authority, practices which shape and express religious identity, and how these vary within a tradition, significant social and historical developments in theology and religious thought, key themes related to the relationship between religion and society. Assessed over a two-hour exam.

Please speak to the Head of RE for more information about A-level.