Religious Education
In religious education (RE), pupils enter into a rich discourse about the religious and non-religious traditions that have shaped Great Britain and the world. RE enables pupils to take their place within a diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society. At its best, it is intellectually challenging and personally enriching. It affords pupils both the opportunity to see the religion and non-religion in the world, and the opportunity to make sense of their own place in that world. The evolution of society’s religious and non-religious landscape highlights that it is all the more important for pupils to build up accurate knowledge of the complexity and diversity of global religion and non-religion. It supports spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils. It considers pupils’ recognition of different people’s values, feelings, faith and ways of living and contributes to personal development. Religious education plays a key role in promoting social cohesion and the virtues of respect and empathy, which are important in our diverse society.
The whole-school curriculum operates at three levels and addresses pupils’ academic, personal and social development. The three individual elements of learning provide a different component to the education of every pupil. Intellectual, personal and social maturity will be the goal of these structured layers of learning at the school. There are three guiding elements which are brought to life in the RE curriculum:
- Educational excellence:
- RE teachers ensure a clear connection between the ‘ways of knowing’ that pupils learn, the ‘personal knowledge’ that pupils develop through the curriculum and the substantive content and concepts on which both depend.
- Character development:
- RE affords pupils both the opportunity to see the religion and non-religion in the world, and the opportunity to make sense of their own place in that world.
- Service to communities:
- Pupils build up accurate knowledge about the complexity and diversity of global religion and non-religion.
- This provides pupils with many of the ingredients for cultural and civic competencies.
Pupils will learn:
- about the experiences of faith practitioners and people of no faith (substantive knowledge)
- knowledge about religion through participant observation and analysis of text (ways of knowing)
- how to recognise their own assumptions including through the exploration of academic conversation in areas of theology, philosophy, and human and social sciences (personal knowledge and ways of knowing)
- how to apply previously learned generalisations about religion that can be ‘tested’ through an encounter with ‘lived’ faith practitioners (using the internal dynamics and internal plurality of religious traditions to illustrate that religious traditions are not simply one thing)
The following principles underpin the RE curriculum:
- Substantive knowledge, ways of knowing and personal knowledge are the pillars that are simultaneously and are carefully integrated into curriculum planning.
- Precise, detailed and fruitful content (substantive content and concepts) are selected to build pupils’ ‘personal knowledge’. Not all substantive content is equally appropriate to select as the basis for developing pupils’ ‘personal knowledge’.
- Teachers adeptly identify specific content for the development of ‘personal knowledge’ because they recognise that some pupils may not otherwise see the immediate value of that content.
- Conceptual pegs are used to bring the learning to life through narratives, stories and texts, aspects of living religion (such as rituals and cultural artefacts), codified beliefs, arguments, thought experiments and case studies.
- The curriculum introduces pupils to diverse interpretations. Scholarship is promoted through religious and non-religious academic study.
- The curriculum focuses pupils’ learning on ambitious subject-specific end goals, rather than covers excessive amounts of content superficially.
- Teachers are aware of the ways that the RE curriculum can be susceptible to distortion and have ensured that it does not become distorted.
- Teachers make subject-sensitive, ‘fit-for-purpose’ decisions about what is suitable.
Year 7
Pupils will know and understand the origin and sources of religious faith, ways of expression for religious believers and the link to events from the past.
| Says Who? Sources of Authority for Religious Believers (God, Religious Leaders and Holy Books) | How do Religious Believers Show Commitment to Their Faith? (Identity, Worship and Rituals) | How do Religious Believers Remember the Past? (Festivals and Pilgrimage) |
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Year 8
Pupils will know and understand responses to ‘Big Questions’ through the exploration of theological, philosophical and sociological viewpoints.
| Does it Make Sense to Believe in God? | War: What is it Good For? | Why Do We Suffer? | Whose World is it Anyway? |
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| Where Do We Come From? | Where Are We Going? | Is it Ever Right to Do Wrong? | Religious Denominations (Introduction to GCSE RS) |
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Year 9
Pupils will know and understand key religious beliefs and teachings in Islam and Christianity. Pupils will know and understand how Muslims and Christians practice their faith. Pupils will know and understand the plurality of belief and practice within these faith groups.
| Christianity: Beliefs and Teachings | Christianity: Practices | Islam: Beliefs & Teachings | Islam: Practices |
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Year 10
Pupils will know and understand responses to contemporary issues through the exploration of theological, philosophical and sociological viewpoints.
| Theme A: Relationships and Family | Theme B: Religion and life | Theme D: Peace and conflict | Theme E: Crime and punishment |
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AQA Religious Studies A 8400
Paper 1: The study of religions: beliefs, teaching and practices
| Overview | Focus |
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Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes 96 marks, plus 6 marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) 50% of GCSE |
Beliefs, teachings and practices: Islam, Christianity.
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Paper 2: Thematic studies
| Overview | Focus |
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Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes 96 marks, plus 6 marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPaG) 50% of GCSE |
Religious, philosophical and ethical studies themes:
Each theme has a common structure of one five-part question of 1, 2, 4, 5 and 12 marks. Each theme is marked out of 24. |
- Faith Trail in Liverpool – Church, Cathedral and first functioning mosque in Liverpool
- Local church visit – St Thomas’ Church is in Eskrick Street, Halliwell, a residential area of Bolton.
- At KS4, pupils are invited to intervention sessions to consolidate their learning and prepare them for the GCSE examination. Every Monday we have RS targeted intervention to support students and help them to close the gap, address any misconceptions.
- Support the Anna Franks Holocaust memorial every year. Students represent Eden Boys school by lighting a candle and by writing and reading out a poem for Bolton Holocaust memorial event.
- Every Thursday – students can attend mindful colouring to help their mental and physical wellbeing.
- Religious organisations
- National and local government, including the Civil Service and government agencies, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
- schools, colleges and universities (for teaching, research and administrative positions)
- charities, voluntary and not-for-profit organisations
- social services and other caring professions
- the National Health Service (NHS) in a chaplaincy role
