The Religious Studies Department is made up of two different subjects, these are Philosophy and Beliefs and Religious Studies.
Our intent is for students to have an awareness of the multi faith world around them, to learn about and from religious beliefs and to develop the questioning and critical skills needed to understand the complex world we live in.
We use the Somerset Agreed Syllabus as our starting point – (http://www.amvsomerset.org.uk/). The Locally Agreed Syllabus adapted to the needs of our students, being a rural community in relatively monocultural Somerset it is important to give students the cultural capital they need to take their place in modern British society.
The major world religions represented by our Schemes of work are:
There are opportunities to study philosophical arguments and Ethical theories – so pedagogical techniques that encourage questioning and freethinking (like Philosophy for Children – P4C) techniques are used in when students start Year 7. The focus at KS3 is to give students the possibility to question – learning debating skills, research methods and formulating reasoned opinions. This approach is supplemented by students both ‘learning from’ religion and ‘learning about’ religion. These approaches enable students to fully access the skills and understanding to access the GCSE courses. See details in RE Progress Overview Sheets.
Having followed either the SC GCSE AQA course, or the full GCSE AQA course, students are able to access Level 4 courses and have a foundational understanding of Christianity and /or Islam. This again gives students the cultural capital they need to be good citizens. Many skills in our subject are transferable to employment- communication, research, critical thinking. (See details in RE Progress Overview Sheets)
The non-judgmental, open approach we use in our pedagogy addresses social disadvantage and provides equal opportunities by discussing relevant ethical and philosophical issues. Pupils develop resilience as part of their journey through RE. There are very challenging topics to discuss, respond to and evaluate. From the start of Year 7 the onus is on students to take charge of their own learning, through investigative schemes of work, groupwork and challenges.
These include:
