Religious Education

Teaching Staff: Chris Vaughan, Vicky Downing, Charlotte Hill, Margaret Stockton.

All that we do in Religious Education aims to fulfil the two attainment targets as stated in the Cornwall Agreed Syllabus:

• Learning about Religion
• Learning from Religion

The faiths studied in KS3 are Christianity, Islam and Buddhism
Schemes of work are written to fulfil the Cornwall Agreed Syllabus that is up-dated every five years.

An outline of work covered:

Year 7

• Religious education – what it is and what it is not.
• Philosophy and Religion – arguments for and against the existence of God.
• Who was Jesus – looking at the historical figure of Jesus and his importance in the lives of Christians.
• Buddhism- The figure of Siddhartha Gautama, the 4 sights, the noble eightfold path, five precepts and Holy Scriptures.

Year 8

• The journey of life, a study of rites of passage in both Christianity and Islam
• Festivals
• Places of worship and pilgrimage

Year 9

• Moral issues- a study of how and why we make difficult moral decisions including the principle of utilitarianism.
• Animals and the environment
• Religion and Cornwall
• Making ready for year 10- Christianity and Islam core beliefs

Year 10

• Students have the option of following the G.C.S.E short course examination. The exam board we follow is Edexcel. Units covered include:
• Believing in God
• Matters of life and death
• Marriage and the family
• Social Harmony
• Religion, wealth and poverty.

Year 11

Students have the chance to take a second Short Course G.C.S.E qualification. If this is in addition to the year ten course, students will have a full G.C.S.E

We are a small but successful department and G.C.S.E results have been consistently way above the national average. Students very much enjoy their R.E lessons and we are constantly trying different teaching and learning styles to make this subject relevant and accessible to all.