Religious Education
Overview
The Religious Education department aims to give students the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge of Christianity and other faiths that are represented in Great Britain. It provides them with a ‘space’ to reflect upon, and express, their personal beliefs, and those of others. Religious Education enables students to develop skills such as using key terminology, knowledge of beliefs, teachings and traditions, understanding, explanation, prediction, interpretation, synthesis, analysis and evaluation. During their time at Grace Academy, students study a variety of units to enable them to develop and extend their knowledge, and make links between concepts, whilst developing skills that will be key to them building on in their future pathways.
Within Religious Education, we operate a spiral curriculum, and topics continually link back to prior learning which reinforces understanding and helps pupils to make links between concepts and topics. This linking back approach is designed to help pupils become more confident in tackling more abstract ideas and enable them to be resilient when approaching exam questions.
Religious Studies STAFF:
Miss V Dainty– Head of Department
Mr B Pemberton – RE teacher
KS3
Pupils in Year 7, 8 & 9 will complete a range of topics from a systematic and thematic approach. Students study Christianity and other faiths that are represented in Great Britain. Their understanding of different faiths is sometimes through themes, looking at how religious believers respond to issues that are in the world in which they live. Lessons are built around the “Big ideas”, and wherever possible, concepts are linked to real life to help scaffold understanding and help pupils to see the importance of Religious Education in the world around them. The KS3 curriculum covers a broad range of content, designed to help prepare them for the GCSE course. Students are assessed by the completion of assessments which will cover content from that half terms topics, as well as previous units.
| Term 1a | Term 1b | Term 2a | Term 2b | Term 3a | Term 3b | |
| Year 7 | Introduction to RE | Life and teachings of Jesus | Life and teaching of Jesus | What is stewardship? | What is stewardship? | Science vs Religion |
| Year 8 | What does it mean to be Hindu? | What does it mean to be Hindu? | Where was God in this? | Where was God in this? | Religion, Justice and equality | Religion, Justice and equality |
| Year 9 | What does it mean to be a Sikh? | What does it mean to be a Sikh? | Should criminals be punished? | What does it mean to be Muslim? | What does it mean to be Muslim? | Why is life important? |
KS4
Our GCSE Religious Studies course starts in Year 10, following the AQA specification (A). Lessons frequently link back to prior learning from previous units in KS3 & KS4 in order to help pupils recognise the links between the topics they have covered and support them to develop joined up thinking. Students are assessed through the completion of half-termly assessments which will cover content from that half terms topics, as well as previous units. In year 10, PPE exams will take place in January and June to track progress and identify any intervention requirements. Students sit two papers in their final examination (8062MA).
Year 11 students will complete three sets of PPE exams in October and March to track progress & enable pupils to feel confident and as prepared as possible for the final summer exams
| Term 1a | Term 1b | Term 2a | Term 2b | Term 3a | Term 3b | |
| Year 10 | Christianity Beliefs and Teaching | Christianity Practices | Islam Beliefs and Teachings | Islam Practices | Relationship and Families (Theme A) | Relationship and Families (Theme A) |
| Year 11 | Religion and Life (Theme B) | Existence of God and Revelation (Theme C) | Religion, Crime and Punishment (Theme E) | Religion, Crime and Punishment (Theme E) | Completion of all content | Final Examination date TBC |