RE

RE Documents

“The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness and humility” Dali Lama

Definition of Subject

Religious Education (RE) that aims to develop students understanding of the world's religions. Through religious education, children will learn about different religions and their traditions, practices and beliefs.

Purpose and Nature of Subject

RE at KCC offers students the opportunity to understand their own belief system and the religions and beliefs that are held by others in the UK and globally. This enables KCC learners to identify the diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society that makes up the UK and the wider world.   The RE curriculum is designed to be rigorous and challenging, offering the opportunity for discussion and high-level questioning.

 RE offers KCC learners the opportunity to debate and explore ultimate questions and deepen their understanding of their own world perspective and that of their global neighbours with the aim of recognising we are all global citizens.

RE offers the students the opportunity to break down misconceptions and stereotypes. It gives them the skills to contest and challenge other people’s views in a reasoned and respectful manner. RE allows students to expand their minds and ensure that they are accepting and understanding citizens of the world. The curriculum at KCC evolves, develops and responds to local and global changes and events that the students need to be aware of and have the opportunity to learn about and learn from.

Curriculum Overview

The KCC RE KS3 curriculum is totally impartial and teaches through rigorous enquiry, using a range of academic disciplines in an age- appropriate way regardless of the prior knowledge and skills that the students join us with.

Key Stage 3 – Years 7,8 and 9

Students learn and develop the skills to express their own opinion in a reasoned and supported way. They are encouraged to offer reasons and examples to support their own opinion and consider a range of diverse views.

They have the opportunity to develop analytical skills and practice evaluating key concepts and ideas.

As Kingsbridge is a relatively monocultural society, the KS3 curriculum offers students from all faith backgrounds and none the opportunity to explore and question different world views around ultimate questions. This enables them to identify misconceptions that religion is not relevant to them and that it is decreasing in their local community Students have the opportunity to reflect on their own beliefs and values.

KS3 offers the building blocks of knowledge that support students as they begin their GCSE journey. Key terms and concepts cross over from the KS3 curriculum and spiral up to support EDUQAS GCSE in RE: Themes, Christianity and Buddhism, building on the skills of Description, Explanation and Evaluation.

At the end of KS3 students have the opportunity to learn about and from The Holocaust. They have the opportunity to reflect on their Holocaust Studies and produce a piece of creative work that demonstrates their knowledge and understanding of the persecution and devastation that was inflicted on the Jews and other target groups. We link this into their knowledge of Human Rights and UN Convention on the Rights of the Child that the students are aware of and learn about as a Rights Respecting School. This in turn empowers the students to recognise and speak up against prejudice and discrimination.

Key Stage 4 Years 10 and 11

Year 10 Option GCSE

The aim of KS4 RE at KCC is to offer students the opportunity to build on skills learnt at KS3 and refine their knowledge, understanding and evaluative skills.

Year 10 students have the option to take a Full course GCSE at the end of year 11 – EDUQAS Route A: Issues of Relationships, Issues of Life and Death, Issues of Good and Evil, Issues of Human Rights. The two religions that that the students do an in-depth study of are, Christianity and Buddhism: Beliefs and Teachings and Practices. 

Buddhism offers students the opportunity to gain valuable cultural insights while studying a belief system that is not believing in a supreme being, heightening the relevance for many students. Students learn about shared and differing moral values, while debating moral dilemmas about right and wrong, good and bad. Students discuss issues such as people’s responsibility towards the world and future generations. Students have the opportunity to make a personal response to right and wrong and to consider other peoples’ responses to moral issues.

The students will be able to make links between beliefs, teachings and practices and refer to how these influence believers and non-believers within the two religions. Students experience and search for meaning, the purpose in life and the values by which we live.

The EDUQAS GCSE promotes the value of diversity and students are encouraged to interact meaningfully with a range of views and opinions.

Year 10 Core RE

There is a plan across the department for what students should know and be able to do in RE by the end of KS4. Students are expected to be able to communicate knowledgeably about religions and belief. They should be able to identify how faith, and belief, including secular belief systems contribute to the values held by individuals, communities both here in the UK and globally.

Through learning about a variety of religious and secular beliefs and considering why people hold these beliefs students also have the opportunity to reflect on their own beliefs and experiences and reflect on and interpret spirituality in their own lives.

KS5 Years 12 and 13

Students at KCC pursue AQA Philosophy. A highly academic and rigorous A level. The course enables students to become critical philosophical thinkers, visibly building confidence and hinterland knowledge.

The skills learnt enable students to think logically and to analyse and evaluate different and opposing theories and to make a reasoned and supported judgment, evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of theories. They'll learn to be clear and precise in their thinking and writing. Students are encouraged to make links across and between the 4 topics to show true depth of understanding and mastery of Philosophy. The course offers the students a chance to question their own morality and ethical decision making, they become skilled at discussion and debating and develop important skills that they need for progression to higher education. Students will have the opportunity to engage with big questions in a purely secular context.