Prospectus
Religious Education Department
Introduction
My favourite subject is ...
The school sees R.E. as having a crucial role to play in the development of the students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural values. To this end students are given opportunities to discuss and reflect upon their own beliefs, feelings, opinions and attitudes. This is done explicitly in some topics e.g. Beliefs about God (Year 7). Buddhist Meditation (Year 9). Capital Punishment (Year 10) and The Holocaust and issues of stereotyping and racism (Year 11). It is also taught implicitly through classroom management and teaching strategies which encourage a spirit of respect and tolerance.
To achieve these aims the West Berkshire agreed syllabus is followed.
Year 7
Religious belief (What do we mean by God?)
Christianity
Year 8
Islam
Religious responses to global and personal issues
topic has given me ...
Year 9
Religion and the environment
Arguments on the existence of God
Buddhism
GCSE
The syllabus followed is OCR Syllabus B (Philosophy and Applied Ethics) J621
The topics for this course include:
- Religious Experience
- End of Life
- Good and Evil
- Religion and Science
- Human Relationships
- Medical Ethics
- Peace and Justice
- Equality
Core students (who do not sit the examination) follow the Short Course syllabus
In R.E. we try to promote open-mindedness, self esteem, sensitivity, respect and tolerance. These skills and attitudes are best nurtured in a mixed ability situation. Throughout the school all students are taught R.E. in mixed ability classes.
A wide variety of teaching methods are employed by the department including the use of:
- Text books and information sheets for research and project work
- Worksheets
- Video
- Role play
- Visits by students to places of interest
- Visits by outside speakers
- IT
- Experiential R.E. e.g. meditation exercises/Seder meal
- Artefacts and pictures.
2011 GCSE results:
| A* | 25% | 14 students |
| A | 37.5% | 21 students |
| B | 19.6% | 11 students |
| C | 12.5% | 7 students |
| A*- A | 62.5% | 35 out of 56 students. |
| A*-C | 94.6% | 53 out of 56 students |
