Townley Religious Studies Teaching & Learning Curriculum Religious Studies

Year 7

• Autumn Term
  Bridging unit - A seven-week scheme of learning which introduces students to Religious Studies at Townley Grammar.  Students take a brief look at the key beliefs within the six main world religions that students will study in further depth later in Key Stage 3.
  Sikhism unit – Students learn about the key beliefs, teachings and practices within Sikhism.
• Spring Term
  Christianity unit –A detailed scheme of learning which focuses on the key beliefs, teachings and practices within Christianity.
• Summer Term
  Hinduism unit - A detailed scheme of learning focussing on key beliefs, teachings, and practices within Hinduism .

Year 8

• Autumn Term
  Judaism unit - A detailed scheme of learning which focuses on the key beliefs, teachings and practices within Judaism.
• Spring Term
  Islam Unit- A detailed scheme of learning which focuses on the key beliefs, teachings and practices within Islam.
• Summer Term
  Philosophy of Religion unit – A scheme of learning which introduces students to key arguments within Philosophy of Religion. Students focus on the Design Argument, The Cosmological Argument and The Problem of Evil and Suffering.
  Rites of passage – students learn about different rites of passage and present their own devised rite.
  Human rights- students explore key human rights with particular focus on children’s rights

Year 9

In Year 9 students have two lessons a week. 

• Autumn term
  Buddhism unit - A detailed scheme of learning which focuses on the key beliefs, teachings and practices within Buddhism.
• Spring Term
  Ethical issues - a consideration of the ethical dilemmas surrounding medical ethics such as IVF and surrogacy; cloning and transplants. Philosophical Thinking - An Introduction to Philosophical Thinking which asks students to consider ‘what is real’.
• Summer term
  Students begin their GCSE studies with the Human Rights unit

Religious Studies tries to study religious behaviour and belief from outside any particular religious viewpoint. Religious Studies is one of the core subjects at Townley Grammar and all pupils take the full course GCSE. Eduqas Syllabus A.

Assessment Structure

1. Religious, Philosophical and Ethical Studies in the Modern world: 50% - Key topics are relationships, Life and death, good and evil and human rights 
2. Christianity: 25% - This includes beliefs, teachings and practices
3. A world faith: 25% - This includes beliefs, teachings and practices

Typical questions include:

• Do we have a responsibility to help those in need?
• Can killing someone ever be the right thing to do?
• Does religion cause more problems than it solves?
• Is IVF treatment ethical?

In each topic the ideas and moral issues will be studied through; class discussions, role-plays, videos, debates and group work.

Advantages of Studying Religious Studies

1. Religious Studies encourages philosophical thinking, collaboration and independent working skills, decision-making skills, and the search for compromise and conflict resolutions.
2. It creates opportunities for young people to develop their skills of interpretation and analysis, evaluation and dialogue.  These are vital skills in a modern workforce where communication and collaboration are core skills.
3. Religious Studies involves the study of texts, philosophical thinking, social understanding, ethics and develops the skills of analysis, evaluation and reasoning. All of these skills help to develop literacy.
4. Religious Studies makes a key contribution to understanding British values. It provides an opportunity for young people to study contemporary contentious issues, develop social, cultural, political, philosophical and spiritual awareness.

In Religious Studies, pupils learn to respect themselves and understand their own identity. Students also learn to respect others, and to understand their own and others’ rights and responsibilities. This is becoming more important as communities are becoming more diverse, therefore there is a greater need for a more religiously tolerant society. Religious Studies plays a key role in creating social cohesion and generating understanding between communities. 

Philosophy and Ethics is an academic subject that is well respected by universities and an excellent grounding for any Arts or Social Science based degree course. It will enable you to develop the kind of skills which will enhance your study of other subjects. The ability to articulate idea and evaluate their strengths and weaknesses is one that is transferable and highly applicable to any career which involves communication, including Law, Public Relations, Education, Advertising and Marketing, therapy, journalism, retailing, social work, nursing, radio and TV, acting, teaching.

Studying Philosophy and Ethics helps students to develop analytical and evaluative skills. It particularly complements Humanities subjects, English and students intending to study medicine, as students learn about the ethics of medical issues.

Skills

Students will develop their analytical skills and be able to research different topics to provide reasoned explanations and the ability to expand on different points of view.  Writing skills will be improved by the practice of the different teaching and learning activities.

Students study three papers:

Paper 1: Philosophy of Religion

In this module you must be prepared to ‘think for yourself’ and be willing to consider and evaluate logically the arguments of philosophers.

A number of topics are studied, such as:

• The ‘proof’ arguments for God’s existence, Evil and Suffering, religious language, Plato and Aristotle on the soul, afterlife, religious language.

Paper 2: Ethics

A study of the relationship between religion and morality, A study of ethical theories such as Utilitarianism Kantian ethics and Situation Ethics, A study of applied ethics; euthanasia and business ethics, sexual ethics.

Paper 3: Developments in religious thought Christianity

A study of key beliefs within Christianity and the impact of these beliefs in the world today. Liberation theology and Marx, feminist theology, pluralism and secularisation