Curriculum

The schemes of work intend to foster and enhance the skills of reflection, enquiry, interpretation, empathy, reasoning, evaluation, and communication and the positive attitudes to self, others, the natural world.  They consider literacy, numeracy, ICT, and independent learning skills.

The department aims to:

• enable pupils to develop spiritually by building upon their personal, spiritual, and religious experiences and by validating spirituality
• contribute to the development of each pupil’s beliefs and values
• broaden pupils’ knowledge and understanding of religion and religions
• encourage empathy by providing opportunities for pupils to see important aspects of life from a variety of worldviews
• provide pupils with enough knowledge of religions for them to make sense of the political current affairs in the world
• reinforce the importance of being respectful of other people’s beliefs
• provide a firm grounding in the history, beliefs, and practices of Christianity
• demonstrate the importance of religion in all societies throughout time
• enable pupils to learn to argue logically while understanding and evaluating other points of view

The schemes of work for Religious Education are designed around both the Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus, and the QCA suggested schemes of work at Key Stage 3.  At Key Stage 4 the department follows a short-course GCSE aimed at all students.

Parents can help their children in several ways:

• Talk to their child about what they have been studying in class
• Ensure that all homework is completed
• Watch the news with your child. This may seem pointless, but it is of great worth. It helps the child understand what is happening in the world from different points of view. Ethical and moral issues are discussed in class, and it will help your child understand most of the main issues studied
• Discuss global issues such as poverty, war and peace, the environment etc
• Help your child to have an opinion that they can back up with reasons and evidence