RE

The aim of RE is to support students in developing their own coherent patterns of values and principles as well as to support their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development. As a department we want to create a learning environment that engages, stimulates and challenges students.

In RE at Wildern we follow the Living Difference agreed syllabus and explore different religions, enquiring into key concepts of the religions that show beliefs, practises and experiences. We then contextualise these concepts within religions and evaluate. We require that students come to reasoned responses to develop their own arguments, and views on the issues studied. Intrinsic to teaching and learning in RE is to enable students to see that the world and the people within it have many differing views and practises; it is our role to allow pupils to enquire into these ideas and facilitate their learning.

The units of work throughout the key stages are designed to encourage students to interpret and respond to a variety of concepts, beliefs and practices within religions and evaluate their value for society and themselves. The programmes of study are progressively developed to build upon students’ capacities to interpret, evaluate and respond to differing values and beliefs. This is achieved through extending their thinking and analytical skills and their creative, imaginative and emotional development.

In the RE department we strive to achieve the highest standards with our students and create a stimulating environment.

At the centre of our programmes of study is the idea that RE should be a subject that allows students to question and explore, to appreciate that RE is not an abstract subject that doesn’t apply to them but a subject that is intrinsic to the society we live in.

KS3

KS3 is a two year key stage at Wildern; during these two years students study Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism in depth but also enquire into philosophical questions through units such as 'Does God Exist? 

Year 7

Judaism - This unit explores some of the key concepts within Judaism including God, Abraham, Moses and what it means to be a Jew today.  

Christianity - This unit explores some of the key concepts within Christianity including God, Jesus, Agape and what it means to be a Christian today. 

Ninian Smart - This unit explores Smarts 7 dimensions of a religion with a focus on Islam.  Students will explore each dimension through some of the key concepts in Islam.  

Year 8

Resurrection Detectives – This unit follows on from the year 7 Christianity scheme and allows students the opportunity to explore the importance of the death and resurrection of Jesus for Christians and debate whether the resurrection did take place

Does God Exist? – This is a philosophical unit, where students get to question key arguments about the existence of God.

Judaism- This unit focuses on the key practices and teachings of the Abrahamic tradition, and investigates the concepts that underpin the religion.

The Smart Guide to Religion- In this unit pupils explore the 7 dimensions of religion with a focus on Islam in preparation for the GCSE.

KS4

A GCSE in Religious Education is highly valued by employees due to the nature of transferable skills that it develops. These include, analysis, evaluation, empathy, interpretation, reflection and justification to name a few.  It allows students the opportunity to delve into the world that we live in, exploring religious and non-religious views on several themes as well as fostering an ethos of respect for others, an opportunity to challenge stereotypes and build an understanding of other cultures and beliefs. Religious Education provides a space for students to reflect on their own ideas and develop their thoughts about questions of meaning and ethics.

The GCSE is broken down into two exams:

Part One: The study of TWO religion swith a focus on Beliefs, Teachings

and Practices (worth 50% of the qualification)

Students will study Christianity and Islam in depth focusing on the key beliefs, teachings and practices of each religion and the influence that this has on individuals, communities and societies.

Part Two:  Thematic Studies: An exploration of religious, ethical and philosophical themes (worth 50% of the qualification)

Students will study FOUR themes considering different beliefs and attitudes to religious and non-religious issues in contemporary British society:

• Religion and life – the origin and value of the universe and human life including scientific and religious views on these and the relationship between them. The use of the environment and animals and ethical arguments relating to abortion, euthanasia and life after death

• Religion, peace and conflict – including the key concepts of war, peace, justice and reconciliation. An exploration into the reasons for war, a just war, terrorism, pacifism and responses to war in the 21^st century

• Religion, crime and punishment – the causes of crime and different aims of punishment including ethical arguments on the death penalty

• Relationships, family and religion : including the concepts of the family, chasity, marriage, sexuality, polygamy and divorce

Extra Curricular

Once a fortnight the department runs a Philosophy club that is open to all year groups and builds upon the principles of Philosophy for Children (P4C) This allows students an opportunity to explore and discuss the big questions in life such as ‘is it ever right to break the law’ and ‘is power always a good thing’ The session is facilitated by members of the team and the students have an opportunity to chose the stimulus and questions that they would like to discuss themselves.

In addition to this Wildern takes part in the annual Hampshire Philosothon which gives students a chance to put their skills of P4C into practice and compete against other schools.