Curriculum Intent and Rationale
At Five Ways we believe students should have a great awareness and acceptance of all faiths, fundamental beliefs, and worldwide views around them. Students will show passion and enjoyment in their achievements and have a reflective nature to ensure they are inquisitive to learning. Being self-reliant is important to going above and beyond the curriculum. Students should study an ambitious and culturally rich curriculum that equips them for life. Religious Studies ensures students have the opportunity to become critical and can be confident in making informed judgements about important matters of religion and belief, which can shape society today. Students will build the skills that will allow them to participate respectfully in dialogue through verbal and written discourse whilst examining their own character development and worldview.
The subject challenges students to reflect on, consider, analyse, interpret and evaluate issues of truth, belief, faith and ethics and communicate their responses effectively. Religious studies aims to ensure that students develop their own standpoints on the issues studied, whilst being open to engaging with a range of other views. The RS department aspires to develop students who are skilled critical thinkers, problem solvers and team players, who challenge themselves to achieve their very best, whilst supporting the learning of their peers. The department is committed to providing a high-quality education which inspires a passion for learning and a desire for a just, better world. It is a highly regarded and a demanding academic subject.
Across the key stages students receive a grounding in all world religions and complete topics which cover a range of issues and skills. The topics are arranged around key ideas within beliefs and practices and applying them to thematic studies in later years. SMSC is covered a great deal and drives the issues discussed at KS3/4. It challenges cultural practices and is paramount for us as a department.
The schemes ensure a range of skills such as debate, analysis, understanding and evaluation are covered across the year groups to improve these skills going through school life. We ensure our curriculum has great empathy and underpin British values- tackling misconceptions within religions.
Implementing our curriculum
Key Stage 3
At Key Stage 3, in line with the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus students draw on beliefs, expressions on religious traditions and look at the history of faith and the origin of scripture etc. A diverse range of the 6 world religions are looked at in some way and key themes/figures/festivals are taught which are also needed in more detail at GCSE. Over three years in Key Stage 3, students will build layers of understanding, development of different academic skills and a sense of religious and non-religious beliefs. The department uses an array of differing teaching strategies and the use of artefacts to enable all students to make progress in the subject.
Key Stage 4
Specification: AQA (A)
GCSE Religious Studies is a compulsory subject for students at Five Ways, we follow AQA specification A. The students study Christianity and Buddhism as the chosen religions for Paper 1. For Paper 2, the students study the following themes: Religion and life, Peace and Conflict, Crime and Punishment and Human rights. The department uses various different teaching strategies to enable the students to achieve highly at GCSE including the use of debates, high level questioning, a variety of revision materials and case studies from real life.
Key Stage 5
Specification: AQA Philosophy
At Key Stage 5, Philosophy is an option at A Level available for all students in the Sixth Form where we study AQA Philosophy. A departmental focus is to engage the students with a selection of teaching and learning approaches to enable them to achieve well at A Level, including debates and discussions, attending academic conferences, students presenting ethical and philosophical concepts and independent research.