SubjectsPhilosophy, Religion & Ethics
Our Curriculum Intent
Where every member of our extended family realises their God-given potential, inspired by John 10;10. Jesus said, “ I have come so you may have life in all its fullness”.
When designing the curriculum for all Key Stages, we had our Academy Vision, “I have come so you may have life in all its fullness”, firmly rooted in our mind. The choices we made for all Key stages are linked to the Gloucestershire agreed syllabus, but we were mindful that we had more hours than many schools and we wanted pupils to be able to flourish in their individuality, in addition to learning about how to tackle discrimination in any form.
We have established a safe environment for debate rooted in a Christian ideal of “love thy neighbour” allowing everybody to play their part, safe in the knowledge that they are able to flourish and develop their own opinions and understanding of world religions in addition to exploring the challenges each of us faces as we learn to reach our potential. Thus allowing time for courageous advocacy through debate, tackling issues of morality and ethical dilemmas relating from such diverse issues such as human sexuality to euthanasia.
In addition we have enhanced skills for literacy, by incorporating peer teaching and review through the use of presentations and speeches. We ensure that all lessons and schemes of work are adapted and are reflective of the needs of all learners, whatever their SEND need or whatever their background. Nothing prevents pupils from accessing all elements of our curriculum.
Lessons are scaffolded in such a way that skills are built enabling all pupils to have full access to the GCSE in Year 11. This scaffolding and skills building allow pupils to build confidence in their ability, making them more resilient as learners and therefore prepared to give anything a go.
In addition, we have prepared pupils for Key Stage 4 whilst in Key Stage 3, as a consequence all assessments that work on building skills needed for GCSE, enabling all pupils to fulfil their potential in the GCSE.
Implementation
From Key Stage 3 onwards we teach the knowledge needed to fulfil the requirements stipulated in the Core curriculum and suggested by NATRE. In essence we follow many of the SACRE guidelines for the Gloucestershire Diocese however, we are fortunate to be able to offer more than the recommended minimum allocation of Religious Education, and as a consequence we have included other topics that we feel will benefit the pupils here at the Academy.
We have curriculum maps that show both knowledge and skills building linked to all world religions, preparing students for future study. These curriculum maps are adaptive to all ability levels and the skills needed at each stage are demonstrated for teachers to see how progression can be gained from Year 7 on to a strong transition to Key Stage 4.
We build on knowledge learnt by regular re-capping of work from previous lessons and cycles, in addition to exam style practice under exam conditions in all key stages; this builds resilience and expertise in addition to confidence. We have end of cycle assessments followed by consolidation and improvement lessons to build upon gained skills as well as knowledge and rectifying misconceptions. This is planned in detail and teachers have access to Programmes of Study and Schemes of Work in addition to centrally based resources, including power-points, text books, and clips. This is also made available on our online learning platform (Teams) so that should pupils have the need to work remotely they are not excluded in anyway.
Within each key stage we allocate time for pupils to learn independently through flip learning strategies, that may include research on a particular issue, such as the climate change, or equality. The pupils then present their findings and are assessed by their peers, not just on research content but on content presentation and oracy.
In order to support revision and exam preparation we have various intervention sessions, varying from 1-2-1 through to whole class sessions or Year Group walking talking mocks in order to build exam skills. We also attend Vardy Conferences for Edexcel helped at Cheltenham College, and these have proved very popular during non-COVID times.
We encourage literacy skills through comprehension tasks, often using complicated language and subject specific words, in addition we use text books, the internet and other resources such as podcasts and YouTube. We also encourage pupils to understand how to be examiners, and to have confidence in marking peer work through oral review, developing speaking and listening skills.
We encourage debate and tackle controversial issues, such as discrimination and stereotyping. Helping pupils to dismiss misconceptions in relation to race or religion. Pupils can do this in a safe environment, and build confidence in participating in a debate that may even challenge taught beliefs from upbringing in relation to refugees or asylum seekers for example.
Impact
Pupils have detailed knowledge of the areas needed for progression and associated accomplishment at the end of each key stage and our average point score in Key Stage 3 is increasing. We achieve in line with the national average at GCSE, and this is particularly good as unlike the majority of schools, we offer the GCSE to the whole cohort rather than as an option subject.
Pupils have an understanding of their place of faith in the world, and what the impact of an individual’s faith has upon their daily practice. Pupils know festivals such as Ramadan and how British Muslims, or Hindus during Diwali respond to these festivals. They also know that this does not detract from the Britishness of an individual.