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Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School & Sixth Form College
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Our Curriculum

Religious Studies

Intent:

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Religious Studies has a significant role for the development of pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. It encourages pupils to develop their sense of identity and belonging through self-awareness and reflection. Our students experience a broad and diverse range of world faiths, promoting inclusivity of minority beliefs and resisting an ethnocentric understanding of the world.  We promote tolerance of other faiths and beliefs, encouraging cultural sensitivity, challenging bigotry, prejudice, antisemitism and Islamophobia.

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We aim to develop children's abilities to connect, critically reflect upon, evaluate and apply their learning to their own growing understanding of religion. We intend that all students leave our school with a deep and meaningful experience of what it means to be religious, think philosophically and be an ethical human being.

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Implementation and Impact

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Religious Studies includes the study of religious and non-religious cultures and traditions from across the world. The discipline connects with the study of Ethics and Philosophy, addressing some of the most fundamental philosophical and ethical questions.

Buddha Statue

We aim to teach students about the origins and nature of religious and non-religious traditions. Alongside the core, conceptual knowledge we encourage students to develop a procedural fluency - combining substantive and disciplinary knowledge, so students can apply their knowledge of Religion, Ethics and Philosophy to debates, discussions, textual analysis, and extended writing, making sense of their own beliefs, values and opinions, and acquiring thoughtful, personal knowledge.

 

We believe that the Religious Studies curriculum builds a strong cultural capital and we promote the value of studying our subject outside the classroom, visiting places of worship, engaging in debate competitions like the Ethics Cup and having speakers come into school to share their experiences. We deliver powerful and complex knowledge across all years that many students would struggle to contextualise independently, allowing them to understand deeply sensitive debates on issues such as jihad, euthanasia, the death penalty, caste and Empire. We encourage all students to find joy in our subject and utilise the carefully crafted interdisciplinary skills across their education. 

Church Windows

Key Stage 3 Religious Studies Overview

Assessment Overview

  • Recall every lesson

  • Peer assessment and live marking of tasks in class

  • End of topic assessment - including accumulated Knowledge, Understanding and critical analysis

Homework Overview

  • 2 or 3 homeworks per unit specific to knowledge and understanding

  • Revision from Knowledge Organiser every lesson 5 minutes per week 

  • Homework to be reviewed in the following lesson

  • Homework set should take no more than 15 minutes to complete other than for revision for end of topic assessment

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