Religious Education

Welcome to the Religious Education department

Teachers

Mrs Feltham

Mrs Hassett

Ms Stainer

Religious Education

Religious Education at The Bay CE School is not just about learning about religions. This subject is all about learning about yourself, giving you the opportunity to explore your own views, opinions and beliefs. It involves a lot of oral work with lots of debates and discussions surrounding your views and the reasons you have for these ideas. We will challenge stereotypes found in our society and beyond, explore different cultural views as well as religious belief systems and make comparisons between our beliefs and those that are important to others. We will cover a range of topics, not all will be based on a single religion or faith, while developing the five core skills in RE through enquiry based learning. You will be challenged to not only explain but to evaluate, demonstrating an understanding of a range of views in detail and having the ability to then weigh these up and come to your own conclusions which you are able to back up with evidence.

All students will do Core RE in every year group. On top of this students can also opt to do GCSE Religious Studies in Years 10 and 11.

THE BAY CE SCHOOL WHOLE RE CURRICULUM 25-26.docx

Click here to view the Parent Guide to Living Difference IV and Understanding Christianity

Core RE

Phase 2 (Years 7, 8 and 9)

Year 7 Topics

Autumn

Our Values

The cycles of enquiry will be; Trust, Respect, Courage and Kindness

Our Values

The cycles of enquiry will be; Trust, Respect, Courage and Kindness

Spring

Christian beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Agape, God and Church

Christian beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Agape, God and Church

Summer

Buddhist beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Dukkha, Nirvana and Sangha.

Decisions with faith

The cycles of enquiry will be; Truth, Commitment and Hope.

Year 8 Topics

Autumn

Jewish teachings and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Torah, Tradition and Remembrance. Anti-semitism will also be covered.

Jewish teachings and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Torah, Tradition and Remembrance. Anti-semitism will also be covered.

Spring

Environmental Ethics

The cycles of enquiry will be; Care, Serve, Protect.

The Christian and Sikh traditions will be included.

Environmental Ethics

The cycles of enquiry will be; Care, Serve, Protect.

The Christian and Sikh traditions will be included.

Summer

Christianity

The cycles of enquiry will be; Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Atonement.

Ponder Time

An Independent Project where they pick their own question. In year 8 this is focussed on parables.

Year 9 Topics

Autumn

Christian beliefs and teachings

The cycles of enquiry will be; Authority, Prayer and Sacrament

Christian beliefs and teachings

The cycles of enquiry will be; Authority, Prayer and Sacrament

Spring

Medical Ethics

The cycles of enquiry will be; Life, Choice and Death.

GCSE taster sessions will be run for two lessons so students can make an informed decision about whether they would like to do the additional GCSE RS.

Ponder Time

An Independent Project where they pick their own question. In year 9 students get the opportunity to explore either Taoism, Shintoism or Hindu Deities.

Summer

Muslim beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Muhammad (pbuh), Islam, Ummah and Jihad.

There will also be a series of 5 lessons looking at Gaza.

Muslim beliefs and practices

The cycles of enquiry will be; Muhammad (pbuh), Islam, Ummah and Jihad.

There will also be a series of 5 lessons looking at Gaza.

Phase 3 (Years 10 and 11)

Year 10 Topics

Autumn

Humanist beliefs

The cycles of enquiry will be; Rationalism, Responsibility and Value of Life.

Spring

Jesus

The cycles of enquiry will be; Incarnation, Gospel and Salvation

Summer

Philosophy of religion

The cycles of enquiry will be; Existence of God, Experience of God and The existence of evil.

Year 11 Topics

Autumn

Christian faith in action

The cycles of enquiry will be; Stewardship, Prophecy and Persecution.

Spring

The Elements

The cycles of enquiry will be;Fire, Water and Earth and will feature a range of belief systems including Zoroastrianism, Wicca and Baha’i.

GCSE Option AQA Religious Studies

Year 10 Topics

	Term 1	Term 2
Autumn	Christian Beliefs	Buddhist Beliefs
Spring	Theme E: Crime and Punishment	Theme A: Relationships and Families
Summer	Theme A: Relationships and Families	Buddhist Practices

Year 11 Topics

	Term 1	Term 2
Autumn	Christian Practices	Theme D: War, Peace and Conflict
Spring	Theme D: War, Peace and Conflict	Theme F: Human rights and social justice.
Summer	Revision of content and examination practice	N/A Examinations are both in May.

Support available

Websites

The school has set up a google classroom for students to use.

Pixl and GCSE pod can only be used for Christianity (25% of the course).

Intervention

For the GCSE option students additional lessons are held one evening a week and one lunch time a week (dependant on the year group).

How parents can support

Homework	Core students get a homework project every term. GCSE students will receive homework once a fortnight.
Reading	Revision Reading made by staff are provided for all 8 units in the GCSE.
Revision Guide	AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (9-1) Christianity and Buddhism revision guide. (Oxford University Press). This is one comprehensive guide which covers all the content in both the GCSE exams. We recommend all students purchase this at the start of the course and do not wait till year 11 to do so.
Exam Practice	Year 11 receives daily activities. Walking talking mocks are embedded the schemes of learning for all GCSE students. We also do exam practice regularly in lessons.
Resources	As well as the revision guides Oxford University Press have produced workbooks to help students revise. We will be using these. We make revision reading books for each unit of the GCSE in house too. These are more individually designed to cater for different students and will include exam practice and questions to use to check their reading.

Career Opportunities

Religious Studies encourages a number of skills which are useful in many fields, developing particularly the following skills:

clear and logical thinking
research skills
planning and organising
evaluation of ideas
applying abstract ideas to the world
an ability to empathise and understand conflict
problem-solving skills
understanding of the impact of conflicting ideologies
an appreciation of human diversity, different belief structures, social, cultural and spiritual experiences

These skills are particularly useful for future careers in law, education, social work, politics, medicine, administration, the civil service, public services such as nursing or the police, or the media.

News

November 2025

As part of the Christian practices unit taking place some year 9 students have taken part in an interactive lesson looking at the Eucharist. Students got to take on roles including reading aloud from the Book of Common Prayer and giving out bread and blackcurrant squash. They also got to try on a clerical collar if they wished to.