Year 8 Religion & Society

Brief summary of the syllabus:

The Religious Education curriculum is based on the Barnet Agreed Syllabus. However, the Religion & Society course, unique to Queen Elizabeth's School, also makes a very significant contribution towards the provision of Citizenship Education. The theme for the Year 8 syllabus in 'Citizens of the UK'. In particular, it involves work on the following topics:

• Our rights and responsibilities in the UK 
• Religion and Science 
• Democracy, justice and authority in the UK 
• Religion and Authority: Belief in God 
• The UK community 
• Difficult Questions: Suffering and Life after Death 

The Year 8 public speaking competition is also delivered through the unit 'Our rights and responsibilities in the UK'. We also welcome external speakers from each of the faith communities represented in the School from time to time.

What skills/attributes are being developed and examined?

In Year 8, it is hoped that boys will build upon the skills they developed in Year 7. These include:

• Develop and extend knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other world faiths, and of ethical beliefs 
• Develop an understanding of the influence of beliefs, values and traditions on individuals, communities and societies 
• Enhance and reflect on their own spiritual, moral, social and cultural development 
• Grow in confidence in their own faith and respect those with a faith different from their own 
• Develop a positive attitude to living in a religiously diverse society 
• Develop the ability to make reasoned and informed judgements about religious and moral issues 
• Use a range of forms of expression (such as art, music, drama, writing and ICT) to communicate ideas creatively and thoughtfully 
• Develop the ability to research, plan and undertake enquiries into issues and problems 
• Develop the skill of critical thinking by reflecting upon their own views and ideas and those of others 
• Develop an ability to communicate and justify arguments and represent the views of those who they may not agree with
• Develop the ability to work independently and as a part of a team 
• Plan, carry out and evaluate creative approaches to taking action on problems and issues to achieve intended purposes

What can parents expect to see in classwork and homework specifically?

Year 8 will be set one piece of homework each week for Religion and Society. This will involve a variety of tasks including the communication of information (writing, drawing etc.), the completion of National Curriculum Assessed Projects, revision for end of topic tests, updating of the Religion and Society glossary and research. The use of the internet is recommended for some research homework.

Year 8 pupils will continue to use their red Religion and Society file which was issued in Year 7. All work should be organised into topic sections using file dividers with tests and projects being filed at the back of each section. Class work and homework should be filed together. All work should be well presented with titles underlined and a variety of diagrams, graphs, drawings and text are likely to be included.

What can parents do to help in this subject at this stage?

• Make a regular check to see that class work and homework are completed to a high standard with attention paid to spelling and punctuation. 
• Check that the Religion and Society file is being well organised with work being filed in date order and in the correct topic section using file dividers. 
• Check that the Religion and Society glossary is being updated at least twice per topic. 
• Encourage the use of diagrams and photographs and other secondary material to support work being done. 
• Encourage an interest in the religious and moral issues, including those being reported in the news. 
• Emphasise the importance of learning about being a citizen of the local area. 
• Encourage an interest in becoming actively involved in the local community, including the school community, through, for example, charity or fundraising events. 
• Help with revision - encouraging the writing of revision notes rather than simply reading over notes. 

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Setting and course schedule:

Teaching is in mixed-ability groups for the whole year. There is no setting in Religion & Society.

Half-term tests will be based upon the topic studied during the half-term. More details will be available prior to each test. The tests will be trying to assess your performance in terms of your learning about religions, learning from religions and your knowledge and understanding of citizenship.

The following is a rough schedule for when the topics will be tested:

• Autumn Half-Term: Rights and responsibilities in the UK
• End of Autumn Term: Religion and Science
• Spring Half-Term: Democracy, justice and authority in the UK
• End of Spring Term: Religion and Authority: Belief in God
• Summer Examination: All of the above

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Revision:

It is important to develop a successful revision strategy as early as possible so as to avoid wasting time. It is not a good idea to try to learn the work by simply reading through your class notes just before a test is sat. Most people find that a better way to revise is to be active. This involves writing revision notes and drawing diagrams. It is often a good idea to make brief revision notes, including the main points, from your file. You can then make a list of topic headings and test yourself by writing down what you can remember about each topic. By setting yourself tasks like this while you are revising you can see how much of the work you are recalling.

As you progress through the year it will be important to keep your marked test papers with the corrections, as this experience should improve your success rate in future tests. It will point out where you may have lost marks in a question that you thought you did well in. Often marks are lost because the answer is not detailed enough. Always read the questions carefully and take note of how many marks are available for each question. Remember that there are lots of materials on the learning resources area to aid your revision.

One way of ensuring progression takes place throughout the key stage is for the pupil regularly to undergo a process of self-evaluation and target-setting. Target-setting is essential if improvement in performance and achievement is to take place. Pupils will be set targets for improvement following the assessment of all work (homework, projects and tests). Targets set following tests and projects will be recorded in the Religion and Society Assessment page of the lower school diary. In addition to regular target setting, pupils also carry out self-evaluation of their performance towards their target level at the end of each term in December, April and July.

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Working towards Target National Curriculum Levels:

In the Autumn term, each pupil and his parents will be made aware of a target National Curriculum Level which he should be aiming to achieve by the end of the academic year. Progress towards this target will be reviewed at the end of each half-term and in the mid-year review of pupil progress, which is reported home in the Spring term. In Religion and Society, progress is assessed according to two attainment targets; AT1 learning about religion and AT2 learning from religion. The criteria for each National Curriculum Level in Religious Education can be read here. The criteria for Citizenship can be read here.

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