Year 9 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. During this time, teaching and learning is focused on covering material for the short-course GCSE that they will sit at the end of Yyear 10. In particular, the Year 9 syllabus involves work on the following topics:

• Autumn half term: Section D: The origins of life and care of the planet
• End of Autumn Term: Section D: The origins of life and care of the planet and revision Section D: Attitudes to animals
• Spring half term: Section C: Life issues - abortion and war and peace
• End of Spring Term: Section C: Life issues - abortion and war and peace and revision Section C: Religion and prejudice
• Summer Term: Section B: Belief in God and life after death
• End of Summer Term: Citizenship focus

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?

Throughout the course it is hoped that boys:

• Develop and extend knowledge and understanding of Christianity and other world fFaiths, 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

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

Work should be well organised and presented with titles underlined and written work should be thorough and well structured. Homework will involve the completion of set tasks and the collection and presentation of information. The use of the internet is recommended for some research homework.

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

• 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 a table of contents and a glossary is present and that the A4 ring binder is used as instructed to file work.
• Encourage an interest in religious and moral issues.
• Help with revision and generally discuss the issues and questions considered at school further at home.

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Setting and course schedule:

The course is designed to be modular and so a summative assessment takes place at the end of every half-term and at the end of the year. Results from tests/assessments completed throughout Years 7, 8 and 9 will be used to determine the end-of-Key Stage 3 teacher assessment for RE. All tests include past GCSE questions.

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Tests:

In Year 9, the end-of-topic tests and end-of-year examination are taken from past GCSE papers. You will be clearly told what topic areas you will need to revise. It is important for you to be very sure as to what type of material will be presented to you in the test. Throughout the year there will be a variety of GCSE question styles that you will become familiar with. The tests will be trying to assess your performance and progress in acquiring knowledge, understanding and skills.

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

• Autumn Half-Term: Section D: Origins of life and care of the planet
• End of Autumn Term: Section D: Origins of life, cCare of the planet and attitudes to animals
• Spring Half-Term: Section C: Life issues - abortion
• End of Spring Term: Section C: Life issues - war and peace and prejudice
• Summer Half-Term: End-of-year examexamination

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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 GCSE course 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.

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Pupil Target SettingTarget-setting:

One way of ensuring progression takes place throughout the key stage is for the pupil to regularly undergo a process of self-evaluation and target-setting. Target-setting is essential if improvement in performance and achievement is to take place. Pupils must set targets with respect to the level descriptions. There are formal opportunities for this to happen at the end of each term. Parents can read the outcomes of this process by referring to the self-assessment/target-setting sheets which will be retained by each boy in his folder. He should also take these targets to his bespoke tutorial sessions. Any pupil who needs assistance in target-setting at any time needs to see his subject teacher for individual guidance.

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Achievement Level Description for Exceptional Performance:

The highest-achieving pupils in Year 9 will be aiming to be working at or around Exceptional Performance in terms of the National Curriculum level descriptions. The following level descriptor indicates what pupils need to achieve to be at Exceptional Performance. There are two attainment targets: AT1 (Learning about religions) and AT2 (Learning from religions).

AT1 EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE: Pupils distinguish and investigate different interpretations of: the nature of religious belief and teaching, giving a balanced analysis of their sources, validity and significance; the importance for believers of religious practices and lifestyles and of the issues raised by their diversity within a plural society; and the meaning of language in religion in the light of philosophical questions about its status and function.

AT2 EXCEPTIONAL PERFORMANCE: Pupils place religious, non-religious and their own views of human identity and experience, the nature of reality, and religious and ethical theories concerning contemporary moral issues, within a comprehensive religious and philosophical context, and make independent, well-informed and reasoned judgements about their significance.

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