In religious education at Kents Hill Park the pupils will understand how religious views, beliefs and practices are present in our modern society. They will investigate how the religions began and how this has linked to their history and culture today. They will have the opportunity to reflect on their own practices and those of others to gain and insight into the world they live in.

Each pupil should be able to express their views articulately and respectfully, rationally listen to others and be more aware for what they may experience later in life.

Staff and Facilities

Mrs Horton is our Head of Humanities, working with  Mr Bates, Mrs Simpson  and Mr Tyerman to deliver RE lessons in our state of the art school building.

Our Humanities classrooms are based on the 1st floor, with access to all our fully equipped Learning Resource Centre and ICT Suite.

Enrichment

Clubs

Humanities club runs weekly and is open to all pupils. The club offer both an opportunity to support the learning or homework that has taken place as well as giving the pupils the time to look deeper into an area of personal interest.

Speakers

We have outside speakers take assemblies across the different year groups, for example when studying Judaism in year 7, we have had a Jewish member of the MK SACRE come in to talk to the pupils and answer their questions. The aim is to get a speaker for all of the religions we cover in key stage 3.

Curriculum

Year 7 Curriculum

Pupils at Kents Hill Park will be beginning religious education with Judaism and Christianty. The religions covered in all years will follow similar ideas looking at the core beliefs and teachings of a religion, how a believer will follow these teachings and how the religion can be practiced in modern society.

Each year there is also an ethical or philosophical element and in Year 7 the pupils will be looking at equality. Through the topic they will understand how equality of different communities can impact a society in both positive and negative ways.

Year 8 Curriculum

In Year 8 pupils will follow similar themes to those in Year 7 but looking at both Hinduism and Sikhism. As well as the beliefs and practices of the religions the pupils will be encouraged to acknowledge the comparisons between monotheistic and polytheistic religions.

As part of the course the pupils will look at ethical issues in modern society and understand how and why their are differing views while respectfully developing their own. In year 8 this is covered through the topic of animal rights, covering testing, use in military as well as the concepts of veganism and vegetarianism.

Year 9 Curriculum

As with Year 7 and 8 this year offers the opportunity to investigate two religions; Islam and Buddhism. Pupils will study both religions through the themes of origin, beliefs and how followers practice in modern society.

The philosophical aspect o this year is taught through the topic of evil and suffering. Pupils will be encouraged to take on the differing views and develop their own opinion based on the evidence they see. Pupils at KHP should be able to articulate their thoughts on sensitive issues as well as the process they went through to come to a conclusion.

We follow the OCR syllabus for GCSE which assesses knowledge through 3 examined themes.

Across the course they will study two religions, Christianity and Islam, with the same themes running throughout.

Beliefs and teachings – This looks at the importance of the religions beliefs and teachings as well as the issues raised within the religion and society. Throughout there will be an emphasis on the sacred text and the differing views within the two religions.

Practices – This part of the paper focuses on how the beliefs and teachings of the religion are practiced in society and communities.

The second component is focussed on Relationships and families

• The existence of God, gods and the ultimate reality

• Religion, peace and conflict

• Dialogue between religious and non-religious beliefs and attitudes