Curriculum Aim

Study of Religion, Philosophy and Ethics (RPE) empowers young people to both understand and respect a wide range of perspectives, cultures and backgrounds, enabling them to flourish in a diverse society. Our curriculum recognises the importance of nurturing the whole young person; socially, emotionally and cognitively. Perhaps the most integral function of studying RPE in the modern world, is helping students understand that difference is something to be celebrated and explored, rather than feared. In other words, giving students the tools to become globally aware and responsible citizens.

Our exploration of RPE develops a young person’s substantiative knowledge of religious and world views; helping them make sense of a diverse and complex world.  We aim to prepare CYP to identify and utilise tools of interpretation, analysis and criticality to religious, philosophical and ethical issues. The underlying intent of our curriculum is to enable young people to become critical of their own views and assumptions; fostering open-mindedness and personal growth.

An exploration of RPE should develop the cultural capital of young people, in terms of the knowledge they gain of faith driven and non-faith driven perspectives in the world. It should also enable CYP to both recognise substantiated and non-substantiated claims in the wider world of politics and the 21^st century context of ‘truth’ itself becoming an area of contention.

Context

The progression through the Key Stage 3 RPE curriculum is planned with students joining at various points of the year in mind. Individual lessons act as building blocks to develop their wider thinking around religious, philosophical and ethical ideas and perspectives, meaning students are able to understand the wider themes of a unit of work from any of the lessons, regardless of their jumping on point.

At Key Stage 4, we go into greater depth on Christianity and Islam, alongside the study of crime and punishment, relationships and families, human rights and perspectives on peace and conflict. This focus on units of greater depth allows students to apply their skills to a specific religious, philosophical or ethical issue.

Key concepts, skills and knowledge

Young people will develop the following skills:

• Critical thinking when presented with evidence and counter evidence
• Development of creating an extended and substantiated argument, with a critical analysis of others’ arguments
• A curiosity for learning contrasting perspectives
• An ability to evaluate religious and scientific explanations for the world, alongside religious and secular explorations of ethics and morality
• An understanding of logical thinking and how to identify fallacies and unsubstantiated claims.

Young people will explore content along these themes:

• How we attain knowledge and where people derive its authority from (God, religious texts, science, the mind)
• An introduction to the world’s most prevalent faiths
• A history of people attempting to prove and disprove the existence of God
• Arguments for and against the role of faith in an increasingly secular world
• Ethical dilemmas and how different branches of thought have attempted to solve them
• How people navigate difficult decisions and find what is ‘right’.

Curriculum Overview