Recent Curriculum Dive

One of the benefits of running a successful department is that I am often asked to share my experiences with others. In addition to being asked to conduct a deep dive into the RS department of a school in the same trust in the summer term, I also visited a secondary independent school in June where the numbers opting to study RS at GSCE were dwindling. It is so useful to have a sounding board when we lead relatively small departments, and we had such a lovely time as we shared ideas and experiences and together we worked out some new ideas for Key Stage three to entice students to want to study Philosophy, Religion and Ethics further at GCSE.

Both the subject leader and I were invigorated and left excited at the prospect of some new lessons and ideas, as well as the introduction of a Big Questions Style club in the autumn. Fingers crossed that they will begin to see numbers grow as the relevance of the new topics being studied to daily life in Ethics will excite the students' interest, and the deep philosophical questions being asked hopefully capture their interest, such as what is a human before looking at whether robots can replace humanity, which then lead to questions about the sanctity of life.

As for religion, we shared some interesting ideas about early creation stories, then looking at science and religion and then investigating a religion of their choice, asking whether they believe it will survive to the end of the 21st century and why. Their cross curricular topic on refugees is so relevant, I am excited to hear how the new term goes.