Year 7:
Students begin their studies of worldviews at KBA secondary with an introductory unit exploring how people form their beliefs about the world. This includes philosophical thought experiments based on general curiosity about the world, as well as how people form their varying beliefs, or non-beliefs, about God. Later on in the year students will develop their critical thinking skills by exploring how people form their ethical compass including their own; how do we make ethical decisions? What impacts our moral choices? How does society attempt to drive shared ethics?
In between these units of study, students will explore a brief overview of the major world religions (worldviews), as well as some of the sacred spaces each major religion visits as part of their religious practice, from synagogues to gurdwaras.
Year 8:
Students will continue their philosophical studies in Year 8 by embarking on a unit covering some of the ultimate unanswerable questions in life. What is the meaning of life? What happens when we die? Why do people believe in God? What does it mean to be human? Students will be challenged to come up with their own answers for these questions, whilst supporting them with logical arguments, and analysing other philosophers’ attempts to answer these unanswerable dilemmas. Continuing on this theme, students will embark on a unit of study exploring and evaluating differing beliefs about the creation of the universe from a range of cultures and worldviews, including those from the indigenous peoples of Australia and North America, the Judeo-Christian creation story as well as the more scientific views, the big bang theory and evolution. Leading from these differing ideas on creation, students will explore the ethical issue of animal rights and how they should be treated by humans.
In the second half of the year students will return to a more theological programme of study exploring how varying worldviews actually influence their lives in the modern day. This will begin with a look at the importance of Jesus as a human for Christian believers as well being a historical figure in his own right. Students will continue by revisiting some of the foundational Muslim beliefs covered in Year 7 build on these with a focus on how their beliefs impact their daily lives. Students complete the year with further development on their understanding of the Dharmic faiths; Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism, again focussing on their beliefs and practices but more importantly, how these influence believers’ lives.
Year 9:
Students begin by looking at how different people come to make their ethical decisions. By analysing thought provoking hypothetical moral quandaries students will begin to evaluate how they make their own moral choices as well as how varying philosophers believe one should try to work out the best course of action in any given situation. Students will then apply their new knowledge to different ethical topics that have troubled mankind for centuries such as capital punishment and medical ethics.
Students will then embark on two units of study exploring firstly, the diversity of different beliefs within the Abrahamic faiths, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Exploring why there can be such different views within the same religion, as well their similarities. For example, what is the difference between a Catholic and a Quaker? This unit will lead on to a programme exploring alternate beliefs within our society such as those of Pagans and Jehovah’s witnesses.
To finish off their Key Stage Three studies in PRE, students will cover one of the biggest philosophical quandaries, the problem of evil. This where students question the existence of a caring, powerful God, with so much suffering in the world. This will lead students onto possibly the greatest example of man-made evil in human history, the Holocaust, known from a Jewish perspective as the Shoah. Students will study this historical event in their History lessons at the same time as their PRE lessons, in order to allow for a holistic study, covering religious responses to the Holocaust considering the challenge it has posed for Jewish believers when considering the problem of evil; ‘How could a loving God allow man-made suffering on such a dramatic scale?’
Homework:
Homework will be set weekly. Homework is in the form of pre-learning and revising key content using the platforms Satchel One and Seneca.
Assessment:
Lessons include knowledge retrieval questions to assess prior learning. Lessons involve the active use of mini whiteboards to check for understanding and to provide real time feedback and to deal with misconceptions quickly. Students will complete written assessments during the academic year where they will be given teacher feedback on how to improve. Students will sit a mid-year test in January and an end-of-year test in the summer term.
Contact:
For further information/clarification about KS3 PRE please contact Mr S Atkinson.