In years 7 and 8 we are introducing Religious Studies in one lesson a week. The focus of the first two years of Religious Studies will be on a knowledge rich curriculum that focuses on developing students use of religious terminology and a secure understanding of each major world religion or other world view. This will include an understanding of the key religious beliefs of a religion and how a religious believer practises their faith. The curriculum follows a largely chronological path in the study of religion so that students can fully construct a narrative over time where themes and ideas are connected by reoccurring features. It is designed in this way to ease the acquisition of new related information.

The curriculum also contains short units that allow students to study a theme across religions so that they can interleave with their existing knowledge and compare these religious traditions. This is also why in their first year of students will study the Abrahamic religions in chronological order followed by Dharma based religions in their second year.

The curriculum is also designed to enable students to develop their understanding of the diversity of religion. For this reason, in each unit of study there is a focus on the lived experience of the religion in the world today. We aim to focus on the world, national and local picture of each of the major world religions so that we can explore the diversity of religion within the community of Peterborough. We will make links with our wider community using guest speakers of different religions and visits to places of interest.

At each stage of the curriculum, we are building on the students’ schema so we will identify the conceptual links explicitly and lesson planning will include retrieval of this prior knowledge. In these two years there is a significant focus on the discipline of theology but there are topics that start to explore philosophy and the social sciences. They are also interweaved within units.