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Religious studies

Religious studies

Religious Education (RE) creates opportunities for personal reflection as well as deepening knowledge and understanding of the world around us and, ultimately, developing the key skill of empathy. Religious Education contributes to students’ education by provoking challenging questions about meaning and purpose in life, beliefs about God, ultimate reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. In RE students learn about religious and non-religious world views to discover, explore, and consider different answers to these questions. RE offers opportunities for personal reflection and pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development as it encourages them to examine the significance of their learning in relation to themselves and others.

Students learn to interpret, analyse, evaluate, and critically respond to the claims that religious and non-religious world views make, as well as express their insights and agree or disagree respectfully. Teaching, therefore, equips learners with knowledge and understanding of what is meant by the terms “religion” and “world view”, as well as knowledge and understanding of a range of religious and non-religious world views.

RE offers opportunities for personal reflection and pupils’ spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development as it encourages them to examine the significance of their learning in relation to themselves and others. It enables students to explore their own beliefs - religious or not, ideas, feelings, experiences, and values in the light of what they learn. RE encourages empathy and respect and enables learners to develop their own sense of identity and belonging, all whilst promoting respect and tolerance of different beliefs, values, and ideas.

Ultimately, RE enables positive participation in our society due to its diverse religious and non-religious world views. The course gives pupils an informed understanding of political, social, and moral issues that they will need to face as they grow up in an increasingly globalised world. Pupils learn to positively deal with controversial issues, to manage strongly held differences of belief and to challenge stereotypes and prejudice.

"RE makes me think, is it right or wrong. I really like the moral questions and debates we then have"
Year 9 student