I work as a Head of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics in one of the country's highest achieving state schools.
I am passionate about ensuring that my subject is engaging, relevant and academically rigorous.
I devote time imagining, creating, differentiating and tailoring my resources so that the students benefit from quality teaching materials and I hope that they are of real benefit to your own practice.
I work as a Head of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics in one of the country's highest achieving state schools.
I am passionate about ensuring that my subject is engaging, relevant and academically rigorous.
I devote time imagining, creating, differentiating and tailoring my resources so that the students benefit from quality teaching materials and I hope that they are of real benefit to your own practice.
A new bundle combining the best-selling ‘Complete RE/Philosophy Display Pack’ that’s now sold over 800 copies and my new high-quality ‘Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases’ displays to root out any irrationality in your classroom.
Between them there is plenty to cover any classroom’s wallspace:
The awesome Philosophers Timeline with 68 thinkers and pop-out quotes for each
Bloomin’ good questions display
RE skills/levels wall-chart
Blooms questioning chart
Classroom opinion line
Philosophical Language display
21 Common logical fallacies display
18 Cognitive biases we’re all guilty of
Make your classroom a joy to look at!
This display pack is designed to engage students in reflecting on their thinking and argument. The pack includes two displays:
Logical fallacies covering a range of 21 examples of irrationality including:
Strawman, slippery slope, ad hominum, black or white, appeal to authority, bandwagon, middle ground, begging the question, non-representative sample, moral equivalency, non sequitur, red herring, splitting hairs, non-testable hypothesis, anecdotal support, genetic, post hoc ergo propter hoc, appeal to tradition, appeal to emotion, affirming the consequent and denying the antecedent.
Cognitive biases covering a range of 18 reasons why we all fail to be objective including:
Anchoring, confirmation bias, declinism, framing, fundamental attribution error, the halo effect, backfire effect, reactance, groupthink, belief bias, availability heuristic, clustering illusion, conservatism bias, blind spot bias, the ostrich effect, zero risk, in-group bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect.
All of the displays are styled in a high contrast white on black or black on white (apart from the red herring of course…) They are eye-catching and informative for your students of all ages from Year 7 through to Year 13. Great for an RE, Philosophy or Psychology classroom. Maybe these should be in every classroom - just think about the world we could create!
Instructions: Just cut around the shape leaving a small border of white. You could create a board for each or put both together! I’ve uploaded a model of how they look in my classroom.
This is a full 10-page A3 workbook designed to engage and support our students with the key information needed for AQA Religious Studies A Christianity Beliefs and Teachings (Q1 of Paper 1). It is designed to be used in conjunction with the OUP textbooks but can be used without.
The pack consists of full colour landscape pages for the whole unit that really clearly points out key terms, teachings and key beliefs and concepts.
There is a wide range of activity styles to keep students engaged and motivated. Students will be working from memory as well as looking up information. Pages of the textbook are subtly shown to indicate where the information can be found if needed.
A wide range of extension tasks to allow students to delve more deeply into each topic area in the unit. Plenty of ‘tips’ to point out important guidance to students.
At the end is guidance and practice opportunities for the different question styles. Included are model answers. There is also a knowledge audit to allow student to RAG rate their confidence in different areas.
It should be printed double-sided and blown up to A3. There is just too much included on each page for it to scale to A4 comfortably.
I have designed this to be high on impact for students and totally no-fuss for yourself as a teacher. Just print it and go, use in class time or set as independent work. Do sections at a time or give it out as a full pack.
Markbook Extra is an incredibly powerful yet wonderfully simple automated electronic markbook.
How does it work?
In brief, you enter the student’s raw marks for any assessment and the markbook uses sophisticated analysis to present you with all the data you’d want to see on an individual student or whole classes.
Highlights of v5:
Overhauled from the ground up to improve on almost every aspect of the original ‘markbook ultra’.
Store all of your classes (KS3-5) in one simple Excel workbook.
Suitable for any subject area regardless of how or what you assess. Show or hide up to five different assessment objective columns for each assessment.
Supports GCSE (9-1 or A*-G), A Level and Pre-U. Goodbye to using different workbooks for different types of grades!
Supports Foundation, Intermediate and Higher tier students in the same class and will limit grades accordingly.
Supports more than just male and female gender identity.
Set your own regularly used grade boundaries in eight quick presets or choose them individually for each assessment.
Powerful ‘at a glance’ and on the go analysis of individual student progress, each assessment or classes as a whole.
One-click export for headline data for all KS4 and KS5 classes for use by colleagues or line managers.
Live analysis of Gender gaps, SEND gap, and PP gap.
One click button to print a summary sheet for any student or the whole class at once. This gives a breakdown of all assessments and their marks. Shows progress against targets. Great for handing out and discussing at parents’ evening.
Filter by assessment type to offer even more powerful analysis of class strengths and areas for improvement.
KS3 markbooks support custom levels/grades or RAG rated strand systems.
Sample class included which is packed with helpful tips on how to use the markbook.
All Macros work on PC and Mac. This is truly universal and made for everyone!
If you have any questions prior to purchase please do get in touch: markbookultra@gmail.com
Custom-made versions of Markbook Extra are available. Have your school branding added and modifications made where necessary. Email me directly for a quotation.
Stop making puzzles and games from scratch! The Most Amazing Puzzle Maker creates them all for you, AUTOMATICALLY. All you need to do is type up the questions and answers, choose a puzzle and hit print!
What can it make right now?
Large 16 triangle tarsia puzzles
Small 9 triangle tarsia puzzles
Tarsia gem puzzles
Square-up puzzles
Vertical dominoes puzzles
Horizontal dominoes puzzles
Question relays
Bingo! cards
Pairing card sorts
Split word card sorts
How does it work?
You simply type in your questions and answers into the template and the linked cells in the puzzles automatically match the information entered. See how your questions appear in the various different formats and choose a puzzle that best suits your needs.
Superbly customisable for differentiation! You can add distractions to many of the puzzles - these are incorrect answers or answerless questions to up the challenge and really test the students' knowledge or problem solving skills.
There are very clear instructions on how to create and print each of the different puzzles.
The file is an Excel file so is compatible with the vast majority of school or home systems. It works with all versions of Office since 1997!
Who is it for?
Absolutely anyone, these tasks can be used in any subject area and across any phase. They are great for consolidation, revision, working with key terms, knowledge acquiring, competitive group work...the list goes on!
Any new puzzles I create for the Most Amazing Puzzle Maker will be included as a free update. See changelog below.
Changelog:
v1.1 (12/11/17)
- New
Added Split Word card sort - great for primary and languages at secondary
Added Dominoes2 horizontal card sort - better for simpler questions
Added Bingo generator - creates unique bingo cards for each student!
- Fixed
Tweaked various cell formatting
Tweaked language in some instructions to improve clarity
Add new instructions to the front page
This content-packed lesson will give students the tools to comprehensively answer any Q3, Q4 or Q5 on divorce and remarriage in Christianity. Students will consider why divorce is so prevalent today and the factors that affect our relationships. They will then go on to explore Christian teachings using Bibles and link these to different beliefs about divorce in different denominations of the Church. Finally, they will apply this new learning to a Q5 with guidance on how to make this an effective answer. In fact, there are a variety of Q5 titles if you'd like to give your students more choice and freedom.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Relationships and Families'. It will, however, work with any specification including Divorce and Remarriage. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Recap quiz
- Worksheets
This is the first lesson I teach in the Religious Pluralism and Theology unit. It is designed to give students freedom and tools to start to embrace the challenge of this complex and exciting unit. Students will open the discussion around pluralism, inclusivism and exclusivism by exploring their own thinking and preconceptions. They will learn and be assessed on key terms including concepts beyond those outlined in the spec to prepare them for better and clearer explanations. Finally, they will watch Richard Swinburne discuss religious exclusivism and compare his views to their own initial ideas.
Ready to teach, lesson includes:
Full lesson plan
Resources
Worksheets
In this research lesson students will use IT facilities along with a highly structured lesson to explore real world examples of Holy War. They will examine teachings from both Christianity and Islam and identify religious justifications for war. They will also explore how Holy War might be a more complex issue when we take into account the non-religious causes of the war.
They will be guided to create an outstanding Q5 answer to Holy War and analyse a model essay to help prepare them for writing their own.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Religion, Peace and Conflict'. It will, however, work with any specification including Holy War. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Worksheets (including teacher answer sheet)
- Model Q5 answer
In this lesson students will explore the various arguments around homosexuality including the thinking of Augustine, Aquinas and Fletcher.
They will develop knowledge of the changes in attitude to homosexuality in Britain and be able to employ detailed knowledge of scripture to evaluate the heteronormative position held by some Christians.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Relationship and Families'. It will, however, work with any specification including homosexuality. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Worksheet
- Completed worksheet with teacher information
I teach this lesson at the start of the Relationships and Families thematic unit (Chapter 3).
I want students to understand the diverse world we live in and put the learning we will do into context. I also want the students to understand that we embrace all of them and are not interested in pigeon-holing them into badly defined categories of sexuality.
The aim here is to open the debate, challenge preconceptions, build a welcoming and open discussion environment and show them how relevant this topic area is to all of us.
In this puzzling lesson students examine closely different elements, symbols and beliefs about marriage in Christianity. They will be able to explain in detail why marriage is important for Christians. They will also be able to suggest reasons why same-sex couples have fought for the legal right to marry, as well as identify objections that Christians might have for this.
There is a numeracy element to the starter and the group work task really engages the students to figure out how the puzzle goes together.
Lesson plan and all resources are included, it's ready to go out of the box. Please note that I don't use a powerpoint for this lesson - it just doesn't need one!
In this very relevant and evaluative lesson students learn to explain pacifism and the broad spectrum of beliefs that this covers, as well as understanding the religious context in Christianity and Islam.
They will go further, working in pairs and groups, to assess and form an opinion on the usefulness of pacifism as a means to address conflict through key pacifists and other thinkers.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Religion, peace and conflict'. It will, however, work with any specification including pacifism. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Worksheets
- Homework research sheet
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will reflect on the modern world and our technological advancement and consider the ethics of memory manipulation, artificial intelligence and designer babies.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will assess the idea of free will and outline some constraints on freedom.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will reflect on their ideas of the 'good life' and what gives life meaning. They will compare these with others and consider the implications for us as people.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will consider what sets us apart from other creatures and address the question of our unique position and status.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will make some tough decisions and pin down what gives life value.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions.
You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727
In this lesson students will explore ideas about the dualist and materialist ideas about body and soul.
Included:
- PowerPoint
- Resources
- Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.
Students are challenged in this lesson to understand the range of different reasons why Christians believe Jesus was sacrificed on the cross. They will use extracts from 'Love Wins' by Rob Bell and explore some recognisable hymns to make links between theory and lived religion.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Beliefs and Teachings'. It will, however, work with any specification including Jesus and Salvation. Target grade is 7-9.
PowerPoint and worksheet included.
In this challenging lesson students take on some A Level style discussion about the nature of salvation. Going beyond the GCSE course, students not only learn about sin, its nature and origin, but also discuss the Pelagian controversy and the long-standing debate between salvation through works or through God's grace.
The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Beliefs and Teachings'. It will, however, work with any specification including Sin. Target grade is 7-9.
Ready to teach this lesson includes:
- Full Lesson Plan
- PowerPoint
- Worksheets
- Card sort