Why go somewhere special?

A KS3 Religious Studies lesson, using an enquiry based approach to learning exploring Islam. This is lesson 1 of the topic ‘What makes something special?’ which covers Islamic worship, particularly Salat and Hajj of the Five Pillars of Islam. The SoL follows the 2018 Berkshire SACRE agreed syllabus with a focus on exploring the principles of ‘believing, belonging and behaving’ in a religious and secular context. All tasks are differentiated by choice or challenge in order to stretch learners of all abilities.
Students are hooked into learning by a close up of Muslims on Hajj and are asked to respond to the image by imaging what it would be like to be in the crowd. Students then see a further six images and are asked to infer from them what is happening.
Students then watch a 15-minute video diary about a Muslim going on Hajj and get a choice of activities for how they want to respond, either a; diary entry, newspaper article, story board or flow chart.
Students then read additional information about the Hajj and have to respond by writing a paragraph about it, linked to the learning outcomes for the lesson.
Finally, a creative plenary asks students to create their own picture of their learning in the lesson.