NEW KS3 History curriculum on British Reforms following the NEW 1-9 grading criteria. This lesson focuses on the work of the Suffragettes (WSPU) and the tactics they employed to gain equal rights for women including getting the vote. Students get to practice the skill of chronology in assembling Suffragette tactics. Students then have the opportunity to write a piece of creative writing in the form of a speech from the point of view of a Suffragette. The teacher can choose students to sit in a 'hot seat' at the front of the class to read out their work (alternatively, this task can be carried over into a second lesson to give every student the chance to read out, or perform their speech). In the plenary, students vote in a secret ballot to decide if violent action helped women to get the vote. All tasks are clearly differentiated and this lesson is suitable for all abilities.

NEW 2018 Edexcel Religious Studies GCSE lesson on Living the Muslims Life, with a focus on Sunni and Shi'a festivals and commemorations. The lessons follows the new 1-9 grading criteria with stretch and challenge tasks built into every activity. The main task revolves around using De Bono's Hats to thoroughly examine four Muslims festivals; Id-ul-Fitr, Id-ul-Ghadeer, Id-ul-Adha and Ashura, including their origins, purpose and relevance to Sunni and Shi'a Muslims respectively. Students then get the opportunity to respond to sources of wisdom and authority relating to Muslim festivals, before applying their knowledge to a practice exam question. There is a student friendly mark scheme to allow for either self- or peer-assessment. The plenary allows students to reflect on their performance using Personal Learning and Thinking Skills as prompt questions.

NEW 2018 Edexcel Religious Studies lesson following the new 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson focuses on the topic Living the Muslim Life and includes stretch and challenge activities as part of each task. The main task is based around an in-depth examination of sources of wisdom and authority from the Qur'an, which students are asked to annotate and analyse in relation the concepts of forgiveness, justice, reconciliation and peace-making. Students can work independently, in pairs or as groups (depending on your class) to build a detailed mind-map about the role of peace-making in Islam. Students are then asked to create a leaflet about how young Muslims today should respond to bullying based on the teachings used during the main task. This lesson is ideal to develop higher order thinking skills and critical analysis in students and gives students a wide range of sources of wisdom and authority to help them interpret how Muslims live their life today based on the Qur'an.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lesson on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson includes differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. As a starter, students explore the concept of universal laws and respond with an opinion on whether the Buddha's view about suffering constitutes a universal law. Students then use sacred writing to investigate the link between dhamma and suffering before engaging with the Buddhist belief in the 'Three Jewels'. As plenary, students are asked to create a short quiz about their learning to test someone else in the class as well as linking the lesson to keywords linked to SMSC.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lesson on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson includes differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. Students are hooked into the lesson by a picture of the Buddhist Wheel of Life and asked to ask a question about it, without any further context before engaging with the concept of ‘dependent arising’ through its definition. Students then complete a creative task, by adding key information to a diagram of samsara focusing on: samsara, kamma, nibbana, the three poisons, the nidanas and the various realms. This task can be done in a variety of ways, either as a poster, leaflet, mind-map, carousel task (and many more). Students then use sacred writing to evidence Buddhist beliefs in dependent arising before applying their knowledge to a GCSE exam type question, including scaffolded sentence starters and a student friendly mark scheme, which can be used for self- or peer-assessment. As a plenary, students attempt to answer their question about the Wheel of Life from the starter task.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lesson on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson includes differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. Students are hooked into the lesson by considering if it is possible for humans to overcome suffering. Students then have the opportunity to consider how the life of the Buddha could link to him considering suffering to be a major problem that needs to be overcome. Students then listen to the Rolling Stones song 'satisfaction' and link the message of the lyrics to Buddhism and suffering in particular. Students then summarise the Four Noble Truths by responding to a definition of each and respond by giving an example of suffering that can be applied to the Four Noble Truths (model answer provided). Students then consider evidence for Buddhist beliefs about the Four Noble Truths by analysing sacred writing, before summarising their learning as the plenary.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lesson on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson includes differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. Students investigate and compare some of the main features of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism including differences regarding; sunyata, Buddhahood, the five aggregates, kamma and nibbana. This can be done through a carousel task, or peer teaching, with students being asked to take notes from the information sheet. Students then use their knowledge to create a poster outlining the key differences between the two types of Buddhism, with particular emphasis on the concept of 'self' and 'enlightenment'. The spinning plenary wheel, allows for a random plenary from a selection of 8.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lesson on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson includes differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. This lesson is an in-depth study of the first three of the Four Noble Truths, allowing students to create a detailed fact-file or poster (it is also suitable for peer-teaching or a carousel task if you print the main information slides). Students respond to each if the first three of the Four Noble Truth by considering the role suffering plays in human lives, linked to the three poisons and attachment, as well as analysing several sources of sacred writing. The plenary, which can be built up into an entire separate lesson, introduces students the AQA GCSE question types (1-5) and asks them to create their own exam questions about the Four Noble Truths, which can then be answered by individual students, teams or the whole class and be used to build key exam skills.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lesson on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lesson includes differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. Students respond to an overview of the Eightfold Path by considering its nature and the role it plays in overcoming suffering before explaining how following the Eightfold Path can lead Buddhists towards enlightenment. Students then attempt a 12-mark GCSE style exam question, which has scaffolded sentence starters as well as a fully written model answer and a student friendly mark scheme, which can be used for self- or peer-assessment. Finally, students reflect on their learning using PLTS.

A revision summary of the topic ‘Buddhist Beliefs’ following the new ‘AQA Religious Studies A’ syllabus, which had its first exam during Summer 2017. The pack contains core content, condensed into student friendly bullet-points, along with reference to ‘sacred writing’ in the form of quotes. This is excellent revision material for students of all abilities. The content is presented in managable chunks of three key ideas for each sub-topic, supported by quotes, which allow the more able to go into more depth interpreting Christian beliefs and perspectives. The content can be applied to past exam papers, or students can create their own flashcards, quizzes, or graphic organisers in support of their revision.

A revision summary of the topic ‘Christian Beliefs’ following the new ‘AQA Religious Studies A’ syllabus, which had its first exam during Summer 2017. The pack contains core content, condensed into student friendly bullet-points, along with reference to ‘sacred writing’ in the form of quotes. This is excellent revision material for students of all abilities. The content is presented in managable chunks of three key ideas for each sub-topic, supported by quotes, which allow the more able to go into more depth interpreting Christian beliefs and perspectives. The content can be applied to past exam papers, or students can create their own flashcards, quizzes, or graphic organisers in support of their revision.

A revision summary of the topic ‘Christian Practices’ following the new ‘AQA Religious Studies A’ syllabus, which had its first exam during Summer 2017. The pack contains core content, condensed into student friendly bullet-points, along with reference to ‘sacred writing’ in the form of quotes. This is excellent revision material for students of all abilities. The content is presented in managable chunks of three key ideas for each sub-topic, supported by quotes, which allow the more able to go into more depth interpreting Christian beliefs and perspectives. The content can be applied to past exam papers, or students can create their own flashcards, quizzes, or graphic organisers in support of their revision.

NEW 2018 AQA Religious Studies Specification ‘A’ lessons on ‘Buddhist Beliefs and Teachings’ following the 1-9 grading criteria. The lessons include differentiated tasks for every activity, designed to stretch and challenge all students. This is a comprehensive examination of the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism, through three separate lessons (it could be up to five or six, depending on how much time is devoted to practising the GCSE exam style questions). Lesson 1 is an introductory overview of the nature and purpose of the Four Noble Truths Lesson 2 is an in-depth investigation of the first three noble truths including detailed reference to sacred writing. Lesson 3 is an exploration of the Eightfold Path and includes a 12-mark practice exam question, including sentence starters, a model answer and a student friendly mark scheme.

A revision summary of the topic ‘Buddhist Practices’ following the new ‘AQA Religious Studies A’ syllabus, which had its first exam during Summer 2017. The pack contains core content, condensed into student friendly bullet-points, along with reference to ‘sacred writing’ in the form of quotes. This is excellent revision material for students of all abilities. The content is presented in managable chunks of three key ideas for each sub-topic, supported by quotes, which allow the more able to go into more depth interpreting Christian beliefs and perspectives. The content can be applied to past exam papers, or students can create their own flashcards, quizzes, or graphic organisers in support of their revision.

A KS3 Religious Studies lesson, using an enquiry based approach to learning and based on Christianity as a way to explore belief in God. Following the 2018 Berkshire SACRE agreed syllabus with a focus on exploring the principles of ‘believing, belonging and behaving’ in a religious context and secular context. This is lesson 2 of the topic ‘What do I believe’. Students are hooked into the lesson by listening to Joan Osborne’s ‘What if God was one of us’ and then explore the Christian belief about the nature of God. The key question for this lesson is’ What is God’s most important characteristic?’

A KS3 Religious Studies lesson, using an enquiry based approach to learning and based on Christianity as a way to explore belief in God. Following the 2018 Berkshire SACRE agreed syllabus with a focus on exploring the principles of ‘believing, belonging and behaving’ in a religious and secular context. This is lesson 4 of the topic ‘Does God have a message?’ Students watch three of Jesus’ parables and discuss the messages they are sending about good behaviour and God’s expectation of humans. Then a number of moral guidelines from the Beautitudes are discussed and students are asked to justify which they believe to be the most important. The key question for this lesson is; ‘Is Jesus’ message relevant to non-Christians?’

A KS3 Religious Studies lesson, using an enquiry based approach to learning and based on Christianity as a way to explore belief in God. Following the 2018 Berkshire SACRE agreed syllabus with a focus on exploring the principles of ‘believing, belonging and behaving’ in a religious and secular context. This is lesson 3 of the topic ‘Does God have a message?’ A differeniated task asking students to respond to summaries of several of Jesus’ miracles by considering the message of each is followed by a clip of ‘dynamo’ walking on water. This leads to the key question for the lesson; ‘Are miracles valuable or pure superstition?’

A KS3 Religious Studies lesson, using an enquiry based approach to learning and based on Christianity as a way to explore belief in God. Following the 2018 Berkshire SACRE agreed syllabus with a focus on exploring the principles of ‘believing, belonging and behaving’ in a religious and secular context. This is lesson 5 of the topic ‘Does God have a message?’ Students start off by watching a video comparing infant and believer’s baptism, before exploring reasons why Christians want to become baptised. The key question for this lesson is; ‘Which type of baptism is more important?’

A KS3 Religious Studies lesson, using an enquiry based approach to learning and based on Christianity as a way to explore belief in God. Following the 2018 Berkshire SACRE agreed syllabus with a focus on exploring the principles of ‘believing, belonging and behaving’ in a religious and secular context. This is lesson 2 of the topic ‘Does God have a message’. This lesson introduces students to the Holy Trinity and the incarnation of Jesus through the use of quotes from the Bible. The key question for this lesson is; ‘Why is the incarnation important to Christians?’