A lesson suitable for KS3 about Jesus' miracles. Students explore the meaning of what a miracle is and miracles of nature versus miracles of healing are introduced. Students take on the role of police detectives who have to 'solve' the mystery of two miracles and decide if it is a genuine miracle or can in fact be explained by science. A great lesson to get students engaged and can be taught with students working individually or in pairs.

A GCSE lesson introducing Fair Trade and the ethical and moral issues it addresses. No previous knowledge of ethics or morality are necessary and the lesson is based around plenty of case studies for students to get their teeth stuck into. I have used this as a stand-alone lesson with KS3, or as the start of a Fair Trade project with KS4 and as part of a Business Ethics topic at A-level and found students to be very receptive.

NEW 2016 Religious Studies KS3 curriculum lesson on the purpose of worship and prayer for Christians. The lesson is based around the Lord's prayer as a source of wisdom and authority and introduces the concepts of liturgical and non-liturgical worship. Students are also introduced to the difference between worship and prayer through video clips from 'Chuck knows Church' which offer an engaging and student friendly introduction to the two. Quotes from the Bible ask students to suggest what kind of relationship Christians hope to achieve with God through worship and prayer. This allows a fantastic opportunity to stretch and challenge the more able students.

A creative and engaging lesson for KS3 about why Jesus is still remembered today with a focus on sources of wisdom and authority. Jesus' core message about how to treat others is explored through the parable of the Good Samaritan and students are given a chance to be creative and work independently by allowing them to write a speech about why Jesus' message is still relevant in today's society. Students respond very well to this lesson, especially those who usually put up barriers to learning in RE. If you have the time, there is scope for this to last for two lessons, as students can deliver their speeches in front of the class in the second lesson.

A GCSE or A-level lesson outlining the content of the four Vedas in Hinduism and focusing on the God Agni in Hindu worship and how each Veda contributes to overall worship in Vedic Hinduism. There are links to the origins of the Vedas, including Aryan and Indus influences and the role of the four Brahmin priests in the Vedic sacrifice (Agni).

NEW 2016 Religious Studies KS3 curriculum assessment based on a unit of work including the following lessons, available in my shop. 1) The nature and purpose of Church in Christianity 2) The importance of worship and prayer in Christianity 3) The Bible as a source of authority for Christians 4) Christians denominations in the UK. 5) Symbols and Artefacts used during Christian worship. There are two assessments included, which offer a choice for students. Assessment option 1: Students to create their own religious symbol to be used during worship. Assessment option 2: Students to create a podcast about worship in Christianity. There is also included a confidence and revision sheet for students to reflect on their progress during the topic.

NEW 2016 Edexcel Religious Studies GCSE lesson on the importance of Al-Quadr in Islam, following the 'Religion, Peace and Conflict through Islam' unit. The lesson is split into Muslim beliefs on predestination focusing on the universe as a whole as well as relating to human lives in particular. There is a strong focus on using sources of wisdom and authority from the Qur'an and for students to interpret Muslim beliefs based on religious teaching. There is also an exploration of the concept of Free Will in Islam and how this is interpreted differently by divergent Muslims following both the Sunni and Shia traditions of Islam. Students use the Hadith Sahih Al-Bukhari 78:685 as a source of wisdom and authority to suggest if Free Will can be compatible with a belief in predestination.

NEW 2016 KS3 Religious Studies curriculum lesson on the topic of 'Belonging' with a specific focus on Judaism and the Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremony for Jewish boys and girls. This lesson introduces the notion of the Jewish covenant and the concept of promise-keeping and responsibility. A YouTube video follows a modern Jewish boy as he prepares for his Bar Mitzvah and students take notes before getting the opportunity to write a piece of creative writing in the form of a diary entry, immediately following the ceremony. The plenary uses HOTS (higher order thinking skills) and invites students to analyse a picture of a Bar Mitzvah ceremony and pose questions of their own to cement their learning.

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 AQA GCSE Religious Studies 2018 assessment criteria. A PPT with templates for the new GCSE style questions (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) for use during lessons or assessments with students at KS4. There is a clear and student friendly breakdown of the new question types, including tips for how to answer each question as well as sentence starters. There is also a student friendly mark scheme for each question, perfect for use as peer- or self-assessment. There are also basic instructions for how to write in PEE paragraphs as well as a student friendly overview of the requirement for both AO1 and AO2. Also included is an information sheet with the assessment criteria, brief instructions for how to answer each question (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) and a breakdown of marks for every question, which has been extremely useful for students to use either as revision, during an assessment, or as a self- or peer-marking sheet.

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 hook, students are asked to respond to the question whether life itself causes suffering, before investigating the main causes of suffering identified by the Buddha. Students then engage with the notions of change and attachment as causes of suffering before analysing sacred writing as evidence for Buddhist beliefs. Students then apply their knowledge to a GCSE exam type question, scaffolded with sentence starters and a student friendly mark scheme that can be used for self-or peer-assessment. As a plenary, students complete a WHY-Tree, where they start with a single question and keep answering it and then asking 'why' to elaborate as far as they can ( students should aim to include 4-5 'whys').

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 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 5 of the topic ‘What do I believe’. Students start off considering the reasons why people pray before watching several videos about the nature of prayer for Christians. Students then apply what they have learnt to the analysis of a selection of Christian quotes about prayer and finish off with a creative task of writing a letter to an alien about prayer.