A KS3 lesson investigating the history behind the Jewish festival of Pesach (Passover) and asking students to explore why it is still central in Judaism today. The main task is a peer-teach, with student teachers teaching groups of students who circle from teacher to teacher. I usually choose high ability students to be peer teachers (five are needed for this lesson). There is a work sheet for the students to fill in as they visit each peer teacher. The lesson also introduced the Seder plate and finishes with a creative De Bono task of writing a diary entry from the perspective of a modern day Jew.

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 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 asked to interpret the meaning of sacred writing from Jataka vol. 1, p.71 and consider how the Buddha used meditation to reach enlightenment. They then explore the significance of the 'three watches' before applying their learning to a GCSE type exam question, with scaffolding provided, as well as a student friendly mark scheme, which can be used for self- or peer-assessment.

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').

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.

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 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.

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 1 of the topic ‘Does God have a message?’ Students start off by considering how God’s core characteristics might be portrayed through symbols and art. Students then move onto exploring the concept of Jesus as the ‘Son of God’ and why the incarantion of Jesus can be seen as a good way for God to communicate with humans. The key question for this lesson is; ‘Why is taking human form an effective way for God to communicate with humans?’