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 6 of the topic ‘Does God have a message?’ Students start off by watching a video explaining the meaning of worship, before investigating four types of Christian worship; charismatic, liturgial, non-liturgical and personal. Students then watch further video clips about liturgical and non-liturgical worship and consider which type may lead to a closer relationship with God. Finally, students consider ways in which worship could be made more appealing and be better advertised to attract young Christians to worship. The plenary asks students to respond to the question; ‘how do Christians worship’ and complete a ‘how tree’ on this question.

British Reforms Assessment for KS3 or KS4, following NEW GCSE AQA exam style questions and marking criteria (all provided). The assessment takes its focus through the campaign for votes for women, starting with an 8 mark source based question focusing on suffragettes being force fed in prison (How useful is this source to a historian studying the women’s suffrage movement). This is followed by a 10 mark significance question comparing the impact of theWSUP and the NWSSU (Explain which group was more significant in helping women to win the vote, the WSUP or the NWSSU). The final question is a 16 mark evaluation question, which allows students to incorporate information about male suffrage in relation to women ultimately winning the right to vote (Women would never have won the vote without WW1 occurring).

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 identify different uses and abuses of animals and the environment and which are acceptable, as well as suggesting possible solutions to unacceptable treatment. Students reflect on their learning so far with a progress bridge linked to the learning outcomes. A YouTube video by Al Gore introduces global warming and students identify areas of pollution. Students then respond to sacred writing from both Christianity and Buddhism, followed by another progress bridge linked to the learning outcomes. Lastly, students respond creatively to case studies and information from Catholic Christianity, the Parable of the Talents and Buddhism and the Holy Isle project.

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 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 Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies 2018 assessment criteria. A PPT with templates for the new GCSE style questions (a, b, c and d) 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 a single information sheet with the assessment criteria, brief instructions for how to answer each question (a, b, c and d) 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.

An introductory lesson to morality and ethics revolving around 5 contentious moral issues, which students are asked to respond to through discussion. A very engaging lesson that motivates all students to participate and promotes debating skills. In my experience, this works best when students can discuss each issue in groups before feeding back to the class and allowing different groups to go into short 'head-to-head' debates. Alternatively, this works very well in a P4C format, where each student is given a set amount of contribution tokens for the lesson and has to 'pay' for every contribution and can then no longer contribute when they are out of tokens. This really forces students to consider when to put forward their view.

A lesson within the broader topic of 'Belonging' investigating the significance of the Amrit ceremony for Sikhs including the meaning behind the 5Ks and how the Khalsa can establish a sense of belonging.

NEW GCSE Edexcel RS specification. A lesson focusing on Christian attitudes to prejudice and discrimination, leading into a discussion on divergent Christian denominations and their views on women playing a leading role in the Church. There is a practice exam question built in at the end of the lesson for students to examine both sides of the argument for women as Church leaders.

GCSE lesson on the use of different types of prayer in Christianity, with specific focus on the difference between extempore and formulaic prayer. Incorporating the 'Lord's prayer' and a creative activity where students can create their own extempore prayer.

A lesson suitable for GCSE or A-level Philosophy and Ethics to introduce Jeremy Bentham and his concept of Hedonism in moral decision making. Includes an introduction to the notions of Teleology, Utility and happiness in Utilitarian morality. Includes a 'peer teach' activity which always goes down extremely well with students - I usually choose the most able students in a class to become 'teachers' and ask them to relate the information to the rest of the class in groups, which then rotate from teacher to teacher every few minutes. (NOTE: at GCSE this PPT will take 2 lessons of 60 minutes, whereas A-level students normally manage in 1). There are also 3 moral dilemmas for students to apply Bentham's ideas to which engages even the most dis-disillusioned students.

NEW 2016 Religious Studies KS3 curriculum lesson on the symbols and artefacts used by Christians during worship. The lesson focuses on symbols and artefacts linked to Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Church services. Quotes from the 'Last Supper' in the Bible are used as sources of wisdom and authority to get students to explore why religious symbols have survived thousands of years and are important to Christians today. The plenary asks students to use scrabble tiles to create between 2 and 5 words linked to the lesson and compete to get the highest scoring words.

GCSE lesson on different types of family in the UK, following the 'NEW' Edexcel GCSE specification. Investigates the benefits and challenges of each type of family.

NEW GCSE Edexcel RS specification covering Matters of Life and Death. A lesson based on an investigation of near-death experiences, paranormal activity and reincarnation as non-religious beliefs in life after death. The main focus of the lesson is through visual learning with three video clips to guide students through each factor behind life after death. A creative main task gives students the opportunity to write a fictional first person account using one of the factors. If watching all video clips in full this lesson will take two sessions to complete.

GCSE introduction lesson on the causes of world poverty with Christian and Buddhist responses, following the AQA Religious Studies Specification B, Unit 3 - Religion and Morality. The starter hooks students straight away by showing them a series of pictures and asking them to find a link. This is followed by a task asking students to explain the nature of poverty and getting them to critically think about the difference between relative and absolute poverty, as well as suggesting causes of poverty. A stretch and challenge task is available specific to target grades. Students then respond to a 2 mark exam style definition question, before peer assessing it using the AQA marking criteria. The main task asks students to complete a diamond 9 task comparing and examining the causes of world poverty and how each cause may contribute to ongoing poverty. Students then use religious teaching from Christianity and Buddhism to suggest religious responses to world poverty with a task differentiated and linked to target grades. Students then answer a 3 mark personal opinion question and peer assess this using the AQA marking criteria. Finally, students reflect on the lesson using SMSC prompts. Every activity is differentiated either by outcome or task and allows stretch and challenge for the most able students.

NEW GCSE Edexcel RS specification on Matters of Life and Death. A lesson inspired by philosophical enquiry and focusing on the Humanist response to belief in life after death. An excellent lesson to get students thinking about 'life after death' in general and therefore suitable as a KS3 lesson on 'big questions' as well as for KS4 on non religious arguments against belief in life after death, or alternatively as a revision lesson for KS5. A very student centred lesson with plenty of opportunities for independent enquiry and team work as well as active participation.

KS3 lesson based on the NEW SACRE RS specification, focusing on Paley's Watch argument and how this can lead to a Christian belief in God. Also suitable as an introduction to the Design Argument for KS4.

NEW GCSE Edexcel RS specification lesson on the purpose and importance of marriage for Christians. Comparison of Christian and non-religious views regarding the importance of marriage in the UK today.

NEW GCSE Edexcel RS specification. A lesson focusing on the use of sources of wisdom and authority to explain the role of women in the Christian family with divergent Christian views including a video clip about how men and women should divide work and family life.

A lesson suitable for KS3, KS4 and KS5 - in my experience all students love to try out meditative yoga, whatever age they are. The teacher input can vary depending on age and ability, but there is scope to delve deeper into the relationship between Atman and Brahman and Moksha and A-level students tend to give much more analytical answers when reflecting on their experience of the meditation. This works best when the teacher gets the whole class involved and is also confident to participate in the meditation themselves (in my experience). On slide 2 it goes through the 8 stages of meditative yoga in Hinduism and I tend to attach a student action to each one, e.g. abstention involves them giving up their shoes or mobile phone, for the duration of the meditation. There should be no problem with 100% student engagement if this is the case - I always get fantastic feedback, especially from students who are usually difficult to keep quiet. Likewise, be confident to ask the whole class to get comfortable in a specific position and practice deep breathing. Most importantly, all students (and the teacher) should close their eyes during the meditation.