I teach this lesson at the start of the Relationships and Families thematic unit (Chapter 3). I want students to understand the diverse world we live in and put the learning we will do into context. I also want the students to understand that we embrace all of them and are not interested in pigeon-holing them into badly defined categories of sexuality. The aim here is to open the debate, challenge preconceptions, build a welcoming and open discussion environment and show them how relevant this topic area is to all of us.

In this research lesson students will use IT facilities along with a highly structured lesson to explore real world examples of Holy War. They will examine teachings from both Christianity and Islam and identify religious justifications for war. They will also explore how Holy War might be a more complex issue when we take into account the non-religious causes of the war. They will be guided to create an outstanding Q5 answer to Holy War and analyse a model essay to help prepare them for writing their own. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Religion, Peace and Conflict'. It will, however, work with any specification including Holy War. Target grade is 7-9. Ready to teach this lesson includes: - Full Lesson Plan - PowerPoint - Worksheets (including teacher answer sheet) - Model Q5 answer

Markbook Extra is an incredibly powerful yet wonderfully simple automated electronic markbook. How does it work? In brief, you enter the student’s raw marks for any assessment and the markbook uses sophisticated analysis to present you with all the data you’d want to see on an individual student or whole classes. Highlights of v5: Overhauled from the ground up to improve on almost every aspect of the original ‘markbook ultra’. Store all of your classes (KS3-5) in one simple Excel workbook. Suitable for any subject area regardless of how or what you assess. Show or hide up to five different assessment objective columns for each assessment. Supports GCSE (9-1 or A*-G), A Level and Pre-U. Goodbye to using different workbooks for different types of grades! Supports Foundation, Intermediate and Higher tier students in the same class and will limit grades accordingly. Supports more than just male and female gender identity. Set your own regularly used grade boundaries in eight quick presets or choose them individually for each assessment. Powerful ‘at a glance’ and on the go analysis of individual student progress, each assessment or classes as a whole. One-click export for headline data for all KS4 and KS5 classes for use by colleagues or line managers. Live analysis of Gender gaps, SEND gap, and PP gap. One click button to print a summary sheet for any student or the whole class at once. This gives a breakdown of all assessments and their marks. Shows progress against targets. Great for handing out and discussing at parents’ evening. Filter by assessment type to offer even more powerful analysis of class strengths and areas for improvement. KS3 markbooks support custom levels/grades or RAG rated strand systems. Sample class included which is packed with helpful tips on how to use the markbook. All Macros work on PC and Mac. This is truly universal and made for everyone! If you have any questions prior to purchase please do get in touch: markbookultra@gmail.com Custom-made versions of Markbook Extra are available. Have your school branding added and modifications made where necessary. Email me directly for a quotation.

Stop making puzzles and games from scratch! The Most Amazing Puzzle Maker creates them all for you, AUTOMATICALLY. All you need to do is type up the questions and answers, choose a puzzle and hit print! What can it make right now? Large 16 triangle tarsia puzzles Small 9 triangle tarsia puzzles Tarsia gem puzzles Square-up puzzles Vertical dominoes puzzles Horizontal dominoes puzzles Question relays Bingo! cards Pairing card sorts Split word card sorts How does it work? You simply type in your questions and answers into the template and the linked cells in the puzzles automatically match the information entered. See how your questions appear in the various different formats and choose a puzzle that best suits your needs. Superbly customisable for differentiation! You can add distractions to many of the puzzles - these are incorrect answers or answerless questions to up the challenge and really test the students' knowledge or problem solving skills. There are very clear instructions on how to create and print each of the different puzzles. The file is an Excel file so is compatible with the vast majority of school or home systems. It works with all versions of Office since 1997! Who is it for? Absolutely anyone, these tasks can be used in any subject area and across any phase. They are great for consolidation, revision, working with key terms, knowledge acquiring, competitive group work...the list goes on! Any new puzzles I create for the Most Amazing Puzzle Maker will be included as a free update. See changelog below. Changelog: v1.1 (12/11/17) - New Added Split Word card sort - great for primary and languages at secondary Added Dominoes2 horizontal card sort - better for simpler questions Added Bingo generator - creates unique bingo cards for each student! - Fixed Tweaked various cell formatting Tweaked language in some instructions to improve clarity Add new instructions to the front page

This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions. You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727 In this lesson students will reflect on the modern world and our technological advancement and consider the ethics of memory manipulation, artificial intelligence and designer babies. Included: - PowerPoint - Resources - Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.

In this lesson students will start to explore key Christian ideas about God's nature. They will learn about key qualities: Immanent, Transcendent, Omnipotent, Omnibenevolent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, Eternal, Oneness. They will learn identify teachings which support these beliefs. You will need to print and cut the card sort for use in pairs or groups of three. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A. It is, however, a mainstay of all exam boards and will work across the new specifications.

In this active and group working lesson students explore examples of scientific challenges to religion and evaluate the claim that science has removed the need for religion. They will come to an understanding of the unique offering made my both science and religion to our understanding of the world and be able to employ quotes from a range of key thinkers. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - ‘Arguments against the existence of God’. It is, however, a mainstay of all exam boards and will work across the new specifications. Target grade is 7-9 though you can reduce the level of challenge my focussing on the easier sources. Included: - Lesson Plan - PowerPoint - Card sort - Scientific Discoveries - Quote cards for Science and Religion I have loved teaching this lesson and it has always led to very high level evaluative responses.

In this pair-working lesson students are challenged to understand the range and diversity of reasons for committing crime and how these can affect our the way we judge criminals. They also consider two contrasting teachings in Christianity and apply these to the same issue. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Reasons for Crime'. It will, however, work with any specification including Crime and Punishment. Target grade is 7-9. Ready to teach this lesson includes: - Full Lesson Plan - PowerPoint - Silent Debate Sheet

This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions. You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727 In this lesson students will consider what sets us apart from other creatures and address the question of our unique position and status. Included: - PowerPoint - Resources - Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.

This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions. You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727 In this lesson students will assess the idea of free will and outline some constraints on freedom. Included: - PowerPoint - Resources - Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.

For use with discussion on Cartesian dualism. Ryle argues that dualists such as Descartes are fundamentally misunderstanding what the 'mind' is and explains their model as a 'category error'. Why not first teach my lesson explaining Cartesian dualism? https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/descartes-substance-dualism-ocr-2017-a-level-soul-mind-and-body-11523728

In this very relevant and evaluative lesson students learn to explain pacifism and the broad spectrum of beliefs that this covers, as well as understanding the religious context in Christianity and Islam. They will go further, working in pairs and groups, to assess and form an opinion on the usefulness of pacifism as a means to address conflict through key pacifists and other thinkers. The lesson was designed for use with the new AQA Religious Studies A - 'Religion, peace and conflict'. It will, however, work with any specification including pacifism. Target grade is 7-9. Ready to teach this lesson includes: - Full Lesson Plan - PowerPoint - Worksheets - Homework research sheet

The Sala Dei Nove is a series of Frescos in the Council Chambers of Sienna. They are entitled 'Allegory of Good Government', 'Allegory of Bad Government', 'The effect of Good Government' and 'The effect of Bad Government'. The example appears in the AQA RS textbook and this task is designed to help students identity key features of the frescos. This resource includes three high resolution images of the frescos and a number of small cards to place onto the pictures as annotation. I include an annotated version as an answer sheet or hand-out. Print the frescos onto A3 and provide these to each group. Give a set of the cards (printed A4) and ask the students to place the cards onto the pictures. In doing so, students should come to an understanding of the utility of the frescos to the Council of Nine and the people of Sienna. All images shared freely by Wikipedia as faithful reproductions of images in the public domain.

This follows on from my first A2 Compatibilism lesson on the features of Soft Determinist thinking and the form developed by Locke. With this foundation in place and with the appropriate language to hand, I ask students to analyse Hume and draw links between his language and the theory set out by Locke and the locked room thought experiment. This information is taken in part from the Stanford Encyclopaedia and reformatted to be more easily accessible. plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-freewill/ If you're struggling, the answers I give to the three types of liberty are as follows: Liberty of Indifference: Being to choose against your will. Liberty of Spontaneity: Being able to carry out your will unconstrained. Hypothetical Liberty: Having a number of valid different options that you may or may not will to do and can do. The previous lesson is available for sale here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/as-a2-compatibilism-soft-determinism-11124715

An introduction to compatibilism with a focus on the specific understanding put forward by Locke. The powerpoint offers key information for students' own note taking and I have included some guidance in the presenter notes for yourself. The resource includes a differentiated group interpretation sheet where students are tasked with examining quotes from about and from famous compatibilists including Locke, Hume and Hobbes in order to identify key features of compatibilist thought. Included is a 50 word grid for use with the plenary. I hope you find it helpful since it has taken me a long while to feel very comfortable teaching this area of the course! I have provided for free the follow-up reading on David Hume (which can be given as an independent reading task or done in lesson). It can be found by searching 'A2 Compatibilism' on the TES resources or by copying this URL into your address bar: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/a2-compatibilism-david-hume-reading-with-questions-11127076

A group work lesson with a puzzling task to understand Descartes' substance dualism. Designed for the NEW 2017 OCR Religious Studies A Level it will work with any course including mind body dualism. Students will understand Descartes' beliefs about mind and body. They will be able to present his arguments in favour of dualism and also evaluate his arguments. Ready to teach, lesson includes: Full lesson plan PowerPoint Resources Worksheet

A selection of images on the topic of 'humans' or 'humanity'. I have used these images as stimulus for the assessment task in my KS3 SOW on human nature entitled 'What is a human?' Find it here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727

This is a full 10-page A3 workbook designed to engage and support our students with the key information needed for AQA Religious Studies A Christianity Beliefs and Teachings (Q1 of Paper 1). It is designed to be used in conjunction with the OUP textbooks but can be used without. The pack consists of full colour landscape pages for the whole unit that really clearly points out key terms, teachings and key beliefs and concepts. There is a wide range of activity styles to keep students engaged and motivated. Students will be working from memory as well as looking up information. Pages of the textbook are subtly shown to indicate where the information can be found if needed. A wide range of extension tasks to allow students to delve more deeply into each topic area in the unit. Plenty of ‘tips’ to point out important guidance to students. At the end is guidance and practice opportunities for the different question styles. Included are model answers. There is also a knowledge audit to allow student to RAG rate their confidence in different areas. It should be printed double-sided and blown up to A3. There is just too much included on each page for it to scale to A4 comfortably. I have designed this to be high on impact for students and totally no-fuss for yourself as a teacher. Just print it and go, use in class time or set as independent work. Do sections at a time or give it out as a full pack.

This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions. You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727 In this lesson students will explore ideas about the dualist and materialist ideas about body and soul. Included: - PowerPoint - Resources - Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.

This lesson features as part of a complete scheme of work entitled 'Human Nature: What is a person?'. The SOW is designed to challenge KS3 students to explore challenging philosophical questions and apply key religious and non-religious perspectives to these questions. You can purchase the complete SOW at a discounted price here: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/human-nature-what-is-a-person-complete-ks3-sow-and-resources-11068727 In this lesson students will reflect on their ideas of the 'good life' and what gives life meaning. They will compare these with others and consider the implications for us as people. Included: - PowerPoint - Resources - Scheme of Work document containing lesson plan.