RE Department

In Religious Studies students will explore their own faith and the faith of others so that they can be ‘religiously literate’ in society today. The mission of Notre Dame is to enable students to know about and understand the religious tradition of our school, especially which rooted in the Notre Dame Sisters and our Catholic heritage so that they can be active members of their community. It is also important that students are able to know about and understand different religious traditions, so that they can be active members of a global community.

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In KS3 R.E. we have a key question that we explore throughout the year. In Year 7 the question is: What does it mean to belong to a Catholic Christian community? In Year 8 the question is: How does the Kingdom of God grow? In Year 9: What are the challenges to the Kingdom of God? Throughout KS3 our focus in on Catholic Christianity but we also explore other world faith such as Hinduism and Islam.

GCSE R.S. – Eduqas Route B

We start our GCSE course around February of Y9 to give students enough time to complete the course and revise for the exam. There are 3 units in the course. The first is explores questions such as: Where did the universe come from? Are humans special? Why is there suffering in the world. The second explores questions such as: what happens after we die? Should euthanasia be legal? Why do we punish people for crimes? Should we bring back capital punishment? Did Jesus die for all or just a few? The third unit is Judaism, this unit explores Jewish beliefs and practices including festivals such as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

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How you can help your child in R.E:

You can help your child by encouraging them to practice their faith, and by practicing it with them. Ask your child questions surround R.E. and get them to do further research about topics they find interesting. Visit different places of worship. Encourage your child to interact with people of different faiths and learn more about other faiths. Share beliefs and ideas with your child and discuss their own beliefs. Discuss with your child what they are learning in R.E. at the minute and talk to them about it. If you child does any extra R.E. related work then encourage them to bring it in to show the R.E. team, we will always be willing to discuss it with them.


A-Level: Eduqas Religious Studies: Philosophy, Religion and Ethics.

The A-Level course is split into 3 sections: Philosophy, Religion and Ethics. In philosophy students develop their critical thinking skills and tackle challenging and thoughtful questions such as does God exist? Why does God allow suffering? Do miracles actually happen? We study how philosophers have responded to these questions throughout history. In the Religion unit we study developments of the Christian faith. We take an in-depth, critical look at Christian beliefs and discuss modern issues for the church such as the role of women? The language we use for God and whether or not God can suffer. Finally, in Ethics we explore theories about how we should decide our behaviour, should we just act for ourselves, or should we act for the happiness of others? Then we apply these theories to ethical issues such as: capital punishment, immigration, homosexuality, polyamory and much more. 

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Downloads:

Philosophy_Religion_and_Ethics A Level

 


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Mr J. Neal (Head of Department) – jneal@notredame-high.co.uk

Mrs R. Otieno – rotieno@notredame-high.co.uk

Mrs J. McGee – jmcgee@notredame-high.co.uk

Mr P. Loftus – ploftus@notredame-high.co.uk

Ms F. Gennard – fgennard@notredame-high.co.uk

Mr J. Cain (Assistant Headteacher) – jcain@notredame-high.co.uk

Mrs D. Cleary (Deputy Headteacher) – dcleary@notredame-high.co.uk

Mr M. Doherty (Head of Year) – mdoherty@notredame-high.co.uk

Miss C. Rollinson – crollinson@notredame-high.co.uk