The Department of Religious Education strives for a curriculum that is coherent, challenging, rigorous
and well sequenced, with the opportunity to explore all six world religions, humanism and atheism
across all phases. At all times, students should be exposed to and be given the opportunity to engage
with religious scholarship, holy texts or age appropriate literature to allow them to become religiously
literate over the course of the full curriculum. Knowledge is placed at the forefront of the curriculum to
allow students of Religious Education at Armfield Academy to become aware of people of all faiths
and none, and how these impact upon their everyday lives. For example, the relationship between
faith and action. Skills are utilised as a tool for students to demonstrate their emerging knowledge,
understanding and depth of thought. This focus upon religious literacy and a knowledge rich
curriculum should ensure that students are prepared for the rigour, depth and breadth of GCSE
Religious Studies, but more importantly, to enter the multicultural world of work with respect and
tolerance of other people. Finally, students are actively challenged to encounter, grapple with and
understand complex lexical choices with a specific focus on tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary, as well as
explicit teaching of subject specific vocabulary. We aim to allow every student to ‘be the best they can
be’ through this coherent, challenging, rigorous and well-sequenced curriculum.
EYFS: Each enquiry starts from the child's own life experiences, using these as a bridge into the
investigation of the religion being studied. This allows them to make a link between their own values
and other people’s beliefs, gaining insight into religions within the world that we live in. Through their
explorations, students will encounter special people, special places and special occasions to
understand their place in the world and how religion has an effect on these key concepts.
KS1 and KS2: Each enquiry starts from the child's own life experiences, using these as a bridge into
the investigation of the religion being studied. Enquiries will enable students to explore challenging
questions about the meaning and purpose of life, beliefs, the self, and issues of right and wrong,
commitment and belonging. As students’ literacy skills develop, they will encounter a greater breadth
of religious texts and begin to write in a more in-depth way about religion.
KS3: Throughout their studies, students will encounter a curriculum that allows them to build a
growing tolerance and respect for the world around them with effective interweaving of content as well
as meaningful utilisation of previous content, concepts and knowledge. Students will be made aware
of the local context of religious beliefs and practices and the way these shape the local community.
For example, students may first encounter the concept of a religious experience when studying the
impact of faith on Martin Luther King’s Civil Rights work, but they will revisit this concept when
studying the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) experience of the revelation of the Qur’an (Lilat-Ul-Qudr).
KS4: In Year 10, students are able to opt for GCSE RS, in which case they follow the AQA
Specification A GCSE. It involves a study of the beliefs and practices of Christianity and Judaism.
They follow this course through year 10 and 11. They then go on to look at themes within religion and
society. The four themes that we study are:
- Religion and Human Rights.
- Religion and life.
- Religion, peace and conflict
- Religion, crime and punishment.
Core RE: All students must legally receive Religious Education. To meet this requirement, all students
have three half-terms of non-examined RE in Year 10 and 11 on a carousel with PSHE. Students will
encounter a curriculum that allows them to build a growing tolerance and respect for the world around
them with effective interweaving of content as well as meaningful utilisation of previous content,
concepts and knowledge. They explore issues like immortality and religion and the media.
Religious Education Curriculum