Religion, Philosophy & Ethics

Here we explore the John Roan curriculum principles in the context of the Religion, Philosophy & Ethics Curriculum:

• Entitlement: All pupils have the right to study the core units of the United Learning Religious Education curriculum, which expose students to key religious and non-religious views that have deeply affected the lives of people across space and time.
• Coherence:  The RE curriculum is planned with carefully sequenced lessons and aims to provide a narrative to religious and non-religious views. The RE curriculum considers the disciplines which sit underneath the subject and encourages students to see the theological and philosophical significance of them.
• Mastery:  Students are required to retrieve content and embed their substantive and conceptual understanding as they move through the curriculum. This encourages students to make powerful links between the different units across the curriculum.
• Adaptability: The units which comprise the curriculum are centrally planned and adapted for the local needs of our school community and the individual classes in which teachers deliver this content.
• Representation:  The Religious Studies curriculum is planned with diversity and inclusion in mind.  All students should see themselves within the Religious Studies curriculum as it covers a great variety of traditions and perspectives.  We also explicitly deal with issues of equality within the curriculum.
• Education with character:  Through exposure to the big ideas of religious and non-religious belief, students have explicit opportunities for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.  

Religious Studies plays an important role in the wider school curriculum at the John Roan School. Religious Studies is taught as a compulsory subject from Year 7-9. Students have 100 minutes of RPE each week.  They follow a well-planned curriculum for KS3. At Key Stage 4, GCSE RPE is available as a GCSE option through which the AQA specification is delivered. Students across Key Stages 3-5 benefit from explorations of a range of worldviews; religious and non-religious through the delivery of our character education and PSHE Programme. These programmes include PRIDE day activities where students benefit from either full or half-day workshops which are delivered by our external partners. At KS4 this includes the delivery of RPE.