Religious Studies

Assessment: Exam 100%

This is a subject that now offer at GCSE as part of the development of Religious Studies across the school curriculum. This course is open to all, students with faith, students without faith, students that want to discuss philosophical and ethical issues about the world we live in.

The course provides an excellent opportunity to study two major world religions, Christianity, and Islam to allow you to study major world religions that are important in the UK today. There are also four thematic units that focus on issues that impact and influence the modern world. In the thematic unit you will study religious and non-religious viewpoints, so students will have the opportunity to express and debate their views on a wide number of issues.

The course develops students understanding and tolerance in our globalised world. It also focuses on key skills as they explore ethical and moral dilemmas that develop critical thinking skills so that students can advocate for a particular view while demonstrating tolerance of different viewpoints. You have to construct well-reasoned arguments on a range of religious and ethical issues, and the evaluation of a particular viewpoint is given considerable weighting in this course.

The examination for this course is also broken down into three different papers so this supports revision, and the question structures does not alter across the papers, so this can be useful to know for some students.

Assessment

Paper 1: Written Exam: 50%, 2 Hours (120 marks + 6 for spelling, punctuation, and grammar)
The second part of the course focuses on four thematic studies. You will study religious, philosophical and ethical arguments related to the issues raised. It will focus on religious and non-religious perspectives such as atheism and humanism.