Schools and sixth form colleges should provide religious education in accordance with legal requirements currently in force. Religious education is a statutory subject for all registered pupils at schools and sixth form colleges, except those withdrawn by their parents, and in Birmingham must be taught in accordance with this locally agreed syllabus or in the case of schools and colleges with a religious foundation in accordance with a syllabus appropriate to their trust deeds.
Schools should plan for a continuity of provision in religious education that is progressive and rigorous from Key Stage 4 onward for all pupils. However, in Birmingham it has been agreed that certain specified accredited courses could be used as the programme of study in the sixth form as an alternative to the outline specified below provided the course comports with the spirit of this syllabus and is recommended as such by Birmingham Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE). |
So schools can meet their legal requirements by providing access to discrete courses or units leading to recognised qualifications.
Pupils at this Key Stage are not required to sit public examinations in Religious Education by law but it is deemed desirable for them to have their learning in this statutory curriculum subject accredited, provided this is through a qualification approved under section 96 of the Learning and Skills Act, 2000. If pupils are not sitting for a GCSE or A-level, half GCSE or half A-Level examination in religious studies29, schools should consider entering pupils for CoPE (Certificate of Personal Effectiveness).
In general, "it is essential to ensure there is suitable provision of Religious Education in the curriculum for 16 - 19 year old pupils, ... [An] intensive provision through [a series of] day conferences for whole year groups has been a successful and innovative model established in some"30 schools.
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Key Stage Description:
Throughout the Sixth Form, pupils will engage with:
- important events with religious dimensions,
- ethical issues,
- key cultural expressions with religious import,
- religious literature,
- voluntary organisations31, and
- religious beliefs and practices,
all as being potentially formative of their view of life.
All pupils will consider some of the main positions taken in the Christian tradition, as well as in some other religious traditions, (selecting the religions on the basis of factors outlined above) [See Factors], that have a bearing on some of the major concerns of our society. Each pupil should, broadly speaking, be able to engage with the spheres of interest identified above via the religious tradition of his or her family background. Pupils will be seeking to arrive at informed judgement, and to develop further their aesthetic, moral and spiritual sensibilities in view of the religious contribution. By attending to some of the moral and political challenges of modern culture, pupils will learn to discern how one might reasonably act and do what is right. |
Pupils will examine some representative artistic work and activities found in contemporary culture where the sense of religious and moral life is explored, developed or challenged. It is expected that by these means they will develop their beliefs and their affective and expressive capacities.
Pupils will begin to participate in serious (inter)-cultural conversations concerning religious life using appropriate theological terms and concepts. They will develop their appreciation of the role of religious faith and organisations in community, political and business life and consider their own contribution to the wider society. They will become increasingly answerable for their actions and contribute positively and constructively to the ethos of the groups and institutions of which they are a part. |
Development of Pupils and Society:
Skills, Understanding and Application of Knowledge
I. Learning from Faith
| The dispositions of pupils will be developed using the treasury of faith. Drawing on the beliefs, expressions and practical actions of religious traditions and by having regard to key questions [see: key questions in the non-statutory material], pupils at this Key Stage should grow intellectually, affectively/emotionally, and practically by being enabled to: |
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with a personal focus |
primarily, but not exclusively, cognitive
- Consider reflectively and systematically, and engage actively with, matters that challenge the fundamental sense, purpose and meaning of life.
- Give close attention to the main characteristics of religious life and their implications for modern culture, and vice versa, giving attention to the main characteristics of modern culture and their implications for religious life.
- Develop a sense of understanding the need to take some personal and social responsibility for the moral challenges facing British society today.
primarily, but not exclusively, affective
- Reflect on, and engage with, literature, drama and film that explicitly or implicitly explore religious life.
- Express any religious affections, seen through the eyes of another, in words or through other media. (e.g. religious art, religious music, drama, dance, etc.).
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primarily, but not exclusively, conative
- Exemplify the characteristics of selflessness, altruism and concern for others, especially for those caught up in natural disasters, for those in situations of social deprivation and conflict, or for those who experience personal disabilities.
- Discern and cultivate widely recognised values and virtues, such as, altruism, honesty, integrity, patience and courage through active participation in school, social and/or community life whilst having a world-wide interest.
primarily abilities and skills oriented
- Enhance and deploy skills to enable them to engage in mature, adult inter-religious and inter-cultural debates.
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with a social focus
- Value and critically appreciate the religious influence on key social institutions, such as, voluntary organisations and institutions in the educational, political and economic spheres of life.
- Look for ways to be constructive and active in promoting justice in school, in the City and in the wider world.
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II. Learning about religious traditions
| Pupils should be offered a holistic view of religious traditions, their beliefs, their expressions, and their practical actions. Thus pupils should be helped to develop their knowledge, their affections, their dispositions, their abilities/skills and relationships with others in society by using key questions and: |
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with a personal focus |
primarily, but not exclusively, cognitive
- Appreciating the religious dimension and history of significant events and movements in Britain and the wider world.
- Examining the complex character of some of the main moral and political challenges in our culture.
- Studying some of key religious concepts, sacred writings, traditions and practices that may have a bearing on the moral and political challenges facing Britain and the wider world at the present time.
primarily, but not exclusively, affective
- Critically engaging significant works of fiction (drama, film or art) with implicit or explicit religious dimensions.
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primarily, but not exclusively, conative
- 5 Considering and responding to religious perspectives on the natural world, specifically, human life, animals and the environment.
primarily abilities and skills oriented
- Extending their theological and philosophical concepts and vocabulary.
- Studying the origins and work of religious organisations and agencies.
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with a social focus
- Understanding and applying the skills of inter-cultural/religious debate to current ethical issues.
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Areas of Study
A. Cultivating Spiritual Aspirations and Moral Dispositions:
"A disposition is a prevailing quality of character marked by an inclination, or will,
to act in a particular way or by a tendency to a certain kind of action."
| In the course of their study of the religious material and resources pupils will be seeking to cultivate their spiritual aspirations and moral dispositions which should not be isolated from religious understanding. Within the religious context the virtuous nature of these dispositions depends precisely on the condition of the sense of life as a life lived before God or out of a duty to the Divine, or in anticipation of the dissolution of the self in nirvana. To treat the development of dispositions as purely an exercise in self-development, or alternatively as desirable behaviour from the viewpoint of the interest of society, is (from a theological perspective) to exacerbate the deepest problem of the human condition, and in the words of St Augustine, to turn these virtues into 'splendid vices'. |
Therefore, to convey the sense of religious life in religious education it is necessary to show the inextricable link between the religious understanding and the dispositions. It is believed that through an active engagement with religious material and resources, employing key questions, and the use of imaginative empathy, exemplars and experimental modeling, (as well as other means) the dispositions will emerge and grow. Social structures are developed through the links created between people across space and time. For the purposes of this syllabus the dispositions have been agreed to be: |
B. Selected religious material:
To make progress in the process of achieving the attainment targets of RE, pupils during this key stage should be taught using appropriate key questions and the various aspects of religious traditions, namely their:
- Beliefs, especially those central to the religions in question, and beliefs about people, the past and future, the natural world.
- Key figures and institutions.
- Literature: Stories, poetry, prayers, wisdom literature, hymns/carols.
- Celebrations, rituals, - [sacraments, hymns/carols, prayer] - symbols, artefacts and language.
- Cultural expressions in the arts, i.e. those which have religious import (In music, art, film, sculpture, dance, drama, design of buildings, sport).
- Actions, with examples of what members of the religious faiths have done and are doing to help others or to care for the world about them; the support offered by religious bodies for social institutions.
- Ethics, laws/rules that govern behaviour.
These will be selected from:
- Christian traditions [see religious traditions: Christianity].
- Religious traditions represented in the classroom [see religious traditions : Bahá'í; Buddhism; Hinduism; Islam; Jainism; Judaism; Rastafarianism; Sikhism].
- Resources from diverse religious traditions that help to deepen and broaden the spiritual and moral dimension, e.g. by choosing material from different parts of the world and also encountered in Birmingham and Britain.
- Resources that make links with other areas of the curriculum.
- Resources that reflect the interest and choice of pupils.
- Resources that promote a positive appreciation of, and care for, others.
- Resources from the daily life and experience of pupils in the classroom, from contemporary culture, and generally from what is to be found in the immediate neighbourhood and community, e.g. films, buildings, people, together with resources from the wider world which may be accessed through Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
C. Using Clusters:
The dispositions may be clustered to reveal 1. their interdependence and 2. the different configurations in which they may be encountered within the varying cultures and civilisations. Any clustering will also take into account the ages, aptitudes and family background of the children in the school (see advice on clustering). Teachers may choose to cluster the dispositions outlined above into six basic clusters.
Thus one might cluster the dispositions in one of the following ways:
Example 1:
 1 – 4 as developing creativity (How should we imagine and express what matters?)
 5 – 8 as developing compassion (How and why should we care?)
 9 – 12 as developing choice (What should we stand for?)
 13 – 16 as developing community (How and where should we contribute and relate to others?)
 17 – 20 as developing commitment (What ventures should we undertake?)
 21 – 24 as developing contemplation (How do we come to understand what matters?)
Example 2:
 [24, 21, 7, 12] as being attentive (How can we learn about what lies beyond the limits of our world?)
 [1, 13, 9, 22] as being receptive (How can we learn to receive without abusing the gift?)
 [17, 23, 14, 18] as learning from the past (How can the past live and enlarge the present?)
 [19, 20, 15, 1] as looking to the future ((What dare we hope for?)
 [5, 16, 10, 11] as recognising inter-dependence ((How do we learn that others rely on us and we on them?)
 [3, 4, 8, 6] as responding and developing (What can we do to develop fully as persons?)
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