Welcome to the RS Department

Religious Education and Religious Studies make a vital contribution to the development of every student. It encourages them to think about the spiritual, moral and ethical questions which challenge human beings. Primary resources are fundamental to this approach and the department seeks to provide interesting experiences for the pupils such as educational visits to places of worship, the Imperial War Museum in London, Auschwitz, Amsterdam and Rome as well as meeting people of different faith positions and survivors of the Holocaust.

The RS department encourages students to become more aware of themselves, of others and of the natural world. It helps students to understand that there is another element of life other than the purely physical and materialistic – the spiritual. The department seeks to encourage sensitivity, empathy and respect.

The RS department have enabled and supported the students over the last few years to achieve excellent results at GCSE.

We endeavour to educate our pupils to become confident, articulate, clear thinking, inquisitive, happy and caring adults. Our broad aims are to:

• encourage a pupil’s search for meaning and purpose;
• develop through a reflective approach appropriate skills for exploring, responding and expressing;
• develop problem-solving and team-working skills;
• encourage students to think deeply, ask questions and discuss moral and ethical issues;
• provide insight into religion, cultures and traditions of the major world religions, and in so doing, develop students’ awareness, knowledge and understanding of their own beliefs, practices or opinions, as well as fostering positive attitudes towards other belief systems and a sensitive awareness of the different beliefs, customs and opinions of other traditions

The department has a suite of 3 specialist teaching rooms that are colourful and stimulating environments for learning. We have 4 specialist RS teachers: Mrs C Matthews (HOD); Miss N Simpson, Miss J Williams, Mrs L Bees as well as Miss H Cartlidge, Humanities Specialist. We have a resource room that has computers and a library of books and DVDs for students to access as well as religious artefacts from the 6 world religions.