January 2022 Religious Studies update
Welcome to your January 2022 Religious Studies subject update.
In this update:
2: Contingency arrangements
Details of the contingency arrangements that are being put in place in the unlikely event that exams cannot take place in summer 2022 are available in the link below:
Decisions on contingency arrangements 2022: GCSE, AS, A level, Project and AEA - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
3: Advance information guidance
To help with planning, summary guidance documents on advance information for GCE and GCSE Religious Studies in summer 2022 are available in the links below:
GCSE RS Full Course Specification A
GCSE RS Short Course Specification A
GCSE RS Full Course Specification B
4: Upcoming events
The event below will update centres on our teaching and learning support materials, for GCSE Religious Studies and provide guidance on how new support material for ‘D’ style/evaluative questions can be used to support your students, in preparation for the coming exam series. To find out more and book your place, please follow the link below.
GCSE RS updates and support for ‘D’ style/evaluative questions
Thursday, 3rd March 2022, 16:00 – 16:45 GMT
6: Religious Studies topic of the month
Topic of the month aims to stimulate discussion at Key Stages 4 and 5 and bring religion to life. This can be achieved by considering religion’s relevance in our vast modern world. We have selected two current news articles which you may wish to read and integrate into your teaching practice, using the discussion prompts provided.
Disclaimer:
This topic relates to a newspaper article, written by the Guardian's Latin American correspondent entitled ‘Christ and cocaine: Rio's gangs of God blend faith and violence’.
*Please be aware that this article has references to drugs and violence and may cause offence to some individuals.
Introduction:
While our young theologians are delving into studies of Christianity and what it means to live a Christian life, why not do some retrieval practice through discussion? Let's challenge our students to think about Christians in some of the most dangerous and deprived parts of the world. Read the article as a class to find out how the young foot soldiers of Brazil's drug factions incorporate their faith into their way of life. Pupils can discuss the rightness and wrongness of these youths' devotion to God while undertaking their illegal activity.
Discussion prompts:
- How can God's loving and forgiving nature be explored through the actions of these young outlaws?
- What is the role of these young men in perpetrating evil and suffering?
- Is their involvement in violence and gangs a choice or something done out of necessity? Does their situation make their actions more right or wrong?
- To what extent do their pastors have a responsibility to protect and guide them amidst all this violence and crime?
- How can we use these young lives as an example of how perspective matters?
- Can case studies like these encourage us not to take our advantageous positions for granted?
Links to topics on the syllabus:
- The nature of God
- Atonement and Salvation
- Eschatology
- Evil and Suffering
- Christian worship
- The worldwide Church and its future
- The origins and value of human life
Subject advisor
Jenna Wyatt
Religious Studies
