Religious Studies Curriculum

Religious Studies are taught at all stages throughout the school and pupils are offered the opportunity to sit examinations at Sixth Form level.

The subject is taught as an academic discipline in its own right and the interest of pupils from faith and non-faith backgrounds is encouraged.

Rationale

Apart from providing pupils with a good qualification for entry into a wide range of university courses, we hope that RS will give pupils the opportunity consider their own experiences, beliefs and values. They will be encouraged to develop a sympathetic attitude towards the beliefs, values and attitudes of others. An important aim of the course is for pupils to engage with a range of issues which will advance the development of their own beliefs and values and contribute in a very significant way to their own personal and social development.

Content

In the early stages pupils will study the traditions, beliefs, and practices of the World's six major religions. They will learn about the founders, the Scriptures, worship, the major festivals, and the 'rites of passage' in Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. This is a three year course at the end of which it is hoped that pupils will have a deeper understanding of the ideas and teachings that have been the inspiration and guiding light for peoples of different races and cultures, and of how those teachings have influenced and shaped world history.

In the Senior School, RS concentrates more on moral and social issues. Students are introduced to various systems of philosophy and ethics and these are applied to issues such as War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, Prejudice, the Right to Protest, Civil Liberty, and Medical Ethics. In an education system which provides pupils with a wide range of knowledge in spheres of science and technology and of what they 'can' do, RS at this stage raises questions and engages in debate about what they 'ought to do' in a world of widely conflicting values. In this respect RMPS is seen as a contemporary and relevant subject for thinking young minds.