We believe that Christian Studies is vital because everyone needs to try and understand what some have called ‘the big questions in life' - ‘Who am I?', ‘Where did we come from?', ‘Is there a God?' and so on.  Genesis answers all three questions - that God created not only us, but the heavens and the earth as well.  We read in the Bible that God is love and that He has done everything in order that we may choose to have a relationship with Him.  Whilst all religions seek to answer these questions, we believe that the Christian perspective is unique in that we experience God in the person of the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit - introduced to us through the pages of scripture.   In addition, the Bible is also a guidebook to living as it tells us not just that God is loving but how we should live our lives.  We also see that the Bible is a marvellous resource book telling us about many of the heroes of the Judaeo-Christian traditions.  It speaks to us in terms of holy lives - and less than holy lives - its teaching, and its stories. 

The aims of Christian Studies:

Three main aims dominate our learning in Christian Studies:

• Learning facts about the Bible, the Church and about issues affecting the world today, seeking to understand what the Bible and its leaders have to say
• Seeing how the teachings of the Bible, the Church, of scholars and leading Christians, actually impact on the lives of Christians everyday
• Developing empathy with others and our own ways of understanding

We believe:

• that God loves us and wants us to love Him
• that He is uniquely revealed through His Son, Jesus
• that He has a plan and purpose for every one of us that includes our personal salvation and our individual roles in the family, the Church and in society
• that the world needs to hear the Good News, both in terms of the spoken word and in our good works

Key Stage 3

Teachers rely on a range of presentation styles:

• Teacher presentations
• Stories
• Video and audio tapes
• PowerPoint presentations
• Pupil research
• Class discussions
• Essay writing

Main topics include:

• The Bible - its structure, types of literature and its authority
• The Timeline of the Old Testament
• Genesis
• Paul
• Spiritual Warfare
• Bible customs - including Rights of Passage, warfare, homes and family, and employment
• Characteristics of God
• Characteristics of man
• The Messiah
• An introduction to Islam
• An introduction to Judaism
• Responsibility towards disadvantaged people (a focus on poverty and the work of Christian charitable aid agencies)
• An introduction to GCSE - with its emphases on the Bible, the Church, prayer, the conscience, the place of the Holy Spirit and agape (selfless) love.

Key Stage 4

GCSE Religious Studies is an OCR examination made up of two main parts - ‘Christianity' and ‘Christian Perspectives'.  Both are taught throughout the two years with coursework being a compulsory element of each contributing 25% of available marks.  Set questions provide a focus for candidates.  Coursework examines the same three learning objectives as the examinations - basic knowledge, application of teaching and examining different ways of viewing issues.

The GCSE course is mainly learnt through the following:

• Teacher presentation                         
• Text books
• Hand-outs - comprehensive notes on the topic; articles from newspapers, quotations from a variety of sources, and websites
• Class discussion       
• Research and Coursework writing`

Main topics include:

• Beliefs: sin and salvation, Sermon on the Mount, Sacred Writings
• Birth, life and death (moral issues about human life)
• Festivals, fasts and other special days
• Prejudice and equality (looking at attitudes towards race and gender)
• Major divisions and interpretations of Christianity, and Ecumenism
• Issues surrounding War, peace and human rights
• Responsibility towards disadvantaged people (a focus on poverty and the
• work of Christian charitable aid agencies)
• Pilgrimage (places of pilgrimage and the effect of pilgrimage on Christian
• Religion in the community and family
• Christian responses to issues about the planet
• Places and forms of worship