Citizenship and RE
Curriculum Intent – Citizenship and RE
“No one is born a good citizen; no nation is born a democracy. Rather, both are processes that continue to evolve over a lifetime. Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts off from its youth severs its lifeline." - Kofi Annan
“Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn't anyone who doesn't appreciate kindness and compassion." - Dalai Lama
Powerful Knowledge
Citizenship and Religious education develop some of the most powerful knowledge that our students receive during their time at Leeds East Academy. Both subjects foster a love of learning and critical thinking skills, specifically focused on meta-thinking and analysing skills within the High Performance Learning (HPL) framework and within the Social, Moral, Spiritual and Cultural education framework. This is developed further within both subjects allowing students to reflect on themselves, their communities and their place in the global society; within the context of politics, society, culture and religion. All of which are crucial aspects to the development of the well-rounded individual, who will leave the academy equipped with the essential values, attitudes and attributes, an understanding of social justice and mobility through an awareness of local issues, the national diversity of the UK and global matters. These Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics (ACPs) and Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs) will support students in embedding their skills, knowledge and understanding of Citizenship and RE.
Powerful knowledge in RE and Citizenship:
- Provides students with insight into the values that underpin life in the UK and around the world from a variety of perspectives developing our students as tolerant and globally aware.
- Enables students to be critical thinker; to question the world around them and challenge viewpoints thus enabling social justice within their own communities.
- Empowers students by giving them responsibility to take action directly in their school, community and beyond. Students gain real life experience of creating change.
- Allows students to develop key skills in debate, posing and answering questions in coherent, balanced structures concomitant with both RE and Citizenship and other subjects.
- The fundamental key beliefs, structures, rites of passage of major world religions and philosophy.
The specific powerful knowledge students will take away from Citizenship is a legal and political awareness encompassing all aspects of the world around them. With Religious Education, students will leave the academy with a deep understanding of major UK religions, the lives of those who worship and how religion and spirituality underpin crucial aspects of the world around them.
Curriculum Features
Within RE students will explore two areas; Religion and Ethics, Peace and Conflict. These topics will be examined through the study of Islam and Christianity respectively, giving the students the time to explore the beliefs and religious lives of those practising these two major UK religions. However, at KS3, the student will have the opportunity to explore a wider range of UK religions such as Judaism and Sikhism. Within Citizenship, students will explore the UK legal system and politics, social action and the UK’s relationship with the wider world. Our curriculum(s) provides students with the essential premise of cultural capital, further enhancing big picture thinking and generalising under the ACP of linking. Students explore religions, people, and cultures from around the world and within their community in detail and at a level of depth that truly develops their skills in explanatory language, evaluation and analytical skills. Citizenship and RE fit within the communication strand of the curriculum offer providing students with core knowledge, respect and critical analysis required for debate. This is supported through the approach to literacy, whereby reading is prioritised in lessons, is the focus of homework tasks and oracy is supported through SHAPE to enhance literacy at each key stage. At KS3 students’ learning is sequenced so each year students build skills in a linear fashion but move in a modular style through citizenship topics and RE in order to develop the application of knowledge at each stage. Automaticity and linking are crucially built throughout Key Stage 3 to support both subject knowledge and skills alongside meta-thinking ACP characteristics of self-regulation and strategy planning.
Citizenship at GCSE is sequenced to ensure students build skills in a linear fashion but with a prioritisation of rights, politics and law before students under-take citizenship in action. This allows students to take action as experts on topics that are tangible before moving towards wider world themes and the media. At GCSE RE, students develop skills in a linear fashion before studying the areas of the religious life in Islamic and Christian faiths before moving onto the application of this knowledge to the core areas of study in the beliefs that underpin them in the topics of crime, punishment, family, marriage, peace and conflict. The synoptic elements of both courses will be developed through the HPL characteristic of creating and linking.
Cross Curricular & Wider Experiences
As part of the new RE curriculum development, students will be able to take part in a variety of experiences including visits to different places of worship and highlighting the different religious celebrations that take place throughout the year. Within citizenship, students will be able to enhance the framework of the current student parliament, attend debate clubs and move forward to the national mock trials for year 9 and 10 students. This will develop and extend the overall experience of education that students will take away from the academy into their places of further education and the workplace. Students will also have a variety of cross-curricular links, including aspects of PSHE through exploration of different family structures and develop the work in form time giving further detail and depth to culture and values. Both subjects support the academy with the core development of cultural capital. Students will be studying the details of lives of people from many different walks-of-life, cultures and the fabric of the British Identity with clear study of the diversity in the UK. This will support the understanding of the depth of people’s lives and connection finding for students who study topics in Geography and History. As well as give context to topics studied in English, performing arts and science as students will be able to relate to how culture and context affects people’s lives, behaviour and opinions. The skills in debate developed in both subjects will provide cross-curricular skills in English and give students a balanced viewpoint with critical or logical thinking skills and the ability to develop the ACP of seeing alternative perspectives that are crucial for Maths and Science.
For further information regarding the citizenship offer at Leeds East Academy, please contact Mr Glover - glover.s@whiteroseacademies.org
Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3
Citizenship and RE Curriculum Journey - Key Stage 3