For to everyone who has will more be given

Matthew 25:29 

The above paradigm rests on the truth that through the acquisition of secure knowledge students will be empowered to explore concepts for themselves and cultivate an intrinsic love of learning.  The application of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction has enabled the RE department at St Mark’s C of E Academy to reduce cognitive overload, promote well sequenced lessons that make up part of a spiral curriculum which grows in complexity with each iteration. The result has been a focused knowledge based enriching curriculum in which students have flourished to become interested and engaged learners.  

The RE department is committed to promoting a love of literature within lessons. Our careful curriculum design has included the reading of seminal texts: for example, in year 8 students read extracts from William. P. Young’s ‘The Shack’ to explore the belief in a Triune God.  In year 9 while studying the unit entitled ‘Evil and Responsibility’ students read selected letters from C.S Lewis’ ‘The Screwtape Letters’ to understand the Christian concept of spiritual warfare. In the next topic: ‘Modern Theology’ students read extracts from Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’ a testimony to Womanist theology: It has been through reading together that we have given students access to the lived experiences of others and promote cultural capital within the RE classroom.