Key Themes

This material has been developed to assist teachers. The section outlines teaching and learning activities within the seven sections of the World Religions Learning Objective.  These are:

• Origins;
• Beliefs;
• Sacred Writings and Symbols;
• Worship and Prayer;
• Feasts and festivals;
• Family life;
• Ceremonies – birth to death.

Within each section there is an overview of the learning and teaching that takes place along with Key Questions.  The Key Question section outlines suggested activities.  The activities are colour coded as follows:

• Introductory Activity – these activities introduce the topic being covered and relate the learning to everyday experiences of pupils;
• Core Activity – these are the main activities that cover the important content to be taught;
• Reinforcing Activity – these activities build on what has been learnt and can help pupils make connections;
• End Activity – these activities draw together the learning from previous work.  This could be used as a summative assessment activity following each section.

The activities can be used together as a discrete unit on a specific religion or a more thematic approach can be taken over the three years integrating the teaching of world religions other than Christianity with the other Learning Objectives of the Core Syllabus for Religious Education at Key Stage 3.  The activities can be used in any year of the key stage with teacher input being crucial to the complexity of the information received by pupils and the level of their responses to the activities.