|
Religious Studies is a very popular and successful subject at Chigwell School, with many students choosing it at GCSE and at A level. It investigates a genuinely thought provoking subject. It is not exclusively for those who follow a particular faith and the course that we study does not seek to make the case for any particular religion. Students at Chigwell come from a diversity of faiths or may adhere to none.
Religious Studies introduces everyone taking part to many major theological, philosophical, and ethical problems. Students of the subject aim to think about the claims of religion, which is becoming, once again, a major force in world history. Religion presents a perspective with which all intelligent scientists have to deal. It is found in every culture (and language), and the study of religions is an increasingly important part of the sensible student’s preparation for entry into the global economy.
Members of the R.S. Department
Dr Collingwood (CPC) is also the Chaplain, as well as being the Senior Tutor. His doctorate in Religious Studies was awarded him by King’s College, London, in October, 2007.
Mr Powney (AMP) graduated in History (BA and MA) from University College, Oxford, and has a postgraduate theological degree (MA Patristics), that is also from King’s College, London. He is the Head of Department, and came to Chigwell in 2008 from Marlborough College in Wiltshire, before which he taught R.S. in state schools and at Austin Friars School in Carlisle.
Ms Rex (PSR) is completing her PhD in Religious Studies. She is a graduate in Religious Studies from the University of Kent and she pursued her training as a teacher at Exeter University.
Miss Weeks (MEW) is a graduate of Loughborough University. Like AMP, she is also a tutor in the Junior School, and she teaches in both the PE and the RS Departments.
Members of the Department can lay some claim to various academic specialisations and particular interests, including the nature of the soul and the person, the relationship between Hinduism and Christianity, the nature and meaning of Roman Catholic liturgy (both classical and modern), and the influence of modern ideology on traditional faith in Islam and in Christianity.
|
|
When students enter the Senior School they study six world faiths. In Year 7, we focus on the “prophetic faiths” (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), and in Year 8, we have as our main interest the religions originating in and near India (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism). Year 9 aims to give students their first true taste of philosophy: the chance to discover and discuss the ways in which religious concerns overlap and interact with physics, politics, and other subjects in both the sciences and the humanities; a chance to reflect on the faiths they have studied, and to find out what they themselves really think about science and faith.
At GCSE, we follow the AQA full course (Specification B: World and Philosophical Perspectives on Religious Issues), in which there are two modules (‘Thinking about God and Morality’, and, ‘Truth, Spirituality and Contemporary Issues’). This course builds on the students’ knowledge of philosophy of religion but centres on the study of some pressing ethical issues within the context of secular thought, Christianity, and Islam.
Students going into the Lower Sixth in September, 2008, have been the first to begin the remodelled AS level and A2 level from AQA. Our aim is that members of the Sixth Form taking this subject should become still more confident throughout AS and A2 than they were at the start. They develop the skills, qualities, and maturity, needed, to make presentations of their own to their peers, to think rigorously for themselves, and to research and develop the ideas put before them by their sources and their teachers – or to challenge those ideas.
Click here for the Religious Studies Department Website |
?