ethics - learning journey & curriculum

Philosophy and Ethics is truly transformational. We aim to introduce students to goodness, purpose, and truth and to give them the tools to work these out for themselves to help to transform lives. We use the title Philosophy and Ethics, so our subject is inclusive. You don’t have to be religious to believe there is truth to be discovered or to believe there is a difference between right and wrong. Our subject inspires futures as it prepares students for careers in politics, the police, social work, counselling, journalism, teaching, law, the armed forces, medicine, or any other profession that is people orientated.

Our curriculum has a focus on introducing students to worldviews they are unlikely to come across in Bishop’s Cleeve. Furthermore, they are also encouraged to explore their own worldviews and how our culture has been transformed by traditional Christian values. We also ensure students understand the language they need to be able to justify an argument of their own and create opportunities for students to discuss and debate contrasting views. We then show students how a worldview affects behaviour and leads to actions both good and bad.

Our intent is for students to leave our classrooms kind and understanding that, whilst there is truth to be discovered, the culture we are born into makes a big difference to what we believe is true and that people who disagree with us are always worthy of respect – tolerant of those who have different worldviews, but not tolerant of actions that put others down. In this way our students develop the skills to think, talk and write like global citizens We also intend to influence students to leave Cleeve School with a lifelong yearning to search for answers to the ‘Big Questions’ of life.

Our KS3 curriculum follows the agreed syllabus by including all six expected major world faiths. We spiral from KS2 previous learning e.g. The Big Story focuses on exploring how the Genesis Creation story, introduced in primary school, influences believers today. We also build on learning about Islam, by focusing on how Muslims are treated by the media and Judaism, by focusing on how Jews respond to evil and suffering.

By the end of KS3, students understand how to justify their own opinions, after evaluating differing opinions on, e.g. life after death or what it is to be human. This spirals into KS4, when students can compare Christianity with Islam and justify their own opinions on human relationships, the existence of God, human rights, animal rights, abortion and euthanasia.

At KS5, students decide for themselves what is true and the best way to make moral decisions. We encourage our students to think and write like a philosopher by encouraging students to use specific language e.g. analyse, contextualise, evaluate and justification.

Our curriculum is designed to support students with SEN. e.g. we scaffold resources so students who struggle to communicate can share their views. We also build in movement breaks and activities into our lessons to ensure we meet the needs of everyone. Our curriculum is designed to encourage students with emotional and mental health difficulties discover their value and purpose. For example through our ‘What is a Person?’ topic. Our curriculum seeks to close gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students by ensuring our lessons are relevant to all – see our ‘Religion and Popular Culture’ topic.

We specifically talk about the great British value that all can progress, no matter where we start out, during our ‘Air we Breathe’ topic. Students become better global citizens by exploring six global worldviews. We ensure students understand global needs in our ‘Wealth and Poverty’ unit. All students see themselves reflected in our ‘Celebrating Diversity’ unit, which covers racial, gender and LGBTQ+ prejudices.

Our curriculum is designed to deepen learning over time by ensuring solid foundations are taught in Year 7. ‘The Big Story’ is revisited every year, including at KS5. We also build on Sikhi and Buddhism taught in Year 7 during our ‘Natural Morality’ topic. Our unts at the end of Year 8 and 9 – ‘What is a person?’ and ‘Air we Breathe’ are designed to pulls all strands of knowledge and mastery together.

We introduce all students in Year 9 to the GCSE course, by teaching Peace and Conflict – an optional GCSE unit we choose not to cover in KS4. The connections between the teaching of Christianity and Islam are numerous, throughout all year groups. Our KS3 assessment strategy ensures the skills to answer questions at GCSE are already embedded, allowing us to focus on knowledge. We teach students how to revise early on in Year 7, by teaching the specific skills needed during our revision lessons.