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Welcome back to a new school year and a new season of the RE Podcast.  Over the summer, I recorded a series of episodes to support GCSE RE - specifically AQA Islam and Christianity.  Suppose you are a student of GCSE RE, or a teacher of GCSE RE who is new to teaching GCSE, or new to AQA, or you are a teacher from another subject teaching GCSE for the first time. In that case, I hope these episodes are beneficial to you in consolidating your learning, preparing for exams if you are a student, or helping you feel more confident if you are a teacher.

The first episode provides an overview of Paper 1 - Religious Beliefs and Practices, covering the exam structure, how to approach the various question types, and offering some top tips for the exam. 

Each subsequent episode will provide an overview of the main content and apply it to key exam questions.

This episode focuses on two bullet points on the Christian beliefs spec;

Beliefs about the nature of God: Loving, powerful, and just

Beliefs about the oneness of God and the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Copies of the exam questions used in the episode are below.

Explain two ways in which the belief in God as omnibenevolent influences Christians today.

Explain two ways in which the belief in God as just influences Christians today.

Explain two ways in which the belief in God as omnipotent influences Christians today.

Christians can be influenced to worship God, for example, by singing hymns or praying to Him.

This is because God is believed to be the most important being in the universe and the creator of everything; therefore, He is worthy of worship.

Christians could also pray to God in times of need to ask for help.

This is because God has the power to intervene and answer prayers to help them.

Explain two Christian teachings about God as loving and refer to sacred writings or another source of Christian belief and teaching in your answer.

Christians believe that God loves humans unconditionally through agape love.

This means his love is not dependent on the behaviour of humans or the choices that they make.

Christians also believe that God demonstrated his love through the sacrifice of Jesus.

This can be seen in the Bible where it says; ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son’

This quote demonstrates God’s love for His creation through His willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to save humanity.

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Welcome back to a new school year and a new season of the RE Podcast.  Over the summer, I have recorded a series of episodes to support GCSE RE - specifically AQA Islam and Christianity.  If you are a student of GCSE RE, or a teacher of GCSE RE who is new to teaching GCSE, or new to AQA, or you are a teacher from another subject teaching GCSE for the first time, then I hope these episodes are really helpful to you to consolidate learning, or prepare for exams if you are a student, or to help you feel more confident if you are a teacher.

This episode offers an overview of Paper 1 - Religious Beliefs and practices, looking at the structure of the exam, how to do the different exam questions as well as some top tips for the exam. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COPY OF A NEW STYLE EXAM PAPER TO HAND

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/religious-studies/gcse/religious-studies-8062/assessment-resources?secondaryResourceType=Question+papers%3BMark+schemes%3BAnswers+and+commentaries&limit=50&q=2026

Each episode after that will offer an overview of the main content and apply them to some key exam questions.

Copies of the exam questions used in the episode are below.

Give one Muslim belief about angels.  [1 mark]

Answer 1

Muslims believe that the angel Jibril revealed the Qur’an to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on the night of power. 

Answer 2

They are made of light.  

Explain two ways in which the problem of evil and suffering influences Christians today. [4 marks]

Answer 1

One way is by trying to reduce as much evil and suffering through being good people.  This is because they believe evil and suffering is caused by humans. Another way is by being hopeful of an afterlife. This is because they believe that in heaven there will be no more evil and suffering.  

Explain two different ways in which Christians work for reconciliation 

Explain two different ways pilgrimage is experienced in Iona 

Explain two different religious practices Muslims could perform during Ashura 

Explain two different ways in which Muslims may perform Salah 

Explain two Christian beliefs about sin. Refer to sacred writings or another source of Christian belief and teaching in your answer 

[6 marks]

Answer 1: 3/6

Christians believe sin is bad for us. It affects people negatively. 

Christians believe original sin was the first time God was disobeyed. Adam and Eve ate from the tree. ‘The Lord God sent him out the Garden of Eden.  

Answer 2: 6/6

One belief is that sin damages the relationship between God and humans. By disobeying God, Christians get further away from God because sin separates God and humans. In the Bible it says; ‘The Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden’.  This shows the separation between God and Adam caused by his sin.

Another belief is Adam and Eve committed the original sin – eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil from which God had told them not to eat.  All Christians are now born with original sin. 

Explain two Muslim beliefs about prophets. Refer to sacred writings or another source of Muslim belief and teaching in your answer

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In 2020 while the world went on lockdown, something incredible emerged to support us teaching remotely - Oak National Academy.  Teachers from all over the country created online lessons along with videos which students could watch, pause, re-watch and learn.  These were lessons created by teachers for teachers for all Key Stages for all subjects.  When the world went back to normal, Oak National continued and teachers realised how perfect these lessons were for cover, CPD and revision.  Five years later, Oak National is going from strength to strength; aiming to have an all through curriculum based on the latest educational research which can support teachers everyday. 

Adam Robertson has been leading the team to develop the Oak Curriculum for RE and together they have created a worldclass, worldview curriculum which is my go to for cover and CPD for Teacher With Other Specialisms.  I have also been priviledged to be part of the team developing these lessons and I know how merticuluously they are planned to ensure they are fit for purpose in the 21st Century.  In this episode Adam joins me for a behind the scenes look at how Oak works.

https://www.thenational.academy/teachers/curriculum/religious-education-secondary-aqa/units

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Andy West has made national news with his work using philosophy in prisons.

Read his article here
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/02/philosophy-children-prison-moral-anger-young-lives-wasted-politicians

You can also read his book
The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Learning to Be Free

I have a chat with him about how he got into this work, how and why he uses philosophy in prisons, what we can learn from his work in our own classrooms. Discussing concepts like 'justice' or 'forgiveness' in prisons has extra layers of significance. We also have a wider chat about the state of the justice system in this country and the government pressure to be 'tougher on crime'. He also speaks about what he means by the term 'moral anger'.

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This is a tough topic, but in a country where someone is diagnosed with cancer every 2 minutes, leading to 1000 new diagnosis a day, it feels like one I didn't want to shy away from.  My very good friend, Catherine Woodcock talks wisely and openly and honestly about her diagnosis and how her Christian faith has impacted this.
We discuss how her faith has been of comfort to her, and particular Bible verses that have been significant, her understanding of the problem of evil, life after death, euthanasia and miracles.
It's a truly beautiful and heartwarming chat with someone who has added so much to my life in the 3 years I have known her!

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The day I release this episode is Holi - the most revered festival from Hindu Dharma with colour powder and bonfires.  It marks the end of the cold dark winter and the beginning of spring and new beginnings.  Molly Acharya and Ash Kundi (intermittently) join me once more to discuss;
Discuss what Holi is, the stories behind them, why there are bonfires and coloured powder, how it is celebrated across the world, and how to teach it.  We also explore the cross curricular links with art if you want to share this episode with your art department.
And, as usual, there is a lot of laughs and a lot about food in this episode! Enjoy
Bura na mano Holi hai

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I am so grateful  that Dr. Wendy Dossett has agreed to come back on the podcast to talk about something she is deeply passionate and deeply knowledgable about, both from her own experience and her own research.
Please note this could be quite triggering from some people so please listen with caution.
Here is a website Wendy recommends if you might find it useful.
https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/
We look at what addiction is, what it has to do with spirituality and why might spirituality in recovery from addiction be of interest to RE teachers and students.
We explore the history of alcoholics anonymous and consider the idea of higher power 
We look at other faith-based, and secular approaches to recovery, particularly Buddhism.
If you want to catch the BBC programme AA that featured Wendy I HIGHLY recommend it. Here is the link
 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001fyzd

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In this very special episode I celebrate just some of the amazing people that have made it possible for The RE Podcast to get to 100th episode.

However, I also want to celebrate you, my amazing listener. Back in October 2020, I could not concieve that people would listen to me rattling on about RE - but goes to show how much I know.

In this episode I also tell the story of how the RE Podcast came about, what I have learnt from the podcast and some of my favourite episodes. 

I hope you all know how much doing this means to me.

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As we are facing a cost of living crisis, and as many public sector workers are striking to secure urgent funding to these essential services, it feels timely to do an episode on Poverty. 

• What is it?
• What causes it?
• What are the effects of it?
• What are the solutions?
• How do we best teach it in our classrooms and how do we deal with it in our schools?

I think this episode will relate to any educator, not just RE teachers so please share it far and wide!

I chat to Sean Harris ( @SeanHarris_NE ) who is a trust improvement lead, educator, journalist and author and who is currently doing a PHd related to poverty and Louisa Harrop an advisor to the Litchfield Diocese.

• Blair & Raver: Poverty, stress and brain development: New directions for prevention and intervention, Academic Paediatrics, 2016.
• Hackman & Farah: Socioeconomic status and the developing brain. Trends in Cognitive Science, January 2009: https://bit.ly/3FMvT6X
• Hanson et al: Family poverty affects the rate of human infant brain growth, PLoS ONE 8, December 2013.
• Harris: Doorstep disadvantage: Beyond the Pupil Premium, SecEd, May 2021: https://bit.ly/3kjax8v
• Harris: Crafting curriculum with disadvantage in mind, SecEd. 2021. https://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/crafting-your-curriculum-with-poverty-in-mind-disadvantage-pupil-premium-teaching-schools/
• Jensen: Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What being poor does to kids’ brains and what schools can do about it, ASCD, 2009.
• Harris: Neurology of poverty, SecEd, 2022 https://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/poverty-on-the-brain-five-strategies-to-counter-the-impact-of-disadvantage-in-the-classroom-cognitive-function-pupil-premium-pedagogy/

• Marmot et al: Build Back Fairer: Covid-19, Marmot Review, The Health Foundation, 2021.
• McLaughlin, Sheridan & Lambert: Childhood adversity and neural development: Deprivation and threat as distinct dimensions of early experience, Neuroscience and Biobehavorial Reviews (47), 2014.
• Noble, Houston & Brito: Family income, parental education and brain structure in children and adolescents, Nature Neuroscience (18), 2015: https://go.nature.com/3nKTO0K
• Raizada, Richards, Meltzoff & Kuhl: Socioeconomic status predicts hemispheric specialisation of the left inferior frontal gyrus in young children, Neuroimage (40,3), 2008.
• Rowland: Addressing educational disadvantage in schools and colleges: The Essex Way, Unity Research School & Essex County Council, 2021: https://bit.ly/3AlHHMz
• SecEd Podcast: Tackling the consequences of poverty, June 2021: https://bit.ly/3cUETeH
• Wagmiller: The temporal dynamics of childhood econom

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What is Salvation? 
How do you get it? 
Are there different ways?  
Who gets it? 
How do I teach it?
I look at the history of Salvation, what we call the 'arc of salvation' from the fall to the law to sacrifice to good deeds to Jesus and grace all the way through to the spirit. 
How are they different and what is the relationship between them?
I also look at how to teach it and there is a quick exam focus at the end.
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