Year 9, week by week

In the UK marriage is a legal contract before it is a religious one. Civil ceremonies carry no religious content, and since 2014 same-sex couples have been able to marry. Humanists hold their own ceremonies, built on the couple's promises rather than on God.

Note First lesson of the year — the expectations deck runs before the content.

What sex is for, and who decides. Christian teaching gives it two purposes — creating a family, and uniting a couple — and places it inside marriage. Humanists judge by consent, honesty and whether anyone is harmed.

Choosing when, and whether, to have children. The Roman Catholic Church allows only natural methods, teaching that every act must stay open to life. Most Protestants and Humanists accept contraception as responsible parenthood.

First checkpoint of the year: the key words from marriage, sexual relationships and family planning, then an “explain two” question. The DIT sheet is worked in the same lesson.

Everyone is of equal worth — for Christians because all are made in the image of God, for Humanists because we share one humanity. The Equality Act 2010 turns that principle into law.

Why marriage is holy for Christians: a sacrament and a covenant made before God, not only a contract. The second deck teaches the structure of a 12-mark answer, and is worth coming back to all year.

Note The D-type structure deck is the one to reuse before every 12-mark question.

Denominations disagree. Catholics tie sex to a sacramental marriage open to life; the Church of England accepts contraception and, for many members, faithful same-sex relationships; Quakers judge by love and faithfulness.

End of Unit 1: marriage, sexual relationships, family planning and equality, with Christian and non-religious views weighed against each other. The families lesson and its homework follow the paper.

Note The summative paper for this unit is not in the folder — only the lesson deck that runs it.

What families need, and who provides it — the church, the state and the wider community. Christians point to the family as God-given; Humanists to wellbeing and mutual support.

Contraception again, this time from the Christian side: Humanae Vitae against Anglican acceptance, and what responsible parenthood means when health or poverty are involved.

Checkpoint on families and family planning. Paper, then a DIT deck in the same lesson; the homework is a human rights poster, which opens the justice material to come.

Mark 10:9 says what God has joined together must not be separated. Catholics allow an annulment but not a divorce; Anglicans and most Protestants allow divorce and, in some cases, remarriage in church.

Ephesians has been read as giving the husband headship and the wife a subordinate role. Most Christians today, and Humanists, argue instead for equal partnership — shared money, shared parenting, shared decisions.

Prejudice is the attitude, discrimination the act. Unequal pay, the suffragettes who won the vote by protest, and the churches that do and do not ordain women.

End of Unit 2, and two papers: marriage, divorce, equality at home and gender discrimination. Each paper has its own DIT deck. The justice lesson that follows opens Unit 3.

Note Two papers here — these are Summative Assessments 1 and 2 in the Student Companion.

What crime is, and why people commit it. Humanists look at the causes — poverty, addiction, poor education — and argue that reducing those prevents more crime than punishment alone. The justice deck sets out the vocabulary.

Rights you hold simply for being human, set out in the 1948 Universal Declaration and defended by the United Nations. Freedom of expression, the right to a fair trial, and what happens when two rights collide.

The five aims of punishment — protection, retribution, deterrence, reformation and reparation. Which one a society puts first tells you what it thinks punishment is actually for.

Checkpoint on crime, human rights and attitudes to punishment. Paper first, then the DIT deck in the same lesson.

Offender and victim meet, so the offender hears the harm they caused and agrees how to put it right. Lower reoffending, and victims who feel heard — but it does not suit every crime.

Moral evil comes from human choice; natural evil comes from the world itself. Both raise the same question: how could a good, all-powerful God allow this much suffering?

End of Unit 3: justice, punishment, rehabilitation and rights from non-religious perspectives, closing with a 12-mark evaluation. The DIT deck follows in the next lesson.

Note This is Summative Assessment 3 in the Student Companion.

Allah is both perfectly just and endlessly merciful. Muslims are told to stand firm for justice even when it goes against themselves, and Shari'ah sets out what that means in law.

What Islam counts as crime and why — offences against God, against other people and against property — with the harm done to the whole ummah kept in view.

Hadd offences carry fixed punishments named in the Qur'an. The standards of evidence required are extremely high, which is why many Muslims argue they should almost never apply in practice.

Muslim views on what a punishment should achieve, set beside the non-religious aims met in Unit 3. Mercy and deterrence pulling in opposite directions.

Checkpoint on Islam and the law: justice, crime, the hadd and attitudes to punishment.

Protection, deterrence, retribution and reform, judged against Islamic teaching about mercy and about what victims are owed.

End of Unit 4: law, civil rights, perpetrators and victims, closing with the 12-mark question on protecting society against reforming offenders. A questions sheet and a DIT deck come with it.

Note This is the Unit Assessment — Islam and Law in the Student Companion.

How prisoners are treated is a test of a society's values — conditions, a fair trial, legal representation. Islam requires punishment to be just, and never cruel.

The Qur'an permits the death penalty for murder, but praises those who forgive instead. Set that against wrongful convictions, the sanctity of life, and the evidence on whether it deters.

Giving up the right to revenge. Allah is described as the Most Merciful; Jesus forgave from the cross. Forgiving someone is not the same as cancelling their punishment.

Does God exist, and what would count as evidence either way? Arguments from design and from cause, set against the problem of suffering — the bridge into GCSE.

The five moves you need on the relationships half of the paper: define the key words, name a teaching, give both sides, weigh them against each other, and conclude.

The same five moves on the crime and punishment half: key words, a teaching or principle, both sides, weighed, and a conclusion that follows from the argument.

Two sections — marriage and relationships, then Islam and law. Each has a key-word match, an “explain two” worth 4 marks, and a 12-mark evaluation.

Note Two sections: relationships, then Islam and law. The Companion treats them as two separate reviews.

The paper comes back. Correct the key words, rebuild the weaker 4-mark point, find the level you reached on the 12-mark ladder, and write two paragraphs at the level above it.