Year 7, week by week

The first RE lesson of secondary school: what Religious Education is, and why it is worth studying when 7 of the world's 8 billion people hold a religious belief. Sets the expectations students will work to all year.

Note First RE lesson of Year 7 — seating plan, expectations and the Learning Journey are all set up here.

A baseline test taken before any teaching, so progress across Year 7 can be measured against it. Covers holy books, places of worship, founders and the words theism, atheism and polytheism, followed by the DIT lesson.

The distinction the whole unit rests on: a belief is accepted as true, a fact can be proven, an opinion says how someone feels. Students sort statements into the three and learn why people can hold different beliefs honestly.

Optical illusions open the question of whether the eye can be trusted, then the lesson turns to theism, atheism and agnosticism, and to the ways belief is shown in practice — Christian prayer and Jummah prayer.

Do people have good reasons for believing in God, or for not believing? Students weigh evidence, meet the theist, the atheist and the agnostic as three positions rather than three camps, and argue their own view.

Objects that carry belief: rosary beads, the crucifix, the prayer mat and the compass that points towards Mecca. Students handle the artefacts, then explain what each one tells you about the believer who uses it.

The cross, Aum, the Dharma Wheel, the Star of David and the crescent moon and star. Students learn to read a symbol as a compressed belief — and to see why a sign and a symbol are not the same thing.

The unit assessment: belief, fact and opinion, the three positions on God, prayer, artefacts and symbols. Revision questions first, then the paper, then the DIT lesson that closes the gaps it finds.

Diwali, the festival of lights, told through Rama and Sita's return from exile and Hanuman's part in it. Students learn why the divas are lit and what light defeating darkness means to a Hindu family.

Note The unit's introduction-to-Hinduism lesson is not on SharePoint, so the unit opens on Diwali. Brahman and the Trimurti are picked up in week 13.

The formative assessment for the unit: students design a poster explaining one of the Big Six religions to an alien — its founder, symbol, holy book, age, size and afterlife belief. Aum is taught properly here.

Inside a Hindu place of worship. The mandir, the murti that houses the deity, the puja that is offered and the Vedas that are read — explored through a virtual tour and the accompanying information sheet.

What Hindus believe happens after death: the atman that never dies, samsara as the cycle of rebirth, and moksha as release from it. Students trace how the life you live shapes the life that follows.

Brahman is in everything, so harming the natural world harms the divine. Karma is introduced through selfless and selfish acts, and students argue what a Hindu should do about the environment today.

The Hinduism assessment: Diwali, the symbols of the Big Six, the mandir and puja, atman and samsara and moksha, karma and the Trimurti. Two sets of revision questions, then the paper and the DIT.

A prince who had never seen suffering leaves the palace at 29, sees the Four Sights, and meditates for 46 days under the Bodhi tree. How Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha — the Enlightened One.

Wesak, the most important festival in Buddhism, celebrating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. Students learn the Bathing of the Buddha and what purifying the heart and mind is meant to achieve.

The vihara as temple, school and community all at once. Puja, chanting and mantras, and meditation as the discipline of controlling the mind — taken through a virtual tour of the building.

A short formative test halfway through the unit: the Buddha, Wesak and the vihara, plus karma and reincarnation carried over from Hinduism. The DIT models how to explain two Buddhist teachings.

The Four Noble Truths — that life involves suffering, that desire causes it, that it can be ended, and that the Eightfold Path is the way — and what Buddhists mean by escaping samsara into nirvana.

Sentient and non-sentient beings, and why the distinction matters to a Buddhist deciding how to treat animals and the land. The Middle Way is applied to how much a person really needs to own.

The Buddhism assessment: ten key words, the Tripitaka, two ways Wesak is celebrated, two of the Four Noble Truths, and why Buddhists want to reach nirvana. Revision, paper, then the DIT.

Born in the Punjab in 1469, Guru Nanak refused the Sacred Thread Ceremony and taught that there is one God and that all people are equal. Nine Gurus followed him, and homework covers all ten.

Kesh, kangha, kara, kachera and kirpan — the five artefacts a baptised Sikh wears, what each one means, and how the Khalsa began at Vaisakhi in 1699 under Guru Gobind Singh.

The gurdwara, the Guru Granth Sahib treated as a living Guru, and the langar where everyone sits on the same floor and eats the same free meal — equality made visible in a building.

The formative test on the first half of the unit: Guru Nanak, the ten Gurus, the Khalsa and Vaisakhi, the 5Ks, the gurdwara and langar, and the words sewa, karma, mukti and atman.

Waheguru, the atma given to every living being, samsara as the cycle of rebirth and mukti as release from it. Gurmukh and manmukh living explain how good and bad karma are earned.

Sikhism has no creation story, so the teaching starts from stewardship: the world is held in trust for those who come after. Students turn that into practical action — recycling, clean energy, local food.

The Sikhism assessment: ten key words, two Sikh beliefs about the afterlife, two about nature, and an outline of two of the 5Ks. Students are held to a Point and a Develop in every answer.

Gandhi in South Africa, the racism he met there, and ahimsa — the principle of harming no living thing. His ashram is used to ask what living your belief actually costs.

Apartheid meant 'the state of being apart', and in South Africa it was written into law. Mandela's belief in equality, the 27 years in prison it cost him, and what he chose to do afterwards.

Segregation in America, where racism comes from, and Martin Luther King's answer to it. The I Have a Dream speech is read against the Christian belief that all people are made in the image of God.

Born in Mingora in 1997, banned from school in 2008, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Malala's story is set against what Islam teaches about the education of men and women.

Narnia read as Christian belief in disguise: a wrong choice, a price that has to be paid, a death in someone else's place and a return from the dead. Students learn to read a story symbolically.

Three film prayers — a coach's, a woman's in the cathedral, a boy's in an empty church — used to separate personal prayer from corporate prayer, and to ask what people actually pray for.

Temptation as wanting to do what you know is wrong. Adam and Eve are read as a story about choice and consequence, then the same shape is found in a children's film students already know.

Why so many heroes die and come back. Resurrection as a belief held by Jews, Christians and Muslims, set beside Harry Potter and Superman, and the question of what makes the religious version different.

The End of Year exam covering all six units, with the revision document to prepare and the DIT deck to run afterwards.

Note Revise first, sit the paper, then run the DIT — the folder holds all three, so plan whether this needs one week or two.

Equality Week closes the year: Alan Turing's story and what was done to him, alongside the Prince of Egypt task.