What are religious Laws in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism? How have they influenced society? Is it time we got rid of all religious laws? Should we tolerate a plurality of religious laws in one society? These are all questions this resource explores. Plenty of scope for more able students to thrive as well as some scaffolding for students who struggle more. Video embedded in the PPT, as well as an opinion line plenary. Enjoy!

This lesson is a Philosophy for Children lesson, supported by activities and pictures to try and get young people to engage with the huge injustice and personal loss of the Holocaust. It involves getting students to enquire into each others lives using the medium of their shoes: trying to be detectives (in a Sherlock deduction method sort of way). What can we tell about a person from a shoe? Very little. Yet this is all we have left of many human stories from the Holocaust, all 6, 258, 673 Jews and 3 million others. Its an attempt to get students to emote and empathise with the fact that each of those numbers is a person with a full story. Learning Questions include: The Holocaust- What was it? How many people died? Why are we learning about it? More detailed instructions on the P4C exercise included.

This is a resource to help tackle un-nuanced views that Christians are homophobic. It looks at some examples of welcoming Churches, and has a broad variety of resources for you to choose from including: debates, youtube videos, written evaluations and a choice of plenaries too. It's therefore well differentiated. There are two lessons here: one focusses more on the westboro baptist church, whereas the other is more general. There is some repeated material in the two lessons, but plenty for you to pull two or even three lessons out of. WARNING: The drama-documentary has some scenes of self harm at the end of it so could be a potential trigger for some students and should be skipped for younger year groups.

A lesson to explore the six aims of punishment: protection, retribution, vindication, deterrence, reformation and reparation. It includes discussions on what crimes should receive what punishment, learning walks and written exercises which increase in difficulty. Writing scaffolding for paragraphs are included on the powerpoint, and it will help students studying religious studies, history and citizenship. Learning questions: What are the six aims of punishment? Which is the most important?

A lesson to explore the psychological, social and environmental causes of crime. It includes youtube clips, 'a recipe for a criminal', and other creative activites that become increasingly challenging. A well differentiated lesson that is fun to deliver. Lessons include: What are the possible causes of crime? How do environmental, social and psychological factors influence crime? What do you think are the main causes of crime and why?

This is a lesson that focusses on the FBV of tolerance and mutual respect. It looks at worldwide variations in family structures, gender and religion. It encourages students to see their ideas of ‘normal’ (i.e. in France they drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road) as simply another way to do things. Hopefully without slipping into complete relativism, students are encouraged to question, develop and refine their opinions rather than give any opinions up all together. Learning objectives include: Does culture affect what is ‘normal’? How and why does culture affect religion, gender and family? Extension: Does the information in this lesson change how you think about your own norms and values? Tasks are differentiated by outcome, with group learning carousel, whole class discussion, and individual tasks all incuded. Questions become increasingly high level as they go on. Suitable for KS3-5. With some simplification it could work with KS2, but it would take some work to do so. It includes in the powerpoint slides to print out with the information on the case studies and a document about the many different forms of Islam in the world, and how culture affects religion. (As an aside, I could have chosen any religion. Christianity has 40 000 types!)

A lesson to explore what pacifism is, how it has been used in the past and if it is a reasonable attitude to take to war. Looking particularly at the Quakers and their use of pacifism in anti-war protests and campaigning, the lesson aims to engage students in active critical thought and improve their awareness of how belief manifests in the real world. Learning Objectives: What is Pacifism? What is a conscientious objector? How did people treat conscientious objectors in WWI and II? Why might a religious person refuse to fight? Should we ALL be pacifists? It also includes links to youtube videos on conscience and examples of conscientious objectors for students to explore. It also includes, for more able students, examples of people who ‘broke the mold’ such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

A lesson that explores the learning questions: What causes war? Is war ever justified? Using a game students explore in teams of 6 the possible causes of war, and evaluate if they are worthwhile. Differentiated learning outcomes and links to youtube videos included, this lesson has been tweaked over a course of 5 years into something that works for me in the classroom. It includes guided discussion and debate topics, as well as some religious opinions in the form of Augustine’s just war theory. Any necessary instructions included in the powerpoint notes.

A lesson that explores Muslim attitudes to war through Jihad. It explores the greater and lesser jihad, and gets students to collaboratively piece together what Jihad actually is whilst debunking the myth that it means ‘holy war’. Closer to ‘righteous struggle’ this lesson aims to draw comparison with the Just War Theory and help to see how in some ways it is more progressive than the JWT (avoids hurting plants and animals) and in others more religious (must be ordered by a religious leader). It also compares modern conflicts to Jihad, and the ways it has been misused. Learning Questions include: What are Muslim views to war? What is Jihad? How might Jihad be misinterpreted? Extension tasks included, as is a wordsearch starter for students to have a quick win at the beginning of the lesson to build learning engagement.

This lesson explores Nuclear war: the affects of nuclear weapons, if they can ever be justified, if there are any specific examples students know of, and how Christians might respond to the idea of nuclear war using the just war theory. SEND worksheet included, and a variety of extension activities (including how to make a peace crane) are included. As well as this, youtube videos and plenty of discussion activities, as well as an online ‘nuke map’ which explains how a nuke would affect the area you are, anywhere in the world. I know, right? An amazing resource. Learning Questions: What do Nuclear weapons do? Can Nuclear War ever be just? Are there any examples you know? How may Christians respond to Nuclear war?

A lesson which explores Christian Attitudes to War. Learning Questions include: What are Christian Opinions to War? Why do Christians disagree with each other? EXT: How do you think social background affects peoples opinions? This powerpoint looks includes extension activities, independent learning activities and joint discussion. It covers citizenship, PHSE, SEAL, SMSC and Religious Studies syllabi (I love that plural) and I have found it to be a fairly engaging lesson for many students. It also includes a link to a youtube video animation to the parable of the lost son, and links this to the topic of war and peace for students to consider how religious teachings may be applied to modern day dilemmas. Not dilemmi. Sadly.

A lesson designed to explore the Just War Theory in a collaborative, group work activity that emphasizes team work. This leads on to a creative activity where students create a poster, poem or rap to exemplify the Just War Theory’s 7 aspects. Learning Questions include: What is the Just War Theory? Do I agree with it? Why? Differentiated learning outcomes included, which evaluate why Christians may or may not agree with the Just War Theory. All activities are clearly explained in the Powerpoint, and a variety of extension activities for more able students are included.

When I ask my students: ‘What is money?’, they hardly ever know. Most adults don’t either. This lesson looks at what money is, how the banking crisis happened, what the difference between good debt and bad debt is, and the current global inequality in wealth. It includes individual and group work activities, as well as whole class discussions, to try and stimulate students understanding and critical engagement with the world as it is. A lesson that could work as an introduction for economics, PHSE, SEAL, SMSC and Careers lessons for children aged 11+. Extensions, start and plenary are included to aid differentiation and the learning journey. Learning questions also increase in difficulty as the lesson progresses. Learning questions include: What is money? What’s the difference between good debt and bad debt? What is crypto-currency? Extension: Is financial inequality out of control, and if so how can it be resolved? Instructions on how to use the resource are in the notes of the powerpoint, which also includes a number of youtube videos, and included here is also a short word document which has some of the debate about where money originated from and what preceded it. This document is made from a summary of Graeber’s recent work and watching the ‘crash course’ video on money. Adam Smith’s idea that barter preceded minted coinage seems, in recent academia, to be incorrect. Rather, minted metal coinage seems to have been part of a ‘military-mining-slavery complex’ where wars created slaves to mine metal to pay soldiers.

This powerpoint and worksheets provide a range of differentiated activities as well as video clips that explore how propaganda and indoctrination was used in the Holocaust to Brainwash people. It includes embedded videos, youtube links, examples of propaganda posters, team work and independent work activities as well as discussion topics. Fine for use from yr. 6 (10 yo up) The learning questions are as follows: How did people let the holocaust happen? (Level 4-5) Explain why is it important to think for yourself. (Level 5-6) Can you evaluate the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda? (Level 6-7) There are also a myriad of extension tasks, including examples of modern day propaganda around Islamophobia and Immigration.

Perfect for a form discussion or a PHSE/Citizenship lesson, this resource examines the investigatory powers act and gives students the opportunity to debate their opinions on mass surveillance. It also summarises human rights, and is designed to help develop students skills of critical thought and debate. It includes a short youtube video and SMSC objectives. Learning Questions include: What is the investigatory powers act? Should the government be able to see all of our online data? SMSC objectives met are: To learn and discuss what is right and wrong and respect the law; investigate moral and ethical issues and offer reasoned views. To appreciate diverse viewpoints and resolve conflict.

This lesson has been a few years in the making. I have been struggling to get together decent resources that inform, without shame or judgement, a generation of young people for whom porn is highly accesible, in huge quantities and ubiquitous (25% of all internet searches are for pornography). I hope this goes some way towards that ambition. The lesson covers: What is pornography? Why is it so addictive? Is pornography having a negative effect on society? Should all, or some pornography, be illegal? It includes research tasks about fightthenewdrug.org, and then goes on to deconstruct that website to try and encourage critical thought, infographics, group tasks, debates and discussions. It aims to inform students of the dangers of porn addiction. I have included here some controversial material for KS5 if you want to have a more nuanced discussion. The research done in the article ‘the sunny side of smut’ is quite problematic, and students should be directed to deconstruct it whilst also considering the points it makes. Feedback really, really welcome.

This lesson has been a long one in the making. Having found resources from all over the web, edited my own video compiling footage from 9.11 and interviews from Geroge Bush and Osama Bin Laden, this lesson aims to give as an impartial view of 9.11 as possible. It includes neo-conservative explanations for 9.11, to Noam CHomsky esque critique of American Foreign Policy that Michael Moore would be proud of, and even allows al-Qaeda to explain their opinion. Obviously it makes explicit that targetting civilians is never, under any circumstances, acceptable, but tries to explain that 9.11 was a complicated event with historical, cultural, social and religious causes using a redacted and edited document which summarises complicated historical commentary into a digestible PDF. It even includes a brief mention of conspiracy theories for those more inquisitive students. Above all, it encourages critical thought and human compassion. A wide range of differentiated and extension activities here. Learning Questions: What was 9/11? How did it cause a war? Why did the the USA and al-Qaeda say it happened? Ext: Why do you think it happened? Independent, group and whole class activities included to bolster engagement and learning. There’s enough for at least 2 lessons here. But I’m selling it as one, because I’m nice like that.

An introductory lesson, including a debate ("Capital Punishment should be reintroduced to the UK"), about Capital Punishment. It covers the following objectives, mainly from a secular viewpoint although including some Christian views: What is Capital Punishment? What are the arguments for and against it? What do YOU think? It includes a youtube video, gap fill exercise, debate and evaluation writing exercise. Students are always engaged with this topic area.

A lesson that explores what Humanism is, including descriptions, embedded videos, exploration of controversy surrounding Richard Dawkins and independent learning activities and discussions. Also, for the creatives out there, an extension which involves writing a rap. Learning questions include: What is Humanism? What do Humanists believe? What are the challenges of believing in Humanism? Extension: Is Humanism a religion? This is intended to help students explore and think with nuance about Humanism, the role of religion in the modern world (if indeed it has any), and is differentiated in its tasks: each question gets increasingly difficult and there are differentiated targets for video clips and activities.

A differentiated activity with Marketplace, opinion line and video clip which explores these key questions: What are new religious movements and cults? What are the benefits and challenges of such movements? Should these new religious movements be made illegal? A Powerpoint and extensive word resource which has information on 8 of the world's new religious movements & cults.