This contains a fully resourced, differentiated introductory lesson on religious experiences. The main part of the lesson involves students produce a spider diagram showing William James’s criteria for a religious experience, working in groups to complete a grid task showing its different types (i.e. mystical, corporate, conversion, visions and voices) and then link it back to William James’s classification scheme for analysis (how these examples meet some or all of his criteria), finishing off with a fun and innovative plenary. Learning Objectives: To describe the meaning of a religious experience. To explain the various categories of religious experience. To analyse whether they meet William James criteria for a religious experience.

A fully resourced lesson on meditation in Buddhism. It includes a starter where they list their life worries and how they deal with them, in the main section a task on describing the story behind Siddhartha's enlightenment and a set of meditation exercises. In the plenary they then explain why meditation is important.

This lesson focuses on how belief can affect people's actions, focusing on Desmond Doss, a soldier from WWII who refused to fire a single bullet. They explain how his belief affected his action, consider and analyse different viewpoints and evaluate how strictly one should follow their actions. Was designed for an observation lesson.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on global poverty. In the main part of the lessons students have to consider a range of definitions to decide what they believe is the best one, use a range of pictures to explain the impacts of global poverty, and finally complete a written evaluation as to whether they believe it is possible to end global poverty. Learning Objectives: To describe the meaning of poverty. To explain the impacts of global poverty. To speculate whether it is possible to end global poverty.

This is a fully resourced, introductory lesson on how people go about making moral decisions. The main part of the lesson mostly focuses on a case study to consider the effects of our moral actions, namely that the minerals from our mobile phones can be sourced (on occasion) to war zones. It contains a written task, peer discussion task and evaluation task. To describe what moral decisions are. To explain the effects of our moral decisions. To evaluate the morality of our moral decisions.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the features of a church. The main part of the lesson involves using a clip to describe the key features of a church, then ranking them from most to least important and justifying their choices. Learning Objectives: To describe the key features found inside a Church and their purpose. To explain why they are important for a Christian. To investigate why a Church is of value to a Christian.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson which acts as an introduction to Hinduism. The main part of the lesson consists of a scavenger hunt to describe key facts surrounding the religion and to explain their key beliefs (this is differentiated to 3 levels). It also consists of students working in small groups to compare the religion with Christianity. Learning Objectives: To describe the key facts surrounding Hinduism. To explain their key beliefs. To compare the similarities and differences between Hinduism and Christianity.

This contains a fully resourced lesson on the role of women. It begins by students developing an understanding of how women's rights have changed over time in the UK (since the 1950's), then explaining different Christian denominations views towards their role and status within the Church. The lesson then concludes with an evaluation exam question. Extension questions are included to provide stretch and challenge.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the Design argument aimed at KS3 students. It could very easily be adapted to suit KS4. The main activities include: * A discussion task on how the natural world and universe itself can show evidence of design (facts are provided as a stimulus and focus) * Reading through Paley's watch story (analogy) as a class and completing an ordering task (could easily be adapted to a card sort!?) * Writing their own modern story of the argument to demonstrate understanding. * Assessing the potential problems with the argument, using visual clues to assist them. Lesson Objectives: To describe how the world around us can show evidence of design. To explain the key features of the design argument. To assess potential problems with the argument.

This contains a fully resourced lesson, differentiated lesson on whether religion is important in the 21st Century. It is done by considering the fictional scenario that it has been proven that God does not exist, and therefore neither does religion. They complete a group discussion and brainstorming exercise, compile notes and produce a newspaper report on their findings. Learning Objectives: To describe the positive and negative effects of religion. To explain the possible effects of a world without religion. To evaluate whether the world would be a better place without religion.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on Christian pilgrimage. It included a worksheet to complete, a game board activity, and reflection questions in the main part of the lesson. Learning Objectives: To describe what happens on a Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem. To explain the reasons why Christians go on the pilgrimage. To analyse how their lives may be changed by the experience.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the milestones the average person in the UK may experience in their life. The main part of the lesson involves students creating an annotated timeline of all the key milestones, explaining how and why they are celebrated. This can form part of a piece of display work if you wish to do so. To identify a list of milestones. To describe how milestones are celebrated. To understand why milestones are celebrated.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the problems associated with miracles, focusing on those from David Hume. The main part of the lesson involves students summarising them into their notes and using those as a basis, linked to a case study, to produce an advertising campaign designed to convince people that miracles simply do not happen. Learning Objectives: To explain why David Hume argues miracles are impossible. To apply his arguments to a real world case study. To express your personal view towards his criticisms.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on Bar Mitzvah's. The main part of the lesson involves using resource sheets to complete a set of differentiated questions on the activities building up to a Bar Mitzvah and the ceremony itself, and then consider in a consolidation task why they are important for individual Jews and their communities. To describe the key features of a Bar Mitzvah. To explain why these features are important. To analyse the importance of the ceremony for young Jews and their community as a whole.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on Christian baptism. The main part of the lesson involves students using a resource sheet to describe what happens during a baptism, a ranking task where students consider the importance of reasons why baptism is important for Christians, and a scenario-based discussion task where they finally consider difficulties the ceremony may create for young people. Learning Objectives: To describe what happens during a typical baptism. To explain why baptism is important for Christians. To assess the difficulties this ceremony can bring for young people.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on Christian attitudes to euthanasia. The main part of the lesson involves a card sort where students organise the key arguments into those that support either the Anglican or Catholic viewpoint, a Biblical quote analysis task, and a 12-mark evaluation practice exam question. Learning Objectives: To explain different Christian attitudes towards euthanasia. To examine how Biblical evidence can support these viewpoints. To evaluate whether euthanasia is acceptable or not.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the legal age limits in the UK. The main part of the lesson involves students completing a worksheet detailing the age limits for different activities in the UK and them explaining whether they believe they are appropriate or not, and why. To outline the legal age limits for activities in the UK. To explain your opinion towards the appropriateness of these limits. To explore what you consider to be age appropriate limits.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on how theists claim that God can be revealed to humanity (this includes general revelation and special revelation). The main part of the lesson consists of a class discussion task on the two groups of revelation (general and special), a picture sorting task where they sort different types into general revelation or special revelation, a written task where they become an 'expert' on one type of revelation, a peer teaching task and an exam question plenary. This lesson is aimed at the new 2016 AQA Religious Studies unit. It does require reference to the old AQA Philosophy textbook for the written task. Learning Objectives: To describe the different types of revelation. To explain their key characteristics. To analyse the validity of these types of revelation.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the symbolism of light and darkness. The main part of the lesson involves students listening to a story about an individual who becomes trapped in a cave of total darkness, and how light helped to 'push away' the darkness. They work in pairs to record the emotions the individual might have felt, and then use this as a basis to produce a piece of work showing the power of light to 'push back' the darkness. To describe the feelings and emotions associated with light and darkness. To explain the impact that light can have in overcoming darkness.

This contains a fully resourced, differentiated lesson on the Diwali Festival. The main part of the lesson consists of describing the story of Rama and Sita in their own words, writing a paragraph explaining the purpose of the festival, then linking the meaning of the festival to examples of other famous people who have overcome darkness in their lives (e.g. Brian Keenan, Malala). To describe the story of Rama and Sita. To explain the deeper meaning behind the story and festival. To examine the similarities between the story of Rama and Sita and prior examples.