10 ideas for ‘Stretch & Challenge’ in RE Esther Messinger emessinger@bristolcathedral.org.uk

Who is Stretch & Challenge for? Explain How important is it? Why? Is it difficult to plan for Stretch & Challenge in RE? Justify In regards to Stretch & Challenge, what is working for you and your students?

Use Title Questions

Calls for Secondary Schools to 2010 2013 last Ofsted reports Calls for Secondary Schools to “improve the quality of teaching and the curriculum to increase opportunities for pupils to work independently, make links with other subjects and tackle more challenging tasks.” “ensure that the overall curriculum provision for RE is challenging and has greater coherence and continuity.”

2. Encourage intellectual risk taking. Reward ideas and questions, not answers. Thank students for speaking up. Demand questions!

Book talk Competition 3. Use reading lists Praise postcard - token system

4. ABC Add, Build, Challenge “The biblical account of the fall is not relevant today” “All religious people should give charity” “Buddhism is a philosophy, not a religion” “Suicide is wrong” “People should not let religion influence their personal relationships” “Prayer is the best way to worship”

5. Plan your questions State your title question and then ask the class to decide what you need to know. E.G.

The Fall: The biblical event in which Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and ate the fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden; also used to refer to the imperfect state of humanity. Do you think that ideas about the effect of the Fall on human nature only works if the Fall was a historical event concerning two real individuals?

Humanity before and after the fall? What is the meaning of the fall? The Fall: The biblical event in which Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and ate the fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden; also used to refer to the imperfect state of humanity. Do you think that ideas about the effect of the Fall on human nature only works if the Fall was a historical event concerning two real individuals? Humanity before and after the fall? What is the meaning of the fall? Can the meaning of the Fall work if the Fall is a metaphor not a historical reality? Can its meaning apply to a group of people? 2, draw it to get meaning - given something perfect by a higher power with a choice to obey or not, temptation will cause you to make the wrong choice, this choice will result in speparte from higher power or giver of gift, can only get back if you are chosen to be worthy. 3. Life with parents, history of technology and advancement as a group

7. Know the students’ interests to personalise learning.

8. Get students discussing, not writing.

9. Differentiate through choice and creativity.

10. Support memory and retention.