1. Lancashire SACRE Religious Education Support Assessing RE: What does level 5 look like? This presentation provides materials, examples and ideas for gathering evidence of pupils’ achievements at level five of the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus 8 level scale

2. What skills are characteristic of level 5? AT1. Pupils:  use a wide religious vocabulary to explain the impact of beliefs upon individuals and communities.  describe why people belong to religious traditions.  know that similarities and differences illustrate distinctive beliefs within and between religions and suggest possible reasons for this.  explain how religious sources are used to provide answers to ultimate questions and ethical issues,  recognise diversity within and between religions AT 2. Pupils:  Pose and suggest answers to, questions of identity, belonging, meaning, purpose and truth, values and commitments, relating them to their own and others’ lives.  explain what inspires and influences them, expressing their own and others’ views on the challenges of belonging to a religion (AT 2 in italics) Level 5 is characterised by these skills: Pupils explain why; explain similarities and differences; express views clearly in the light of religions studied.

3. Remember…  A single piece of work doesn’t show all of the achievements that are characteristic of the level. The examples that follow are most helpful if they are taken together.  Evidence may come from written work, or many other sources. Here we show what can be shared.  Judging levels is a criterion-referenced ‘art’ rather than a science. Teachers’ judgements are the most important because teachers know pupils best.  Work may relate to any aspect of the field of enquiry: some examples of work here relate to shared human experience, or to beliefs and values, or to living religious traditions or to the search for personal meaning. Some examples connect different aspects of the field of enquiry.  Many teachers will find the syllabus guidance on ‘I can…’ statements on CD2 of the Lancashire Syllabus very helpful.  Examples of work at Level 5 can be brief moment of high achievement: children sometimes get to this level occasionally before they are even secure in level 4. The first three examples below are typical of this pattern of progress

4. Catherine, 10, shows that she can use religious materials to explain her values in relation to the idea of life as a journey.  This pupil in year 5 was asked to write the first page of a ‘guidebook to life’ after extensive work on the theme of life as a journey.  She collects her wisdom from various sources, and produces a mature and thoughtful piece of learning from religion.  The page engages particularly with questions of identity and value, expressing views thoughtfully at level 5.  Its best feature is the careful, literate and spiritually alert expression of the search for personal meaning.

5. Stephen shows in this work that he can express a viewpoint on a question of purpose clearly.  Pupils studied examples of how religious conversion has an impact on life.  They were asked to write their own account – real or fictional – of a turning point in someone’s life.  Although this is a brief piece of work, it addresses the questions of purpose with real style and depth at level 5.  The works shows a profound moment of reflection.  Achievement in RE is sometimes shown by a ‘flash’ rather than by extended writing.

6. Zack, 11, shows here that he is able to express his own emerging views on questions of meaning.  This is a piece of work by a young man struggling with literacy.  His RE skills are shown by the beliefs he accepts, but also by his reasons for rejecting other ideas.  He is able to reflect on and explain his reaction to different views of questions of meaning.  He uses and balances his ideas, concepts and terminology – agnostic, unbelievable, punishment, respect – to express his own view of the challenge of life, thoughtfully at level 5.

7. Daniel, 13, shows here that he can express his views about the worst evil in the world, explaining his ideas about the impact of lack of love in the world, and exploring the challenges of values within or beyond religion.  Daniel used a thinking skills strategy to rank and order some evil things in the world, selecting lack of love as the worst.  He gives the explanation of the impact and consequences of the lack of love, and so expresses his understanding of some values questions clearly.  The strength of this piece of work lies in his ability to see the connections and consequences of his view in action, characteristic of L5.

8. Sophie, 14, is able to explain some similarities and differences between Muslims and Christians using examples and giving reasons for her views.  This piece of work comes at the end of a unit in which learning about two religions has occurred.  The task uses a controversial statement to open up Sophie’s views: a useful method.  This brief sample of her work is quite well informed in relation to both religions, and in relation to the concepts of general religious study at level 5.  She offers balanced and informed views of her own, well expressed.

9. Charlotte, 11, shows here that she can relate her answers to questions about purpose and destiny to views she has encountered, explaining and expressing her views of the question.  Pupils explored ideas about destiny from different religions and beliefs – heaven, Nirvana, paradise, nothingness –  Pupils were invited to make a poem about one of these ‘destiny’ ideas.  Charlotte chose hell, and has expressed her viewpoint and questions with skilled and creative language use.  Her metaphors convey a dense and deep engagement of the imagination through the concepts she has chosen at level 5.  The personal nature of the work is typical of how some pupils engage with the negatives in RE.

10. In this piece of work Zaheer, 13, shows that he can explain a range of viewpoints an give his own viewpoint on a key question of meaning and purpose.  Pupils were asked to consider questions of meaning and purpose with reference to two religious viewpoints.  Zaheer considers 2 questions, giving Christian and his own, Muslim, views on them (‘scientist’ here should be spelt with a lower case initial).  Zaheer takes on the level 5 challenge of explaining different views and giving reasons.  There are some ‘loose ends’ to the piece, but the skill is secure.

11. Helen, 13, shows here that she can express reflective views on issues of penitence, sin and guilt in the light of her learning from Jewish sacred text.  Pupils studied the nature of the Psalms in Jewish sacred text, and examined Psalms which say ‘sorry’ ‘please’ ‘ I love you’ or ‘thank you’ to God.  They were offered the opportunity to create a new Psalm, or a reflection of their own on one of these themes.  Helen’s ‘Sorry Psalm’ connects through her literacy skills to the text of Psalm 51, but is all her own as well.  This creative task gives her the chance to engage with ideas, values and questions of commitment, expressing her ideas in a powerful piece of writing at level 5.

12. Emily, 12, shows in this work that she can use her conceptual learning in RE to explain the impact of Buddhist teaching on ways of life.  After a progressed study of Buddhism, Emily’s class were asked to respond to the question of suffering in the light of their learning.  In this extract from her work, Emily explains the teaching of the Buddha’s 8 fold path and she explains the impact of Buddhist choices in reducing suffering at level 5.  Her own views are not given in this piece of work, but instead she explains why Buddhist ideas make sense in the context of the religion.

13. Becca, 13, expresses her own views, giving reasons & arguments for and against, on questions of belief about origins and questions of purpose.  Becca uses the concepts of the subject (beliefs, creation, evolution, Christian views) to explain her own views in relation to other views.  She relates answers to questions of meaning and truth to her own life and to others’ ideas.

14. Emma, 13, uses a wide set of concepts to explain different ideas about questions of God.  This extract from an essay about God shows the application of simple philosophical methods to RE’s questions of meaning and truth.  Emma writes in ways that are alert to diversity of view and mystery, using a range of religious concepts thoughtfully  She uses her knowledge of Christian theology, trinity and ideas about the nature of God to express a range of ideas and views about questions of origin and meaning in human life at level 5.

15. Nia, 14, shows here that she can explain her views about an issue of identity and relate her understanding to Buddhist teaching  Nia was asked to select one her most important beliefs and explain its significance to her and its relation to the teaching of one religion she had studied in KS3  She places her beliefs and ideas in a social context.  The alertness to ‘appearance’ and ‘reality’ is related to her learning about Buddhist dharma.  Her final 6 lines use a religious source to add depth to her explanations

16. Thanks to teachers and pupils  Lancashire SACRE would like to thank all the teachers and pupils who have contributed to this project and Lat Blaylock of RE today  Comments on the project and the example are welcome: send them to SACRE via the Lancashire RE consultant Helen Harrison.  These materials are © Lancashire SACRE and RE Today, 2008. Lancashire schools may use them freely, but other use is by written permission only.