Religion, Ethics & Philosophy at Warminster School is as much about discovering and establishing yourself as a person as it is learning about the world religions. It is about knowing what you think, and being able to explain yourself in light of the views of others. We encourage pupils to be open-minded, seek knowledge and be critical in order to make more informed choices. We respect a child’s right to learn with an open mind and give them the tools to think for themselves, questioning how we know what we know. We believe it is important that we fire children’s curiosity and never limit their questioning.

The course in Years 7-9 looks at a range of religious, ethical and philosophical issues, such as what it means for something to be religious, the nature of truth and how we form moral codes. Moreover, REP at Warminster School makes close links between religious issues and themes from other subjects, particularly history and politics, in order to help pupils make sense of the stories and topics of both national and global importance that come up in the news. During years ten and eleven we follow the IGCSE Pearson Edexcel course. We chose this board as it allows considerable freedom in exploring big questions and gives our pupils more time to explore and articulate their own viewpoints. For A Level the department follows the OCR Religious Studies course, which is one of the most well-resourced and academically rigorous A Level courses for our subject.

Facilities Available

The department has a range of resources for pupils to use, such as textbooks, artefacts, relevant books for further reading, and ICT.

Examination Boards

During years ten and eleven we start from core understandings of Christianity and compare these with a variety of other religious, secular and philosophical viewpoints. At A Level we look at philosophy and ethics in Lower Sixth and how this all relates to developments in religious and secular thought in Upper Sixth.