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RE at PGHS
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Year 10 Mosque Trip
On 23rd February, Year 10 visited the Masjid E Saliheen Preston Muslim Cultural Centre as part of their drop-down day. Students walked to the Mosque where they were greeted by the Imam. Year 10 were shown around the Mosque and given a demonstration on how to perform ablution (ritual washing before prayer). Students then listened to multiple talks by men and women from the Mosque on topics including prayer and Ramadan.
Once students returned to school, they spent the rest of the morning making a mini Mosque model and annotated the Mosque with information they had learnt whilst at the Mosque.
“I really enjoyed learning about the features of the Mosque, such as the Minaret. This helped me complete my mini Mosque model. I also enjoyed looking at the architecture and repeated patterns in the Mosque such as on the carpet.”
“The Mosque trip was really interesting and cool. It felt really calm and like you could feel God with you. I liked the glass, marble stairs, rugs and white walls with Arabic quotes written on them. We all wore headscarves and were shown how Muslims wash before prayer. We watched the Imam pray and we learnt about Ramadan. A fun fact I learnt is that the Quran is read from right to left rather than left to right.”
Miss Buckle
RE Department
Soroptimists
So far this year, the Soroptimists have been very active in fund raising. Each year, the Soroptimists fund the Education of Fisokuhle, a 14 year old girl from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Sadly, Fisokuhle’s parents are unable to care for her and so a family has adopted her but they cannot afford her education. Fisokuhle is a brilliant student and is always at the top of her class. She needs our help to fulfil her dream of becoming a doctor or a pilot. Here is some of the things the Soroptimists have done so far:
Christmas Markets:
In December, the Soroptimists contributed to the Penwortham Christmas Markets. The tombola stall was organised and run by the Student Leadership Team along with Miss Buckle. The stall was a huge success and it was lovely to see parents, students and former students visit us. We raised £215 to help fund the education of Fisokuhle. Thank you again for all your kind donations towards the tombola stall.
Christmas Music Video:
Throughout December, the staff at PGHS were busy filming a Christmas music video. The song of choice was ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ by Wizzard. Plenty of staff got involved, including the Science department, the Maths department, the English department and many more. Mrs Hall and Mrs Pomeroy also feature in the video.
Once the music video was completed, it was shown in assembly and to forms on the last day of term. Although the singing was impressive, the 3-minute section of bloopers was definitely the best part! Students were asked to bring in a donation of 50p to contribute to the Soroptimists. Thank you to all staff involved!
Upcoming events:
Bake sale: Our next fundraising event will be a bake sale on the 7th February for St. Catherine’s Hospice.
Easter Egg Hunt: The Soroptimists are currently planning the annual Easter Egg Hunt that will take place next half term. It was a great success last year, so we are looking forward to doing the the hunt again. Here are the prizes that were won last year:
Miss Buckle
RE Department
RE G.C.S.E. Top Tips
Important dates and exams:
- Year 10 April Mock: Christian Beliefs and Islam Beliefs (1 hour)
- Year 11 March Mock: Paper 2 (Relationships, Life, Peace and Conflict, Crime and Punishment – 1 hour 45 minutes)
- Year 11 REAL paper 1: Thursday 9th May
- Year 11 REAL paper 2: Thursday 16th May
Reminders:
What does a paper look like?
- Paper One – https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/rs/AQA-806213-SQP-S1.PDFhttps://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/rs/AQA-806215-SQP-S2.PDF
- Paper Two – https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/rs/AQA-80622A-SQP-S2.PDF
The best revision resources:
YOUR BOOK
Your past papers
Revision Guide
Work Book
https://8884332.sharepoint.com/sites/GCSERE
Miss Hollier’s top tip.
“The best way to revise for R.E is to practise, practise, practise! Whether it’s a question from your revision guide, work book, online or from class, the best thing you can do now to revise is to practise in timed conditions and give your answers to me for marking and feedback.”
Miss Hollier
RE Department
Year 9 RE
Year 9 are currently studying Buddhism. The students have been exploring the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha and how his life changed after he witnessed suffering in the world. Once Siddhartha found out about the suffering, it consumed him for the rest of his life. Siddhartha’s obsession with suffering eventually caused him to become the original Buddha.
The first thing Buddha sees outside the palace is an old person. Though this is something normal people see every day, Buddha is shocked by this. He realises that old age is unavoidable and all people eventually lose their youth.
Buddha then sees an ill person and again, he is shocked. This makes him realise that suffering is part of life.
Buddha then sees a dead body being carried as part of a funeral procession. He realises that death is inevitable and life is impermanent.
Finally, he sees a holy man. Holy men at that time, lived simple lives without money or many possessions. Buddha realises living this life may offer him a way to resolve the problems of human suffering.
After reading the Buddha’s story, the students wondered what sights and examples the Buddha might have seen if he existed today. This inspired the students to write a diary entry or story board from a modern perspective, questioning what four sights would be in modern times. Here are some of their examples:
Miss Hollier
RE Department
Year 8 RE
One of the highlights of this term in R.E has been the Year 8 Snakes and Ladders games. Every student had to design a Snakes and Ladders board to demonstrate their understanding of the Karma, Moksha and Samsara.
Moksha is freedom from the cycle of death and reincarnation (Samsara).
Snakes and Ladders is an ancient Indian game. The children in India played it to understand the effects of good deeds and bad deeds. The ladders represent values such as kindness, faith and humility. The snakes are the bad deeds, such as anger and murder.
The aim of the game is to attain Moksha by performing good deeds and climbing the ladders to the top. If you perform bad deeds, you will fall down the ladders.
Students were given the task to design a Snakes and Ladders game explaining a Hindu’s journey to Moksha. In squares containing a ladder, they wrote an action that would help a Hindu achieve Moksha. In squares containing a snake, they wrote write an action that would give a Hindu bad karma and would not help them achieve Moksha.
Here is a collection of the creative games designed by the Year 8 students:
Miss Hollier
RE Department
Year 7 RE
In Year 7, students are currently investigating who the prophets Abraham and Moses are and how they both feature with the 3 Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
This topic explores the two prophets from a Jewish perspective and this week, students have enjoyed listening to a clip from the film, “The Prince of Egypt”. The lyrics to the opening songs helped the students to understand who Moses was and why he was important.
Take a look at the interpretations of the lyrics from one class below:
Miss Hollier
RE Department
World Religion Day
This year, World Religion Day was celebrated on 21st January. World Religion Day was created to encourage people from different religions to be curious about and compassionate towards other faiths. The aim is to promote understanding and peace between all religions, encouraging people to learn about other faiths and their followers.
Throughout history, religions have often been in conflict with one another. World Religion Day was established to build friendships between religions as a step towards world peace. The aim is to unite everyone, whatever their faith, by showing us all that there are common foundations to all religions and that together we can help humanity and live in harmony.
To celebrate World Religion Day, some Year 9 Students created an assembly about World Religion to show to forms. They researched how and why different religions give to charity and they included voiceovers on the slides to provide further explanations. The students put lots of time and hard work into this assembly. Well done! Here are some of the slides:
Miss Buckle
Religious Education Department
Christian Guest Speaker
Recently, each Year 7 class were visited by Reverend Christopher Nelson from Penwortham St. Mary’s Church. Year 7 are currently studying the topic, ‘Do we belong to God?’ As part of this topic, they have studied the Bible, Genesis, Free will, The Fall and destiny.
Chris was a familiar face to many students who remembered him visiting their primary schools. Chris had also christened some students, as well as Miss Buckle!
Year 7 studied baptism in the previous topic, ‘What does it mean to belong to a religion?’ Chris brought in a baptismal shell and a handmade gown worn by his children to show the students.
Here is some feedback from Year 7 on what they learned:
Year 8 Hindu Guest Speaker
As part of the Year 8 enrichment offer, on Thursday 16th November, we were delighted to welcome Neetal Parekh into school to lead a year 8 assembly. Neetal is an Education Liason officer from Lancashire County Council. She spoke to the students about the festival of Diwali which recently took place.
The students really enjoyed listening to her speak as shown in the below quotes from the year 8 students.
“I liked hearing Neetal talk about the festival of Diwali. She was really enthusiastic and I liked listening to her.”
“One thing that stood out to me was how Hindu Dharma is the preferred term over Hinduism. This is because dharma refers to a way of life. “
“It was fascinating to hear the Hindu speaker talk about her faith. She talked about good beating evil in the story of Rama and Sita and how this is the reason why Hindu’s use lights during Diwali. The lights symbolise goodness beating the darkness (evil).”
The Ramayana – The story of Rama and Sita is the reason behind the festival of Diwali. It is first studied in year 7 and then revisited with students in year 8 and 11 (core RE).
What is the story about?
“Dashratha, King of Ayodhya, has four sons by three different wives: Rama (who was the eldest), Lakshman and Satrugna (who were twins) and Bharat (the youngest). Rama has married Sita and Dashratha wishes to pass the throne to his eldest son. But the mother of Dashratha’s youngest son, Barat, is jealous and wants her child to be king. She forces Dashratha to exile Rama, Sita and Lakshman to the forest for 14 years. In the forest the evil demon Ravana seizes Sita and takes her to his island home of Lanka. Rama follows a trail of Sita’s jewellery and then meets Hanuman, the monkey-king. Hanuman uses his magic power of flight to discover where Sita is and then, with Rama, they raise an army of animals and march on Lanka. Rama kills Ravana with a magic arrow and then, their exile over, he returns to Ayodhya with Sita and Lakshman. The people light their way home with little lamps left outside their homes.” ( BBC Bitesize)
If you’d like to know more about the story follow the link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/assemblies-ks1-ks2-festivals-diwali-rama-and-sita/zc84cmn
Future Guest Speakers Wanted
Dear Parent/Carer,
On the 13th December, year 11 will be taking part in a Religious Studies personal development afternoon 1:20pm-3:20pm. The focus for this year group’s session is the Penwortham Girls’ value of curiosity as we aim to encourage students’ to be curious about the faiths of others.
We would love to have a representative from each of the 6 main world religions to deliver a 20-minute in-person session to our year 11 students about their faith. The session should focus on festivals.
We currently have speakers representing: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism.
If you or someone you know belongs to one of the following religions and would be willing to come in on the 13th December for the 2-hour session, then please contact Miss Buckle by Friday 1st December via the email below for more details about the afternoon.
· Judaism
· Sikhism
Yours faithfully,
Miss A.Buckle
Teacher of RE (a.buckle@penworthamgirls.lancs.sch.uk)
