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Original poster

Year 7 RE homework

110 replies

mrsglowglow · 30/09/2017 13:38

I'm trying to help my yr 7 child who is quickly turning off RE and says he Hates it and the teacher. Part of his h/w is This question - Is Gods full nature revealed in the Bible or is only part of God shown? Give biblical examples to support your points. He's expected to spend an hour doing this! Is it me or is this expecting too much of an 11 year old who in primary would have been given more structure to start from? I asked him if they had been discussing the question in lesson and he says no (possible he was away with the fairies at the time). Any ideas gratefully received.

OP posts:
Hayesking · 30/09/2017 22:55

She had a month to do it in!

bumblebee77 · 30/09/2017 23:03

I'd say that since God is omniscient (all knowing) omnipotent (all powerful) and omnipresent his full nature can never be fully revealed as it's constantly changing and showing new aspects as the world develops however the bible does show many features of God:
Sending his own son.... Ultimate loving and forgiving God.
Flood: angry/vengeful
Gideon: uses the weak to demonstrate his power.
Abraham: able to have a close personal relationship with humans.
New Testament the character of Jesus reveals a lot about God. He actively sought out the weakest and most sinful. He was loving, yet could become angry.

There's plenty there to say but yes I think it's a ridiculous homework for an 11 year old.

EdMalarkey · 30/09/2017 23:13

It's certainly a dangerous assumption to consider a child as a Christian child or an Islamic child or (insert preferred belief system here) child,as opposed to a child of Christian parents,or of Muslim parents etc..

steppemum · 30/09/2017 23:19

Ed, I agree although ds is now in year 10 and they are frequently expected to argue a point of view.
However the fact it is a point of view is well expressed in the question.

What would a Christians understanding of God......

EdMalarkey · 30/09/2017 23:36

Yes,as I noted somewhere previously,that distinction between perspectives is simple to make but very important.

wwwwwwwwwwwwww · 01/10/2017 10:39

This is challenging homework. Often in a faith school in year 7 you find a huge variation in standard depending on the emphasis of the feeder school a child has been at. I would just tell the teacher your son is struggling with it and requires differentiation.

wwwwwwwwwwwwww · 01/10/2017 10:47

In terms of answering the question break it into tangible ideas. Ask him about stories he knows. God parting the Red Sea shows his power and concern to protect his people. Revealing the 10 commandments shows his concern to guide his people. Then you just need him to say if all these stories give us a full picture or if something about God is always a mystery or comes from other types of experience (like prayer).

I'd choose to see the high standard positively. I'd encourage your son to say when the homework is set if he doesn't understand it.

wwwwwwwwwwwwww · 01/10/2017 10:50

Hayesking I would be unimpressed if my child's was given a month to design a poster. That does not sound like a good preparation for an academic subject at secondary school.

roguedad · 01/10/2017 12:01

OP - good grief!!! Have you thought of just opting your child out of this pointless mumbo-jumbo altogether? It is your right to do so. Some schools adopt a syllabus and approach that has a half-decent mixture of studying many faiths along with philosophy and ethics, in which case RE might just be worth tolerating, but this sounds like utter drivel. My son has finally managed to escape all MJ for GCSE, thank Jedi.

FindingNemoandDory · 01/10/2017 12:10

Rogue Dad, I must disagree

Our RE classes were excellent and did not have a bias towards any religion or atheism. Most syllabuses (is that a word?) will incorporate two faiths - at my school it was Christianity and Islam - and the students learn where different faiths stand on various moral topics and why. They will then go on to discuss and debate the ethical arguments taking into account other points of views and their own.

Of all the subjects it taught me the most about how to construct a written argument and about current affairs, and I am not religious.

Commenting on how God comes across in the bible no more presupposes faith than commenting on whether one of Of Mice and Men's central themes is the American Dream

Hayesking · 01/10/2017 12:14

Hayesking I would be unimpressed if my child's was given a month to design a poster. That does not sound like a good preparation for an academic subject at secondary school.

They are actually taught stuff in lessons! They get pretty high grades at gcse so not sure how the OPS homework is any more useful. Dd1 is doing it for A level, predicted an A and went through the same poster homework route!

GU24Mum · 01/10/2017 12:21

Unless there's been some misunderstanding and your DC has done this in class or has some notes to look through, it seems completely unreasonable. My DD in Y7 was doing far more straightforward things like different sorts of baptism, Christian symbols etc.

steppemum · 01/10/2017 22:46

I agree with FindingNemo.

I was really impressed with the stuff ds came home with.

Loads on ethics, loads about how to construct and argue a point of view, loads on being able to describe someone else's worldview, ie learning to understand others.

I think he had a good teacher though, who I liked a lot, whose view was very much that RE lessons should get them thinking and challenge their preconceived ideas.

Traalaa · 03/10/2017 09:03

I'd bet they discussed it in class too, so the homework's more about can you remember what we discussed. If so, it isn't expecting much depth, so more about recall.

Roguedad, I disagree too - RE in my son's comp is taught really well - (sounds similar to steppe mum's). Lots on ethics and how to debate/ deconstruct thoughts and ideas and definitely there's no bias. It's my son's favourite subject.

nocampinghere · 04/10/2017 08:41

lazy teaching imo.
throw out a question and see what lands with no structure, guidance or reference material.
i'd be sending in a note.
DD in yr 6 got an RE homework from an NQT about reconciling religious beliefs and the Big Bang. 20 min homework due the next day. Needless to say it was returned undone with a note. Not so easy to do that at secondary!

Restingwitchface · 04/10/2017 12:05

RE in my son's comp is taught really well - (sounds similar to steppe mum's). Lots on ethics and how to debate/ deconstruct thoughts and ideas and definitely there's no bias. It's my son's favourite subject

Part of the GCSE is philosophy and ethics. But there is definitely a religious part too. At my dcs catholic school the religious part was all about catholicism, at their new state school it is more varied.

Traalaa · 04/10/2017 13:41

Yes, resting, there's lots on different religions, but from what I've seen at my son's school, there's no biased agenda with it, just a chance to explore beliefs and humanity.

Restingwitchface · 04/10/2017 13:58

Why would there be a biased agenda Confused

PetitFilous123 · 04/10/2017 14:07

the fact it says use examples not given in class would suggest it was discussed and that he should have some notes which he is supposed to just summarise?

FindingNemoandDory · 04/10/2017 14:12

Do parents really return homework to school?!

Traalaa · 04/10/2017 16:12

resting, my first post was responding to RogueDog saying it was 'mumbo jumbo'. I was just commenting to say that wasn't how my son's found RE. I agree with you, why would there be bias - no need for it at all and there shouldn't be. Though you yourself commented that it was 'all about catholicism', so that sounds like a biased agenda!

bluehairnewhair · 04/10/2017 18:47

So the OP's son is supposed to read and summarise the whole bible in one hour!

If it were me, I'd be complaining to the teacher that this is a ridiculous piece of homework.

PetitFilous123 · 05/10/2017 08:58

More likely he's supposed to re-read class notes and summarise in an hour. Which would be straight forward.

GorgeousLadyOfWrangling · 05/10/2017 09:28

I once taught in a catholic school where critical thinking also played a huge part but have never seen anything like that given to a year 7 class.
Or the homework preceding it. Am at a loss, it looks like GCSE year 11/AS level line of questioning.

Fresh8008 · 05/10/2017 10:01

And therein lies the reason why religion should not be taught in school.

Is Gods full nature revealed in the Bible or is only part of God shown?
Given no one knows what gods full nature is, there is no way to know if the bible reveals none, some or all of it.
So the answer could be a) A book cannot reveal the nature of a non-existent entity. b) Theologians are still arguing over the nature of a god, therefore the bible cannot have revealed all of its nature. c) The bible is the literal word of a god and fully reveals a gods nature to be omniscience, omnipotent & omnibenevolent as evidenced in its writings.

do religious texts bind us or set us free
a) Religious texts are the fictional stories of goat herders 2000 years ago, so they have no affect on us. b) No one know what any religious text actually mean, so they bind us into a confused purgatory. c) Religious texts are the literal words of a god and so bind us into either eternal obedience or disobedience.

one example in the Old Testament of how God reveals himself to humans
a) The old testament itself is the example of a gods revelation to its human authors.
b) The old testament is a fictional book so therefore cannot give any examples of an actual gods revelation.

Dangerous dangerous stuff to be indoctrinating children into religions in school (never mind the fundamentalist religions of the old testament).

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