Our Strengths

Results at both GCSE and A-level have been consistently high over the last few years with GCSE results as high as 97% of those sitting RS achieving either A or A*. 100% of the boys who sat A2 RS in 2003 were awarded an A Grade.  A very high percentage of A-Level students choose to read subjects relating to Theology and/or Philosophy at universities including Oxford, Cambridge and a variety of other Russell Group institutions.  The skills taught in RS and Theology lessons leave students well placed to succeed in the wider world. At more senior levels within the department there is a distinct emphasis on the development of critical thinking and the ability to take an impartial academic view of subjects which might otherwise be clouded by personal perspectives.  Students develop their independent research skills utilising the faculty's suite of computers. The wide range of utilised presentational styles both written and otherwise, requires of those studying within the department the development of a confidence and style beyond their years. Increasing use of IT allows students access to information in a more transparent, 21st Century, manner. All of the Islam modules of the GCSE and the majority of those at sixth form level are available to students digitally via the school intranet, for example. This allows access to teaching notes; schemes of work; links to external sites; and a large pool of documents, which can be searched electronically in order to aid research work.

Staff within the department hold degrees and post graduate level qualifications from universities including Exeter, Oxford and London's SOAS. Staff publish papers on a regular basis, both within educational journals and as part of research in connection with Governmental Departments. Members of the Department have in recent years undertaken personal research including a Sabatical Fellowship at Harris-Manchester College, Oxford and six months 'immersion' research, observing the effects of Twenty First Century developments in the concept of Jihad.