Religion, philosophy and ethics

By the end of Lower School, our students are religiously literate and have a firm understanding of some of the key debates in philosophy and ethics.

In Year 7, students begin by considering religious beliefs in the UK, looking at the status of the Church of England as one which is embedded in society. We move on to look at Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity so that students can begin to understand in depth the diversity of religious traditions domestically and around the world. Students also study an introduction to ethics, looking at Kantian ethics, utilitarianism and divine command theory. A highlight of the year is the Spirited Arts Competition – a national competition which our year 7 students have had great success in recent years.

Moving into Year 8, students continue to cover the major religions, looking at Islam and Sikhi, as well as the idea of spirituality, considering to what extent all people are spiritual – whether it be those of faith or of none. In Year 8, we also cover an introduction to philosophy where students grapple with Pre-Socratic philosophy, ideas from Plato, Descartes and Hume, as well as the existentialist philosophy of Sartre and Nietzsche.

Our subject is necessarily an interdisciplinary one and students see this throughout their study in Year 9. From political philosophy to technology ethics, students will apply philosophical principles to contemporary issues, such as climate justice, big data ethics and the ethics of driverless cars. The realities of religious persecution are made clear in our study of anti-Semitism, with its historical origins in Christian antisemitism, leading to its racialised forms. The Shoah itself presents the most profound questions of faith to the Jewish people, and Year 9 grapple with the resulting Holocaust Theologies that began to emerge in the 1960s. A study of feminism and women philosophers then wraps up our Year 9 study.

In GCSE Religious Studies, students are taught over three periods a week and not only covers the nuances of Christian and Buddhist beliefs and practices but also how these affect views on contemporary social issues. Students thrive in the debates that are held in these classes, whether it be on the use of capital punishment, the moral duty to abstain from, or go to, war, or the rights of people to end their own lives via euthanasia. Students become apt at taking their ideas from discussion to the page and learn how to construct a rigorously written essay.

Nowhere is an emphasis on argument and analysis more present than in A level Philosophy. Students become familiar with the works of the greatest minds in the Western tradition, including the likes of Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Berkeley and many others.

Our Sixth Form students are intellectually curious and highly motivated, not only in their pursuit of excellent academic results, but also in their endeavours to understand the philosophical foundations on which the Western intellectual tradition rests, as well as to discover new truths about the nature of reality itself.

Read more about the A level Philosophy curriculum.

A LEVEL PHILOSOPHY