Ms. Garratt’s Blog
Here you’ll find a range of resources to help you get the most from your PSHE lessons. I’ve included links to recommended websites as well as a range of study materials to help you become increasingly independent and successful learners. If you need help come and see me or contact me through this Blog.Archive for GCSE Religious Studies
Red and Purple Poppies for Remembrance
It is at this time of year that many of us like to buy and wear red poppies. The red poppies are a reminder of all those members of the armed forces who have lost their lives in wars.
The money raised from the sale of the poppies goes to the Royal Britsh Legion, a charity that works to provide financial, social and emotional support to millions who have served, or are currently serving, in the armed forces. The Legion also helps the dependants of members of the armed forces.
If you’d like to find out more about what the Royal British Legion does, go to the website at www.britishlegion.org.uk
Occasionally you will see people wearing purple poppies. These too are for remembrance. They commemorate all those animals who have suffered and died in human conflicts. Animals have been used as messengers, beasts of burden, for detection, scouting, rescue and on the front line in many parts of the world.
If you’d like to find out more about how animals’ lives have been affected by people’s wars, go to the website at
Congratulations!
Well done to all students who took exams in Citizenship and Religious Studies this summer. You achieved some great results!
I’ve spoken to some of you about how things went but thought you might like to add a comment to this Post – it would be nice to read your name, the subject you took and the grade you achieved. If you want to add a Top Tip on doing well in exams as well, that would certainly help current Year 11 students.
Best wishes to you all for this year!
And Very Finally…..
You might all want to look at the replies I’ve just put up to two queries filed to my And Finally…Yes, Really! Post in which I summarise how to locate the major resources you should use as part of your final preparations. I also remind you of what Sections A, B, C and D of the Examination Paper are and, where you’re given a choice of topics, what these will be.
Something to Think About
I’ve just finished reading the latest novel by P.D. James. It’s called The Private Patient. This is how it ends:
The world is a beautiful and terrible place. Deeds of horror are committed every minute and in the end those we love die. If the screams of all the earth’s living creatures were one scream of pain, surely it would shake the stars. But we have love. It may seem a frail defence against the horrors of the world but we must hold fast and believe in it, for it is all that we have.
You might also want to have a look at the comment Mr Cottrell has sent through to the last Year 11 homework assignment and consider the two statements together. There are some resonances that might be relevant in a Section B answer.
What do you think about the statements?
The photo that’s with this post was taken earlier this year in my mentor’s garden. I’ve known it since my student days and always walk round it with her when I visit. This time I found she’d had a bad fall, was in considerable pain and couldn’t walk in the garden so I took some photographs of it for her to enjoy. This is one of the better ones.
Magnolia in Springtime
Reverend Parker’s Assembly
Following on from Reverend Parker’s assembly this week, I’d like to invite you all to write a brief statement reflecting your beliefs about God. The question I’d like you to try to answer is this:
What do you believe about God and why exactly is it that you hold the views you do?
I’d like responses from students of all faiths, no faith as well as those of you who are still thinking about it all!
If you’re OK about having your name kept on the comment you send through, that’s fine. If you’d rather keep that private, please tell me this at the end of what you write and I’ll change the name of the contributor to XXX before I publish your comment.
Please though, remember to give me your full name when you send your comment in so I know who it’s from.
If you can file your comments quickly, they’d be a a great help to our Year 11 students whose Religous Studies GCSE examination is on 12th May.
Thanks for your help
And Finally…..(Yes, Really!)
I wish you all the best for the upcoming exam. You all have the ability to do very well indeed and achieve those As and A*s. As I’ve said use the materials we’ve made for you and make them work for you.
A few final reminders…..
- In the exam room take about 4 minutes to read carefully through the relevant sections of the exam paper. I recommend you use a highlighter to show the key words and phrases in the questions that you will be tackling – doing this will help you focus on producing good quality answers.
- Plan out your Section B, C and D answers – a few bullet points should do it.
- As you write, keep checking back to make sure you’re answering the question that’s been set. Remember, irrelevance always equals no marks!
- As far as possible, avoid generalisations and provide specific examples to illustrate the points you are making. A few examples from my lesson today illustrates this: name a couple of hurricanes, say where they happened, give the year they occurred and summarise the damage they did; comment on the impact on people’s lives of the deaths of Princess Diana and Mother Teresa; refer to the widespread suffering caused by Bhopal, Chernobyl and the Exxon Valdez disaster; comment on the suffering experienced by millions caught up in civil wars in Ireland, Bosnia and Rwanda.
- Always try to make one good scoring point for every available mark.
- Don’t spend any longer than 20 minutes writing your answer to any one of the four questions you have to complete. When the time is up, leave some space at the end of your answer so that you can add any final comments you might want to make and move on to the next question.
- Make sure that you allow at least 10 minutes at the end of the exam to read through your work. Make sure everything you’ve written is relevant to the question set and makes good sense.
- Remember that good exam technique alone can be worth up to 10% more marks.
Best Wishes
Countdown – Six Days to the Religious Studies Exam! It’s Time To Be Amazing!
This is the week to settle down to do lots of really hard revision. Yes, I know that the majority of you have been working hard for months as your homework posts testify, but it’s time for the final push to make sure that you’ve got it all together and at your fingertips (to mix a metaphor or three!)
I’ve had a look at all the Religious Studies Posts I’ve put up this year and you have plenty of material to use, up to and including Prince Charles’s frog! As you know there’s a wealth of great quality material on Mr Kelly’s www.psheok.co.uk website. Make all of the resources work for you – after all, they were made for you.
Remember too to put into practice all the advice you’ve been given about good exam technique – if you get it right it’s worth up to 10% more marks.
And finally….if you don’t make Religious Studies your priority NOW, it will be too late, you’ll have missed your A*! It really is time to be amazing!
3 Princes, Daniel Craig, Robin Williams, The Dalai Lama and a Computer Generated Frog
Watching the early evening news tonight I picked up on the fact that Prince Charles has been filmed with a very fetching large green frog – I assumed it was the real thing but not so – and has persuaded others including his two sons, Daniel Craig and The Dalai Lama no less, to be similarly filmed, complete with the attendant frog.
It’s all to do with raising people’s awareness about environment issues, in particular our care of the rain forests. Apparently you can find the video footage on My Space and possibly on YouTube as well. Can the first person to find it, send the link through as a comment to this Post? I have an evening of marking ahead of me and would appreciate some help with this one!
Thanks
Carbon Capture and Storage – Useful for Section D of the Religious Studies Examination
carbon-capture-and-storage-observer-editorial
The attached file is a copy of an article that appeared in The Observer a few days ago. Take a few minutes to read it through – it will mean you can learn/revise the basic principles of Carbon Capture and Storage and make brief reference to it when you write about what can be done to reduce CO2 emissions. It’s interesting that the British Government has made this commitment in respect of building new coal-fired power stations at this time. I guess we’re likely to hear more about Carbon Capture in the future. Who knows, you might be able to tell your grandchildren that you remember how it all began…
Your Comments Needed on the Mike Buckley Smartrisk Presentation
This assignment is a MUST for my Year 10 teaching Groups (please file you comments by Thursday 30th April) and an OPTION for my Year 9 and Year 11 students.
Mike Buckley has been in touch, told us how impressed he and the rest of the Smartrisk team were by Ashlawn and its students, and asked for some direct feedback to be sent through to him. So…over to you! You could comment on any combination or all of the following:
- What things the Smartrisk presentation made you think about
- What part of the Smartrisk presentation made the most impact on you and why
- How you will think about and/or do things differently in future because of watching the Smartrisk presentation
- Why you think it’s important for young people to have a chance to see the Smartrisk presentation.
