The Department of Religious Studies

Our editor, Mr Craig, is at his happiest when articles provided for the Olavian are accompanied by photographs, and so it was that I trawled through the archive on the hunt for suitable pictorial embellishments. Two photographs caught my eye from the Year 7 Religious Studies and Geography trip to Eynsford, Farningham and Lullingstone. The first image shows Moses Ibn-Ibrahim sitting on a pew in 14th Century St Botolph’s Church at Lullingstone Castle, looking quite the most contented Year 7 in the country. What, I asked myself, does this captured moment of serenity tell us about our students?

As Moses, a fearsome rugby player, paused for thought in this ancient place of worship, he was doing what scores of Olavian students do on a daily basis through the Religious Studies Department: engaging critically with ideas both ancient and profound. Through discussion, debate and critical writing, our students continually astound with their maturity, empathy and insight.

The second image shows Kit Whitaker, another accomplished rugby player, pausing for lunch with a daisy chain around his head. I have yet to determine the significance of this, but he seemed happy enough.

The Eynsford trip was one of three offered by the department this year, the remaining two trips being provided for Year 9 in Activities Week Two. A particularly interesting element of the Year 9 curriculum is their investigation into the link between Church and State in the UK. It was to complement this that Year 9 took a walking tour of Orpington Churches, on which the leaders of three local churches hosted our group and fielded some unabashed and forthright questioning from the boys.

Later in the week, Year 9 were again treated to a day out by the department, this time in conjunction with the Classics Department. The British Museum and

Jewish Museum trip was in equal measure fascinating and sobering. Educators at the Jewish Museum used artefacts from one particular Dutch family to put a human face to the dehumanising statistics of the Holocaust, giving uncomfortable colour to the familiar facts. Our students responded to some challenging questions with pathos and intelligence quite beyond their years. As we departed, museum staff declared them the most wellbehaved and engaged school group in recent memory.

In September, the school was privileged to play host to the Right Reverend Chad Gandiya, Bishop of Harare. Bishop Chad spent time with classes in Year 10 and 12, fielding questions on ethics, God and faith in the face of suffering. The bishop was gracious and thoughtful in his answers, speaking with the authority of one who had lived what he taught.

Meanwhile, in the regular business of the department, it was a matter of slow but steady growth. The new Key Stage Three curriculum was consolidated, tweaked, polished, and ably delivered by a team of non-subject specialists to whom the department is ever-indebted. Further up the school, the GCSE course continues to evolve and improve and it may be for this reason that interest in pursuing the subject at A Level has increased. Student numbers across the two year groups at A Level increased by about 40% in 2013-14, and for 2014-15 this looks set to increase by a further 50%.

Philosophy Society ran lively and well-attended weekly lunchtime discussions. It is always pleasing, and a real testament to the spirit of scholarly enquiry in the school, that these sessions are very well attended, including by those not taking Religious Studies A Level.

Inevitably, OFSTED will garner column inches elsewhere, but for Religious Studies it really was a non-event. ‘The phone call’ that signals the impending arrival of governmental inquisition coincided with another phone call, that signalling the impending arrival of child number two to the Lake family. The department duly set outstanding cover work, to be delivered by our cover supervisors, and departed for a week or two to continue the work of slow but steady growth, this time on the home front.

Andrew Lake S___Head of Religious Studies