What’s New? An A Level Digest

June 2025: Fresh debates and voices to explore

Written by Fiona Moss, Education and Programmes Manager, our Post -16 digest is full of interesting, useful and relevant books, articles, videos and podcasts. Whether to develop and improve your own development and understanding, or to bring to the classroom, you will find fresh ideas for A Level.

A level Religious Studies is almost upon us and many of you will be using resources such as Seneca and different University films to support your students. This digest provides resources to persuade people to study RE, challenging watches and even something to raise a smile.

Do let us know if there are other things you would like us to feature.

A challenging watch: AI: Decoding our humanity by Professor Shannon Vallor

This might be something for you or for students considering studying philosophy at university. Professor Shannon Vallor, is the Baillie Gifford Chair in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) at the University of Edinburgh, where she is also appointed in Philosophy. Decoding our Humanity, a lecture at Darwin College Cambridge in March 2025, is a challenging but worthwhile listen; Kant, Wittgenstein, Socrates… . She recently wrote The AI Mirror: Reclaiming Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking.

An amusing listen: You’re Dead to me – Aristotle

Aristotle: Ancient Greece’s greatest philosopher? Find some of the hinterland around Aristotle, an alternative to the Good Place is offered by Radio 4’s You’re Dead to Me.

Research read: The Conversation

Do you ever look at The Conversation website? It is a publisher of research-based news and analysis in an easy to read format. This week I enjoyed an article on Cockney Yiddish which might be useful if you are teaching Judaism in the section on religion and heritage. I also read a piece on the assisted dying bill: religious MPs were more likely to oppose law change in first round of voting exploring statistics of who voted for and against the bill which may prove topical in teaching about sanctity of life.

Something else to watch: Recruiting for A level RE

Recently a colleague reminded me of these excellent films showing what people do with a degree in theology and religious studies. As 16-17 year olds consider whether they will go to University and what they might study and 15-16 year olds consider whether to study Religious Studies A level show how an A level is a good choice for a future career. Truetube and TRS-UK created these films a few years ago but they are still excellent for use with students.

A useful resource: A level Islam padlet from Ruth Marx

Alumni from the CSTG Leadership Scholarship Programme and AREIAC vice chair Ruth Marx has put together and continues to add to an excellent padlet full of resources for A Level Islam.