What’s New? An A Level Digest

April 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.

The holidays are almost upon us but of course that means exam season! For those of you using OCR, the Exambuilder now has RS added to it, allowing you to make and save your own personalised tests and custom mark schemes. A reminder that if you want to join the highly successful NATRE A level group please contact k.steele@worc.ac.uk The next meeting is on Thursday 8th May 6-7pm.

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

Listen: Between God and Atheism

Teaching or revision on arguments about the existence or non-existence of God could be supported by this panpsychat debate ‘Between God and Atheism’. The panellists, Philip Goff (professor of philosophy at Durham) and Rowan Williams (former Archbishop of Canterbury), Elizabeth Oldfield (the popular writer) and Alex O’Connor (the popular YouTuber) debate the problems with traditional religion and atheism. The main arguments discussed are the argument for God from design and the argument against God from evil.

Research reading group: Qur’an and Bible project

Qur’an and Bible project: The Qur’an and Bible project from the Woolf Institute seeks to explore the relationship between the two scriptures, exploring their similarities and differences.

What tools are available and which methods exist that can be applied to the interpretation of Scriptures, including problematic passages?

The results of the reading group have come up with a set of agreed statements which may prove useful when studying sacred text or interfaith dialogue.

Read: Unmaking Mary

Unmaking Mary: Many of you share the goal of hearing from more female and Global Majority heritage voices in A level RS. The good news is that Unmaking Mary by Chine McDonald will help. It is undoubtedly a challenging read but one that I know some of you will find useful. If you want to know more about Chine McDonald listen to her on The RE Podcast.

Watch: Webinars from the University of Chester

Webinars from the University of Chester: Did your students engage with the webinars from the Theology and Religious Studies department at the University of Chester last year? Don’t forget all the recording are free to listen to. Email trs@chester.ac.uk to gain access to the recordings.

Engage: With Oracy Focus Week

In March we focussed in on Oracy. Do listen again to the ‘in conversation’, and read the blogs but the specific resource of the Good Reasoning Tree may be useful for debate alongside the work of Beth Eades in the research spotlight which was focussed on GCSE but has lots to offer A level too.

Support: Research into AI

Paul HOPKINS has been researching and working in Technology Enhanced Learning and RE for a long time. He is trying to gather some data about the use of Generative-AI in schools. Please complete the survey at the following link. He has also provided some support materials – we would love to know how you are using G-AI in your work.