Staffroom Catch Up: Patricia Blanch, Calthorpe Park School

“I am Head of a department of three here at Calthorpe Park School, and we’ve been teaching GCSE Religious Studies with Eduqas for many years now.  

Our students particularly like the structure of the papers because there are no surprises. The questions always follow the same question format of 2-mark ‘definition’, 5-mark ‘describe’, 8-mark ‘explain’ and then an essay. Everything is always set out in the same way, which gives them peace of mind.  

Learners have responded well to the content of the qualification. Our two religions are Christianity and Buddhism. A good number of our students are from Christian backgrounds or are practicing Christians, so they find that paper easy to relate to. They also find the content of the Buddhist paper very interesting, as do the small number of Buddhist learners that we teach. 

The specification is also very clear, and the Sources of Authority are easy to grasp and memorise. 

I’ve found the level of support provided by Eduqas to be very good. The quick responses to our queries are always appreciated, and in terms of the online resources available the downloadable knowledge organisers have been a great help. 

We’ve also benefitted from in-person support from the Eduqas Regional Representative for Humanities and Social Sciences, Dave Jones. 

We invited Dave to visit us at Calthorpe Park because we had several queries regarding Buddhist concepts and other matters relating to how best to respond to the d) type 15-mark essay questions for maximum marks.  

He was very helpful, answered our queries and provided us with some useful additional information and strategies which we will use to run a special booster activity for our Year 11 students early next year.”