The National 5 RMPS course develops a range of important higher order thinking skills. It encourages active learning in the process of investigating religious, moral and philosophical issues. You will learn to express your viewpoints and you will have the opportunity for personal reflection.

 

You will also develop a wide range of important and transferable skills including accurate recording of information, researching resources, analysing and evaluating beliefs and values, and expressing reasoned personal opinions in a variety of contexts.

 

The National 5 RMPS course has three areas of study. In each area, you will focus on one of the world’s six major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism).

 

The areas of study are:

• Morality and Belief: Morality and Relationships – This topic will look at various religious and non-religious responses to moral issues related to human relationships, such as: marriage, sexuality, gender roles, and equality.

• World religion: Christianity – In this topic we will look at the religion of Christianity with more breadth and depth than what has already been covered in core RMPS. We will look at the variety of beliefs and practices of Christians across the world.

• Religious and Philosophical Questions: The Problem of Evil and Suffering – This topic looks at the various philosophical responses to the question of ‘How can an all-loving God exist and allow so many people to experience pain and suffering?’.

 

The course assessment consists of:

• A Question Paper which will sample questions from across the topics of: Christianity, Morality and Relationships, and The Problem of Evil and Suffering. Students are assessed on their knowledge and understanding of the topics as well and the skills of analysis and evaluation. This paper will be sat under exam conditions and marked by the SQA. It is worth 80 marks out of the total 100 marks for the course assessment. 

• An Assignment task which is a piece of independent research in which pupils pick a topic of study and then write up their findings under exam conditions. This is worth 20 marks out of the total 100 marks for the course assessment.