Booklets are the devil and lead to boring teaching. Or do they?

Learn how students achieved a P8 of +1.61 in Divinity at West London Free School and why Divinity (RS) is the most popular subject, even though it is an option subject, in a secular school.

A combination of careful curriculum decisions, excellent textbooks/booklets and high-energy didactic teaching have been the key to the consistent popularity of Divinity at both GCSE and A-Level and strong exam outcomes.

Why the WLFS Divinity department take the approach to content and resources they do

How they make students feel successful, love the subject, read more and remember more

What their KS3 curriculum and resources look like

The planning teachers do when the lesson resource has been made for you (including activities teachers are encouraged to do during training)Peppering
Reviewing the content
Designing tasks


The risks and critiques associated with their approach and how to avoid them.

Founded in 2011, West London Free School has been on a steady improvement journey over the past few years. Progress 8: +0.03 (2017), +0.31 (2018), +0.56, +0.43 for DA’d pupils (2019).

It is now heavily oversubscribed receiving 1200+ applications for 130 places in each year group.

In Jan 2019 it was one of the winners of the DfE Curriculum Fund Programme.

Read more about the school on the DfE and Ofsted websites.

Abby Hughes is the Assistant Headteacher in charge of T&L and Head of Divinity and West London Free School

In 2019 Divinity students achieved an incredible Progress 8 of +1.61

98/130 (75%!) of the Year 10 cohort chose Divinity as one of their options, making us the most popular option subject.

1 in 5 of their Sixth Form students are currently doing Divinity as one of their three A-Levels.

Senior leaders who line manage Divinity or RE departments, want to see what a successful Divinity curriculum looks like and are curious about teachers are developed to deliver it.

Subject leaders who lead RE departments and Heads of Department (in any subject) who want to improve their use of booklets or are thinking about using booklets

This session is available to all live for free. It will be available on demand (with resources) to members of the Curriculum Thinkers Community only.

What do careful curriculum decisions, excellent booklets and teacher-led lessons look like in Divinity?