RE at key stage 3    (Year 7)

• Ask pupils to define 'justice' in pairs, and talk about their own experience of justice. Share work with whole class.
• Give groups of pupils accounts of one or two particular incidents, eg Zacchaeus, when Jesus talked about justice. The groups read the text. They quickly identify:
  • what was unjust about things before Jesus intervened
  • what Jesus' intervention was
  • how the intervention showed the person justice
  • what kinds of writing they could use to explore how that person felt about the experience
• They could write out their findings, eg using a flip-chart sheet.
• Groups report back to the whole class through representatives or re-form into mixed groups to feed back their responses. Summarise some key points and list the kinds of writing alternatives suggested. Ask the pupils to choose one of the incidents and one of the writing alternatives, eg straightforward third-person account, diary, poem, TV news interview, and explore the incident and the impact on the individual to whom justice was shown by Jesus.

• Study some biblical stories about Paul's life and work, eg Acts 16 ^16-40, and consider questions about their meaning and interpretation.
• Give pupils some key quotations from St Paul's writings on topics of values and justice, eg Galatians 3 ²⁸, 5 ²²; I Corinthians 13; Romans 8 ^38-39, 12 ^17-21. In pairs discuss their possible meaning for Christians today. Ask each pair to report back and discuss as a whole class.
• Ask pupils to identify connections between the teachings of Paul and Jesus on justice. Complete a sentence on justice, eg Justice to a Christian means... .
• As an extension or homework activity ask pupils to research the place of St Paul's writing in Christian communities today, eg by asking Christians to choose some favourite verses, by looking at how Paul's Letters are used in Christian youth magazines or at examples of injustice and what Paul might say about them.

• Use a range of books, articles and internet sites to research the lives of two (or more) contemporary or recent Christian leaders which exemplify a search for justice. Make group presentations to the class under given headings, eg brief biography; two examples of justice shown in their lives.
• Explore and raise questions about and reflect on the way these figures use the Christian scriptures, thinking about how they are similar to and different from St Paul, or Jesus himself. Ask the pupils to write a news report, magazine feature or an obituary to describe the achievements and virtues of a leader.
• Apply pupils' understanding of the leaders they study to local situations, asking, eg What would Mother Teresa like and dislike about the way people in trouble are treated in our town? Groups could be set a number of such application questions and plan their answers in order to present a response to the whole class, giving reasons for their views.

• Collect opinions and discussion points about the leaders pupils have studied and ask them to consider whether these viewpoints clarify their own values. Can they suggest reasons why some people reject selfishness and live or die for others?
• Ask pupils to consider what may be learnt from examples of leaders who mean a lot to them, and to examine what human qualities they value or find inspirational, eg by moving from considering the qualities needed for sporting success, to the qualities exemplified by spiritual leaders.
• Plan or prepare a song, poem, poster, banner or stained glass window on the theme of justice, to express pupils' own sense of justice and fairness. Pupils can discuss how the variety of their images and expressions shows links and contrasts.
• An alternative task could be to design a memorial for the birthplace of St Paul, or one of the contemporary leaders studied, expressing their achievement or values, written from different perspectives, eg Christians, non-Christians, a friend, a member of their family.

• Listen to some examples of the music Christians use to express ideas about justice, and ask pupils to consider their own responses, eg songs from the civil rights movement, or from the work of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.
• Pupils could examine the Christian communities in their own locality to see if and how they pursue a vision of justice. They could study a Christian organisation today that pursues justice, eg Christian Aid, CAFOD.
• Pupils could explain their own reasoned responses to questions such as What are the greatest injustices in the world today? How can individuals work for a fairer world? Can we make a difference?
• Ask them to identify some of the reasons why justice is so hard to achieve in situations of conflict.
• Analyse some of the ways that people find inspiration or challenge from leaders; discuss some of the injustices that challenge the human community today, noting Christian responses, eg global poverty and inequality, gender issues, homelessness. In a group, work on a 10-point plan for a fairer world in this millennium.
• In a final, homework task pupils could use their knowledge to suggest what the Christians they have studied, eg St Paul or Martin Luther King, would say to their school assembly or school community about injustices today.