Mick Walker is Head of RE at Nab Wood School, Bingley. The school serves a diverse population in the Bradford area, and most students are Muslim. Mick firmly believes that schools shouldn't avoid controversial areas of the curriculum, as students need to be given the opportunity to articulate their concerns, anxieties and fears in school. In this programme we see Mick teaching a lesson which explores Muslim attitudes to issues of peace and conflict. The objectives centre around exploring how the media represent Muslims and Islam. The lesson includes a consideration of what Muslims mean by the term 'jihad'. This leads to a heated debate in the classroom but Mick says, 'We have a duty to provide the spaces where these ideas can be explored. If we didn't take these issues on in RE, RE would be much the poorer for it and so would the students' education.'

Video Series: KS3-4 RE
Release Date 2007