The course gives students opportunity and encouragement to delve deeply into the search for meaning and understanding of who the are and how they can live in relationship with themselves, their communities, the sacred and the world.

Religious and Values Education (RaVE) is an engaging and thought-provoking subject designed to foster critical thinking, promote respect, compassion, and social connectedness. It also aims to develop an understanding of world religions, philosophical and ethical systems. This course strives to provide students with the knowledge and skills to navigate and appreciate diverse perspectives, cultivate empathy, and make informed moral decisions. Through exploration and reflection, students will develop a deep understanding of various belief systems and their impact on individuals, societies, and the world.

In Semester One, the Year 10 RaVE course focuses on ethical systems. Students revisit the notion of ‘Weltanschauung’ (worldview) and how people acquire it. John Armstrong observes that ‘whether they are conscious of it or not, people live by a core idea, or set of ideas.’ This then leads into an exploration of the main ethical systems, including consequentialism, utilitarianism and deontology. Students wishing to extend themselves will also consider virtue ethics and transcendent moral ethics. Here, issues are raised and examined using Director Chris Nolan’s The Batman Trilogy, testing and applying them to real life experiences.

In Semester Two, the Year 10 RaVE course focuses on philosophical systems. The systems principally examined are: ontology (the philosophy of what is, what exists); epistemology (the philosophy of what is true: how do I know that I know?); hermeneutics (the study of the principles of interpretation) and metaphysics (the philosophy of the ‘more than’). Here too, the systems’ strengths and weaknesses are critically examined and personalised by applying them to life experience. Directors Lilly and Lana Wachowski’s The Matrix and Plato’s allegory of The Cave provide stimulating prompts for extended investigations.