1

Welcome to this Spring edition of RE NEWS.

If you are new to RE in the Diocese of Oxford

or to RE teaching in general, please get in touch.

All the contact details are at the end of the newsletter.

There is a lot of debate about RE nationally and there are many conflicting ideas about where

it should go. This edition of RE news will highlight some of these issues as well as the usual mix

of training news and resources.

RE NEWS Spring 2018 EDITION

New thinking for the

RE classroom

2

Contents

Local RE Networks – CPD for teachers and subject leaders .................................................................................3

Diocesan RE Competition .....................................................................................................................................4

Understanding Christianity ...................................................................................................................................5

NATRE State of the Nation Report .......................................................................................................................6

Religious Education for All ....................................................................................................................................6

Balance in the RE Curriculum? .............................................................................................................................7

Selected resources for other faiths and worldviews ............................................................................................8

Bahá’í ................................................................................................................................................................8

Humanism .........................................................................................................................................................8

Jewish Museum Teachers' Portal .....................................................................................................................9

Islam .................................................................................................................................................................9

Faith Interviews ................................................................................................................................................9

Religious Education Council ..................................................................................................................................9

Festivals ................................................................................................................................................................9

Global Awareness Day – share a Pencil ................................................................................................................9

Accord Inclusivity Awards 2018 ......................................................................................................................... 10

For support and advice on all matters relating to RE ........................................................................................ 10

Coming Soon!

There are plans for a new SIAMS

framework for September 2018

Training events are scheduled for

19th-23rd February

See the diocesan website

for times and venues.

3

Local RE Networks – CPD for teachers and subject leaders

Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes: Please book with: anne.andrews@oxford.anglican.org

Hazlemere School, Amersham Road, Hazlemere, High Wycombe, HP15 7PZ

Monday 5th March 2018 3.45-5.15 pm Buckingham Park School, Jubilee Square, Aylesbury, HP19 9DZ

Tuesday 30th January 2018 3.45-5.15 pm

Topic: Work Moderation – Bring a range of work samples (photocopied and anonymised) and we will carry out a moderation exercise. The more samples you bring the more useful the exercise. Milton Keynes Mosque, Peverel Drive, Milton Keynes, MK1 1NW

Tuesday 27th March 2018 3.45-5.15 pm An opportunity to visit a Mosque, meet some Muslims and learn about Islam

Oxfordshire: Please book with: anne.andrews@oxford.anglican.org

St John the Evangelist CE Primary School, Bluebell Way, Carterton, Oxfordshire, OX18 1JF

Wednesday 17th January 2018 3.45-5.15 pm

Benson CE Primary School, Oxford Road, Benson, Oxfordshire, OX10 6LX

Monday 12th March 2018 3.45-5.15 pm

St Christopher’s School, Temple Road, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2ET

Monday 5th February 2018 3.45-5.15 pm

Deddington CE Primary School, Earls Lane, Deddington, Nr Banbury, Oxfordshire, OX15 0TJ

Tuesday 20th March 2018 3.45-5.15 pm

Topic: Work Moderation – Bring a range of work samples (photocopied and anonymised) and we will carry out a moderation exercise. The more samples you bring the more useful the exercise.

Berkshire * Please book through the appropriate LA * Bracknell Forest – Easthampstead Park Education Centre, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG40 3DB

Wednesday 28th February 2018 4.15-5.30 pm

Topic: Activities for Engaging RE – bring an idea or two to share

RBWM and Slough: The Royal School, The Great Park, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 2HP

Monday 19th March 2018 4.00- 5.15 pm

Topic: Activities for Engaging RE – bring an idea or two to share

4

Diocesan RE Competition

Does your school provide top quality RE?

Would you like Diocesan wide recognition?

If so, then we invite you to enter our Diocesan RE Competition ….

Recognising Excellence in RE

How to Enter: ➢ Take your “Big Question” from the list below and create a unit of work for your

year group or class. This could be part of a larger unit or the basis for an RE day or

week.

❖ KS1 Question: What’s the best way to show what you believe?

❖ KS2 Question: What’s the best way to demonstrate faith?

❖ KS3 Question: Should people be free to express faith any way they choose?

➢ Teach the unit and submit the lesson plans, materials used and a representative

sample of pupil outcomes. These could be a selection of written work (prose or

poetry), art, ICT, DT and can be sent in in electronic format (photographs or

scanned work). (Only one entry per school please, either at KS1, KS2 or KS3).

➢ Lesson plans should show the relevant syllabus questions addressed and links to

age-related expectations.

➢ Pupil work submitted should show evidence of feedback, given per the school’s

own marking policy.

➢ There will be an award at each of KS1, KS2 & KS3

➢ There is no cost to enter and the competition is open to all year groups up to Y9.

➢ The unit of work can be completed any time between now and the closing date.

All entries must be received by Friday 16th March 2018.

➢ Awards will be presented in June 2018.

Submit your entries electronically to anne.andrews@oxford.anglican.org

or by post or in person to Church House Oxford, Langford Locks, Kidlington, OX5 1GF

5

Understanding Christianity

The Diocese is pleased to announce that we have received further funding from the

Bayne Benefaction this year and so we are able to continue to offer this exciting

new resource and training at a huge discount. The resource, offering a systematic

concept led approach to teaching Christianity is usually priced at £50 and only

available with a minimum of 12 hours training. In Oxford, this training is spread over

two and a half days, with time in between to allow teachers to share the resource in their schools and trial

units between sessions. At the end of the course, delegates who have attended all three sessions receive a

logon for the electronic version of the resource and a certificate.

Delegates who attended the previous course said:

• This resource has helped with depth of teaching on Christianity and filled gaps in our rolling programme

• It offered an opportunity to share and talk how best to implement to the scheme. • It was an amazing series of courses. • The course provided activities for inset/training days.

Training Dates for 2018 (Cohort 2)

Church House Oxford, Langford Locks, Kidlington, OX5 1GF

Group 1: 19th Jan: 9.30 – 4; 20th April: 9.30 – 4; 4th June: 2 – 4.30

Group 2: 23rd Feb: 9.30– 4; 27th April: 9.30 – 4; 12th June: 2 – 4.30

Group 3: 9th Mar: 9.30 – 4; 18th May: 9.30 – 4; 18th June: 2 – 4.30

The same person from each school should attend all the three dates.

Full access to the Understanding Christianity website and materials will be

available to those who complete the course.

Funding from The Bayne Benefaction and the support of ODBE means that this second cohort will also receive this

training for

ONLY £30 instead of £235 – a saving of £205! Discount applies to Diocesan Schools in SLA only – other schools pay the full price.

More details are available on the Diocesan website:

http://www.oxford.anglican.org/schools/religious-education-new/courses-and-training/

6

NATRE State of the Nation Report

The Religious Education Council and RE Today services joined together

with NATRE and produced a report in September on the state of RE

teaching in our secondary schools. The report made for sobering reading,

as it catalogued many failings in RE across the country. It concluded that

there are problems around the country with both the level and quality of provision of RE, with about 26% of

all secondary schools not fulfilling the statutory requirement to provide RE for ALL students, except those

withdrawn by parents. Although the evidence shows that schools with a religious character (including Church

of England schools) were generally offering more and better RE, there is no room for complacency, as there

are serious doubts over the quality of provision offered to those pupils who are not taking GCSE RE. About

90% of pupils in schools with a religious character not entered for RE GCSE were receiving no RE lessons at all.

The Church of England Education Office Statement of Entitlement makes it clear that schools should comply

with the law and high quality RE should be offered to all pupils in KS3, KS4 and KS5! The report is calling on

OFSTED to comment on whether schools are complying with the law with regards to RE.

The full report can be viewed on the Diocesan website: https://tinyurl.com/y79rzmum

Religious Education for All the interim report from the Commission on Religious

Education

The Commission on Religious Education also published its interim report in September. This report, (116 pages

in total) identified many of the same issues as the NATRE State of the Nation Report, as well as a range of

other issues such as lack of clarity and purpose in RE, lack of initial teacher training opportunities, and lack of

accountability for RE. This report has listed several recommendations for improving the situation for RE, but

is also continuing to consult widely on these issues.

The recommendations are:

➢ A national Statement of Entitlement for RE should be produced, which should set out the aims and

purposes of RE and should apply to ALL schools. They include a draft in the report.

➢ Schools should be held to account for RE, displaying on their website how the meet the statutory

requirements and inspections as well as SACREs and the DfE should monitor the provision and quality

of RE in all schools.

➢ SACRES (Standing Advisory Councils for RE) should have a renewed and expanded role.

➢ There should be a National Plan for improving teaching and learning in RE which would address the

ITT issues and encourage universities to share research more readily.

These four areas form the focus of the ongoing consultation, along with discussion over the right of

withdrawal. Although the survey closed on the 4th December, teachers are still encouraged to respond to the

commission. Ensure that you read the report and make your opinions known. This is a real opportunity to

influence the direction of RE teaching for the future.

You can find the report and additional information on the Commission’s website:

http://www.commissiononre.org.uk/

7

Balance in the RE Curriculum?

Here is an idea for a staff meeting: what is needed for a good RE curriculum? What

ideas do your staff have? What kinds of balance does the curriculum need?

Clearly there needs to be a balance between the different faiths. The Church of England

Education Office expects church schools to be concentrating on Christianity for 2/3 of

the time given to RE and the locally agreed syllabus will suggest what the other faiths

should be. But within the teaching of Christianity there needs to be balance between three key strands:

Theology, Philosophy and Human and Social Sciences. That at least is the current thinking among RE advisers

in the Church of England, and we would very much like to hear your opinion.

Theology is largely about the beliefs held by a religion, with reference to the sources and texts of these beliefs.

An historical perspective, showing how beliefs have changed over time. (Believing)

Which elements of your RE curriculum deal with the Theology? Do the concepts and key beliefs of a religion

form the basis of the curriculum? How much do you use biblical texts in your teaching? What texts and source

materials do you refer to in other faiths?

Philosophy deals with the big questions of life, morals, ethics and a sense of meaning or purpose. (Thinking)

How much of your curriculum is devoted to challenging questions? Do pupils have a chance to think about the

ideas that help people to make decisions about what is right and wrong, good and bad?

Human and Social Science has a focus on practice and impact, with an emphasis on the diverse ways in which

people put their beliefs into practice. (Living/Behaving)

You probably spend quite a lot of the curriculum looking at how people live out their beliefs, but does that

include the diversity of ways in which this takes place? Would your pupils think that Christianity is a British

religion? What impact do people’s beliefs have on the wider society in which they live?

All of these elements are present to some extent in the locally agreed syllabi of the Oxford Diocesan area, and

there is some cross over with the three strands of believing, behaving and belonging or the Diocesan End of

Phase Outcomes of Knowing it, Living it and Linking it…

Some suggested activities: carry out an audit of a year group’s RE. What is the balance between these three

strands? Think about how you might be able to alter things to rebalance things if you need to.

Discuss with other staff how this thinking will enable your pupils to improve their religious literacy and hold

balanced and informed conversations about religions and beliefs.

Look out for details of further materials to help you with this area of RE, including a short animation that

explores the purposes of RE and looks at these three areas in more detail. In due course, we hope that a pack

will be available for all schools containing a range of resources to help you balance your RE Curriculum.

Have you thought of auditing the rest of the curriculum to see where RE is covered? And if there are not any

links, could you make some? Could you use a story/text from a religion in RE? Could you refer religion when

looking at certain historical topics? What about music or art? If you think about these areas then you may

begin to ease nearer to the 10% of curriculum time that the Church of England Education Office Statement of

Entitlement recommends.

8

Selected resources for other faiths and worldviews

Bahá’í If you feel that it is time to step out of the box and look at a different faith, then you might

want to look at a short film produced by the UK Bahá’í community for this year’s bicentenary

of their founder, Bahá’u’lláh - The Divine Physician.

It’s intended primarily for use in KS2 and KS3. It features young people from diverse

backgrounds, and from different parts of the UK, attending neighbourhood junior youth (JY)

groups and discussing the problems facing the world today. It explores the ways in which Bahá’u’lláh’s

message offers a healing remedy, and includes the story of Bahá’u'lláh’s letter to Queen Victoria.

The Bahá’í faith is one that believes that all religions are really one, seeking the same things and looking to

establish world unity. The Bahá’í community in Britain is quiet small, and usually meets in people’s homes, but

elsewhere in the world there are stunning temples. The religion originated in Iran/Persia but as with many

faiths, persecution has spread them far and wide.

The film (17 mins) can be found on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Gzs_11Xk6zg and there is a lot more

information on the website: https://www.bahai.org.uk/

Humanism The British Humanists also have a website:

https://understandinghumanism.org.uk/ which contains

information, lesson plans and activities, as well as links to speakers who could come into schools. The

Commission on RE uses the word worldviews more frequently than religions in its report. It is important that

some reference is made to the views of those of no religious belief, as these people represent about 53% of

the population nationwide; but remember that many who declare themselves of no religion, would not

necessarily ally themselves with Humanist views either.

The Humanist website says:

Defining ‘Humanism’

Humanism is a broad worldview which describes a number of shades of opinion, but the core set of

beliefs and values can be summarised as follows.

A humanist…

• trusts to the scientific method when it comes to understanding how the universe works and

rejects the idea of the supernatural (and is therefore an atheist or agnostic);

• makes their ethical decisions based on reason, empathy, and a concern for human beings and

other sentient animals;

• believes that, in the absence of an afterlife and any discernible purpose to the universe, human

beings can act to give their own lives meaning by seeking happiness in this life and helping

others to do the same.

Hopefully many of you will have received the book that was being offered free by the Humanists

“What is humanism?” by Michael Rosen & Annemarie Young. Do let me know if you have found it

helpful and how you handle other non-religious worldviews in the classroom.

9

Jewish Museum Teachers' Portal The Jewish Museum London has recently launched a new Learning Portal website. The Portal is designed to

help teachers and students explore the diversity of Judaism and the cultural heritage of Jewish people in

Britain. You can plan your visit, sign up for our School’s Newsletter, and Ask a Question to the Learning

Team. You can also browse our extensive video, audio, and object resources by delving into our In the

Classroom section.

Teachers’ Portal: https://teachersportal.org.uk/schools/

In the Classroom: https://teachersportal.org.uk/schools/in-the-classroom/

Islam Hot off the press, Shia Islam for GCSE teachers is now on sale at £7.99 + P&P

To buy, email Siddika from the Al Khoei Foundation who are the organisation that

published it: s.gulamhusein@alkhoei.org

Any reviews of this resource would be welcomed.

Faith Interviews RE Online now has a series of interviews with people of faith from around Cornwall. This links with the

Researchers project that was promoted at the RE conference in 2015. These interviews offer a starting point

for discussion and include interviews with Quaker, Bahá’í and Pagan believers as well as Muslims, Jews and

other Christians denominations. There were filmed as part of Inter-faith week and can be found here:

http://www.reonline.org.uk/re-searchers/the-re-searcher-interviews/ and on YouTube.

If these videos raise questions, then there is always the “Email a Believer” section on RE Online:

http://pof.reonline.org.uk/ which offers links to a wide range of people of faith and keeps the previous

questions and answers available to view. The faith representatives change frequently, so a variety of voices is

available and some diversity of belief is inevitable.

Religious Education Council The Religious Education Council website has a useful resources section and you can sign up to receive a

monthly newsletter, with links to much of the most recent information on developments in RE nationally.

Follow this link to have a look: https://www.religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk/resources/

Festivals Prepare yourself for next year by checking out the Shap calendar of festivals:

http://www.reonline.org.uk/supporting/festivals-calendar/ which will give you the 2018 dates for the major

and minor festivals of a wide range of religious traditions.

Global Awareness Day – share a Pencil As we start a new year, let us not forget the millions of children worldwide who’s deepest wish is simply to go

to school. Join us in teaching our children a little more about the reasons children worldwide are still missing

out on the education they deserve.

Share a Pencil Day is a fun, engaging and interactive global education awareness day for all UK Primary and

Secondary schools. Sign up free today at www.shareapencilday.co.uk

10

Accord Inclusivity Awards 2018

The Accord Coalition’s 2018 Inclusivity Award is once again open to all state funded schools in England and

Wales. Nominated schools will be assessed for the steps they have taken within their setting to advance

equality of opportunity, tackle discrimination and foster good relations between people, and especially on the

grounds of religion and ethnicity.

The Award was launched in 2010 and since then, winning institutions have overcome a wide variety of

challenges. They include rural, suburban, inner city, faith and special schools from all over England and

Wales. Participating in the Award has been highlighted by Ofsted as a way schools can complement their

obligations under the Public Sector Equality Duty. The winning schools regularly obtain national media

coverage for their success.

Any school interested in nominating themselves, should visit the Accord website:

http://accordcoalition.org.uk/inclusivity-award-2018/ where there is additional information and case studies

as well as media reports from winning schools.

For support and advice on all matters relating to RE

The Diocese employs a dedicated RE Adviser who is available to visit schools to offer training, advice, support

and resources. Check out the RE pages of the website for the Diocesan Scheme of Work for RE, support

materials and links to teaching resources. New resources and additional units of work for the scheme of work

are planned for the new year. Look out for emails telling you when the updates are available. In the meantime,

do contact me on the details below if you have any queries or comments.

Any comments or suggestions for inclusion in future editions; any other questions or queries on RE, please email

anne.andrews@oxford.anglican.org Anne Andrews (RE Adviser)

Oxford Diocesan Board of Education Tel: 01865 208238 Church House Oxford Mob: 07884 655097 Langford Locks Web: www.oxford.anglican.org/schools/religious-education-new Kidlington OX5 1GF