This article has been brought to you by Slough Borough Council's SACRE Educational Consultant and Trainer Advisor to Local Authorities, David Rees, for the attention of all School Headteachers and RE Leaders.
Slough SACRE produces a Religious Education newsletter each term designed to keep schools informed about free network meetings, Religious Education resources, training opportunities and local events. Please can schools ensure that all Religious Education staff are given access to this article.
SACRE are keen to make contact with all the Religious Education leaders in schools - please send the name and school e-mail of the Religious Education lead to the SACRE Advisor David Rees; e-mail david@reesuk.onmicrosoft.com. This will enable SACRE to send information about free Religious Education network meetings directly to Religious Education leaders and will also offer support. SACRE are grateful to those schools who have already done this and look forward to engaging with their Religious Education leads during the year.
SACRE was pleased to be able to send a book around to all Religious Education leaders last year and are always looking for opportunities to support schools by finding Religious Education resources for classroom use. With this in mind SACRE is keen to know if there are specific artefacts that are needed for teaching Religious Education. Artefacts engage curiosity in children, let David know if there are specific artefacts which are needed for Religious Education teaching and SACRE will find providers from within the faith communities to help.
SACRE are aware of the Religious Education work happening in the area and would love to hear about success stories whether it is a drop down day, specific module of work, REQM award or other Religious Education event. If there is anything to share with David please do so and he will pass this on to SACRE.
Virtual Networks
SACRE support Religious Education by running Virtual Networks as twilight sessions each term, these are run by the Religious Education Advisor to SACRE David Rees. The Religious Education Network Meetings are on;
- Tuesday 15 November 2022 16:00 - 17:00.
- Tuesday 7 February 2023 16:00 - 17:00.
- Wednesday 22 March 2023 16:00 - 17:00.
To book a place, e-mail David Rees SACRES on david@reesuk.onmicrosoft.com and a zoom link will be sent separately.
The meeting will cover
- Recent national and local developments in RE
- Local Agreed Syllabus Updates
- Online CPD Opportunities
- Online resources and websites
- Upcoming events
The sessions are backed by your local SACRE and are an important way of keeping in touch and offering support
We will be giving local and national RE updates as well as giving us an opportunity to hear about support you would like in future
If you have anything else you would like to discuss please let me know in advance and I will make sure time is available
If anyone would like to share ideas, resources, classroom ideas etc please do bring them along
Pan Berkshire Hub update (Free video clips – new ones added)
The Pan Berkshire Hub (a group consisting of members of 6 Berkshire SACRES) continues to meet and work together to help provide support and resources to help Berkshire teachers. The Hub produced some excellent free teaching resources in the form of video clips and support notes.
The ‘Real People, Real Faith project’ Key Stage 1-3 classroom resources have been available for teachers to use since April 2021. The project set out to ask believers from different places of worship and religion and worldview communities questions about their faith and how it impacts on daily life – these were professionally filmed and edited with the classroom in mind. Teacher notes were also developed to accompany each video clip.
The Questions asked were
Question 1 - What Symbols are important to you?
Question 2 - What stories are important to you?
The first batch of video clips were from the following worldviews:
- Church of England
- Baptist
- Hinduism
- Sikhism
- Islam – Shi’a
- Judaism - reform
New clips have recently been released (June 2022) including
- Islam - Sunni
- Roman Catholic
- Judaism - Orthodox
A clip featuring Humanism is currently in the editing process and other representation from other religions and worldviews are being actively explored. Each film has a page of notes outlining the key questions and concepts, with a brief summary of the answers and some suggested follow-on activities. Many of the clips will help schools address some of the big questions suggested in the locally agreed syllabus. The resources are kindly hosted on the NATRE website and can be accessed by following the link below.
https://www.natre.org.uk/about-natre/projects/real-people-real-faith
They can also be found on the Pan Berkshire blog page - https://berkshiresacrehub.blogspot.com
These will help schools, schools can provide any comments, feedback and suggestions to David Rees. If any schools have developed teaching activities to link these further to the agreed syllabus questions, SACRE would love to hear these.
Crossing the bridges
Crossing the Bridges was a Pan Berkshire SACRE project undertaken several years ago designed to help schools connect with local religion and worldview communities. Part of the process included creating a database of contacts for as many local places of worship as possible. Some templates were also designed to help schools plan and experience visits to places of worship. The database of contacts needs to be updated and hopefully this will begin in earnest this year. The school visit templates are still available and should help make a visit more educational and rewarding.
These templates are available in several locations including the pan Berkshire blog page; berkshiresacrehub.blogspot.com and the Discovery RE website; discoveryschemeofwork.com/crossing-the-bridges
Religious Education Teachers conference
The Pan Berkshire SACREs have run Religious Education teacher conferences in the past but these stopped during the pandemic, it is hoped that a conference may be run in this academic year for Religious Education Teachers. If there is interest in this, please let David Rees know - please mention if there are specific areas that will need to be covered.
Discovery Religious Education
Discovery Religious Education is medium term Religious Education programme for Key Stages one and two which has enquiry-based units covering up to eight different religions and worldviews. It also has a supportive website and community area which has resource ideas, knowledge organisers and background information for teachers. Discovery Religious Education also has a dedicated team of Religious Education mentors all of whom are/were Religious Education teachers. Further details can be found here; discoveryschemeofwork.com. This year Discovery Religious Education will be expanded to become a bigger short-term scheme for Religious Education.
Collective Worship
Collective Worship is an area which schools often seek support for. SACRE is aware that it was difficult for schools to provide this when the pandemic hit and in the aftermath, it is possible that it may have dropped off the radar a bit. SACRE is working on ways to offer support and suggestions. SACRE welcomes the opportunity to hear from schools about their Collective worship provision so please do contract the Religious Education adviser if you would like to share any good practice.
REQM
The RE Quality Mark (REQM) is a great way to celebrate Religious Education in schools – and to demonstrate how Religious Education can take a lead in overall school improvement. The Quality Mark can be used in any sector, phase or setting, and it is now in its tenth year of accrediting schools across England and Wales and is managed by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales.
There are four strands to the award and the criteria cover Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership at Bronze, Silver or Gold levels. Schools are the leaders in the award process, downloading evidence forms for completion as part of their school improvement plan, and applying online for the award when they are ready for a virtual visit from an experienced assessor.
Pupil and student voices play an important role in the evidence gathering, and the REQM team have supplied questionnaires to use with different groups.
If you look at the cost (£475) as a fee for the CPD that your school can benefit from during the process, schools say it is good value. The fee has to be paid before your award visit, but all the materials are freely available on the website. CStG Religious Education Online Resource of the month recently concerned the REQM award – in the resource two strands are explored - Religious Education Quality Mark – Teaching and Learning Strands
www.reonline.org.uk/leadership/resource-of-the-month - the resources has two PowerPoints which can be downloaded.
The REQM recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary and has seen an upsurge in numbers of schools applying. It provides an excellent auditing tool for schools and even though costs to apply will raise the status of Religious Education in a school and offer the opportunity to showcase some of the excellent work being done in Religious Education.
Religious Education Online recently included a blog by Matthew Lane about his experiences in going through the REQM process for the gold award – his blog can be accessed here; www.reonline.org.uk/2022/07/05/gold-award-primary
Free Online Support and upcoming events
Religious Education Online www.reonline.org.uk
Religious Education Online is a free quality-controlled website designed to support teachers with many different aspects of teaching and leading Religious Education.
Recently Religious Education Online has produced some free short, self study courses – these courses are designed to help develop the Religious Education teacher/leader whilst allowing them to work at their own pace and with the time they have at their disposal. These are designed for teachers in all phases and all school types and offer a wide range of support and inspiration for the classroom; courses.cstg.org.uk
The courses are divided into 3 sections – each section takes roughly 60 to 90 mins and can be paused and returned to
- Introduction to Religion and Worldviews - This course provides an introduction to what is happening in Religious Education right now, covering the most recent report into the subject and the thinking behind a new approach to teaching and learning in the subject.
- Introduction to Curriculum - This is a basic introduction to the purpose of the curriculum, the role of knowledge in the curriculum, progression and subject specialism in Religion and Worldviews.
- Introduction to research - This course is aimed at teachers as a general introduction to educational research and its purpose for both the classroom and wider understanding.
A key part of Religious Education Online is the link to the SHAP festivals calendar. The calendar includes festivals from a wide range of religions and worldviews. It includes background information to the festivals and often links to other resources which would help in the classroom. In the next few weeks, the following festivals are celebrated so please check the calendar if you are planning to teach about them – everything included is free;
- Autumn equinox – September 22nd
- Harvest festival – September 25th
- Rosh Hashanah – September 26th
- Navaratri – September 27th
- Durga Puja – October 4th
- Yom Kippur - October 5th
- Prophet Muhammad’s birthday – October 8th (Sunni) or 13th (Shi’a)
- Sukkot – October 10th
- Simchat Torah – October 18th
- Diwali – October 24th
- Anniversary of the birth of the Bab – October 26th
- Anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah – October 27th
- Birthday of Guru Nanak – November 8th
- Hanukah – December 19th
The calendar can be accessed via this link; www.reonline.org.uk/festival-calendar
Humanists UK - humanists.uk/education The Humanists UK website has an excellent education section - For free, downloadable teaching resources, including lesson plans, classroom activities, presentations, videos, and humanist perspectives on a range of topics studied in school, visit the website Understanding Humanism; understandinghumanism.org.uk. Teachers can also find guidance and information about CPD opportunities including free online courses.
Holocaust Memorial Day 2023
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) encourages remembrance in a world scarred by genocide. They promote and support Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) – the international day on 27 January to remember the victims of genocide past and present recognising that genocide must still be resisted every day. In the UK, prejudice and the language of hatred must be challenged by us all. HMD is for everyone. Each year across the UK, thousands of people come together to learn more about the past and take action to create a safer future. We know they learn more, empathise more and do more. Ordinary People is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023. Genocide is facilitated by ordinary people. Ordinary people turn a blind eye, believe propaganda, join murderous regimes. And those who are persecuted, oppressed and murdered in genocide aren’t persecuted because of crimes they’ve committed – they are persecuted simply because they are ordinary people who belong to a particular group (e.g. Roma, Jewish community, Tutsi). Please check the website for information on classroom resources and regional activities; www.hmd.org.uk Ordinary people were involved in all aspects of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution of other groups, and in the genocides that took place in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. Ordinary people were perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers, witnesses – and ordinary people were victims.
Anti-Bullying week
Anti-Bullying Week 2022 will take place from Monday 14th - Friday 18th November with the theme ‘Reach Out’. The theme of Reach Out came about following consultation with teachers and pupils. Teachers and children wanted a theme that empowered them to do something positive to counter the harm and hurt that bullying causes. Religious Education as a subject includes many opportunities to explore equality and challenge discrimination in any from. The anti-bullying alliance website has lots of information and downloadable resources which could be useful in schools including a ‘50 ideas for schools’ document – these can all be found here; anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk
Interfaith week 2022
Inter Faith Week takes place this year from Sunday 13th to Sunday 20th November. It aims to strengthen good interfaith relations, increase awareness of the different and distinct faith communities, and increase understanding between people of religious and non-religious beliefs. Central to these aims is celebrating and building on the contribution which members of different faith and non-faith communities make to their neighbourhoods and to wider society. Each year thousands take part directly in Inter Faith Week activities, and millions encounter the week's positive messages through social media. The website has information about the history of Interfaith week as well as resources and activities; www.interfaithweek.org/resources/ideas
Resources/CPD/events
- The BBC teach website has free teacher classroom resources suitable for use in religious studies lessons with primary school children at:
Key Stage 1 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks1-religious-studies/zmtvwty
Key Stage 2 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks2-religious-studies/z6pbqp3
Key Stage 3 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ks3-religious-studies/z72qf4j
Key Stage 4 - https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/gcse-national-5-religious-studies/zhptrj6
These cover a wide variety of religions, worldviews and ethics
- The North-East Religious Learning Resources Centre's YouTube channel has a variety of interesting films that might improve subject knowledge or be of help in the classroom. Look at the tour around an Orthodox synagogue. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW52sJ_5DMA
- CDEC and Cumbria SACRE have produced a collection of virtual tours of religious and spiritual sites to help RE teachers and students discover more about faith. The places included range from those in Cumbria, to fantastic examples further afield. There are also ideas for helping pupils search for and explore other sites too; www.cdec.org.uk/use-our-resources/films-and-virtual-tours/virtual-tours
- Sikh SKE - If you feel you have the potential to be an excellent secondary specialist teacher but that you don't have the right degree to teach a certain subject, the SKE programmes at the University of East London are designed to give you the depth of knowledge you'll need to teach your chosen subject. The flexible programmes last up to 24 weeks and are aimed at those who have already been offered a conditional place on a postgraduate initial teacher training (ITT) course, subject to completion of an SKE programme. As a minimum, the SKE programmes are the equivalent of eight weeks' full-time study. Some are longer depending on whether you need to top up your subject knowledge or need something more in-depth. www.uel.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/teacher-training/subject-knowledge-enhancement-programmes
Social Media - As you might imagine there are many RE based groups on different Social Media platforms – these include…
- Respect: The subject community for RE professionals
- Primary RE – for everyone teaching Re in primary – NATRE
- Special RE NATRE group – for educators in Special Education
- RE in the South West- Facebook
- RE Teachers forum - Facebook
- RE Teachers in South Central – Facebook– linked to NATREs regional ambassadors
- @RE:Online – RE Online updates and info from Culham St Gabriel’s’ Trust
- #REChatUK twitter forum – this occurs the first Monday of every month in term time.
- TeamRE - @TeamRE
- Learn Teach Lead RE - @ltlre
- REC – Religious Education Council - @RECouncil
The next newsletter should be out at the start of the next term in January – SACRE wishes you all a successful and enjoyable term.