Outcome of three-year religion and worldviews project will
help teachers update their existing curriculum following Ofsted
warning that schools need to ‘add depth' to their RE lessons
The Religious Education Council of England and Wales has launched
a new curriculum toolkit to help schools in England develop a
high quality RE curriculum using a religion and worldviews
approach. The toolkit contains a handbook for curriculum
developers, three curriculum frameworks, and the National Content
Standard for RE in England.
The toolkit is the culmination of a three-year Religion and
Worldviews in the Classroom project, with the authors drawing on
academic research, classroom experience, and further consultation
on the landmark 2018 report from the Commission on RE, which
recommended steps to both adopt an academically rigorous approach
to the subject and reflect the nature of belief and practice in
modern Britain.
The resources are available for all teachers, senior leadership
teams, and curriculum developers to use in their own contexts.
Building on existing best practice in schools, the REC has
developed them in partnership with teachers in different
communities from multi-academy trusts to schools with a religious
character.
Central to all these resources is a National Statement of
Entitlement (NSE) that sets out what all state school pupils up
to the end of year 11 are entitled to be taught. It provides
teachers with a set of principles for the selection of content
and pedagogical tools to help them deliver a more scholarly
approach to the teaching of religious education. In addition, the
National Content Standard (NCS) sets a benchmark for RE to help
clarify expectations for schools. The need for this sort of
guidance was one of the key recommendations of the Ofsted subject
report published in April 2024. The NCS has been recommended by
all the major school providers in England including the Church of
England, the Catholic Education Service, and the Board of
Deputies of British Jews.
Chair of the REC, Sarah Lane Cawte, said: “This is a major
project that reflects a broad consensus across the RE community
to help all schools deliver a personally enriching and
academically challenging religious education.
“A religion and worldviews approach, already in use in many
schools around the country, will help all teachers improve their
existing practice by placing students at the heart of the
subject, providing clarity and guidance for teachers in a variety
of different contexts about what constitutes high quality RE.”
Professor Trevor Cooling, lead academic on the project, said:
“This scholarly approach to the study of religious education,
allows pupils to develop substantive knowledge of religion,
religious and non-religious worldviews, competence in the
disciplines of RE and also to recognise their own position in
relation to the subject content. It builds on research literature
over many years into effective approaches to the subject to
create one that is fit for purpose in the 21st
century.
“It helps pupils to become skilled interpreters of the lived
experience of religion and belief with a focus on understanding
how people's personal worldviews are often influenced by
different religious and non-religious worldviews. This will allow
them to think deeply and academically about their own responses -
and those of others - to the big questions in life.”
Fiona Moss, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association
of Teachers of RE (NATRE), said, “These curriculum resources
build on the many examples of what good RE looks like and what
many teachers of RE are currently practising in classrooms across
the country. They will support teachers, provide inspiring
exemplars, and benchmark high quality teaching of our subject.”
To access the resources and find out more visit https://religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk
