NATRE

This summer we are delighted to be hosting a new blog series from our vibrant and energetic subject community! Each of the main RE/R&W organisations will be sharing their reflections on 2020-21, and looking forward to the coming academic year. We will be posting one blog per week and are very grateful to the Chairs/CEOs of these organisations for contributing their thoughts. We start the series with the Religious Education Council of England and Wales.

Kathryn Wright

CEO, Culham St Gabriel’s

NATRE aims to support the development of high-quality teaching and learning in RE/Religion and Worldviews for all pupils in all schools.

Looking backwards

The aim of NATRE didn’t change in the last challenging year in fact it became even more important as our members, and all teachers, learnt to educate pupils in new ways, in new places under unbelievably challenging circumstances.

Whilst NATRE always work hard to resource schools, for example, through our publications, local groups, Spirited Arts, training, social media presence and #REChatuk this year we tried to support teachers in their new circumstances. This meant creating digital copies of magazines so you could read it even if it was delivered to school when you were teaching from home, providing extra RE chats, supporting local groups (thank you Saima Saleh) to go virtual and providing far more online training. We continued to provide home learning resources for our members and for all teachers and at third lock down made our member home learning resources free to all.

It was nerve racking creating an online Strictly RE conference for almost 500 delegates but we were really pleased to see that spreading it over the whole weekend and the evenings leading up to the conference weekend meant that more people could attend more sessions, the recording of the majority of sessions provided ongoing CPD for delegates who couldn’t attend.

Over the summer NATRE (and RE Today) were spurred into action to create a series of anti-racist RE resources a small but important step towards a more diverse RE/Religion and worldviews curriculum. Whilst NATRE had been working to promote greater inclusion of contemporary and diverse voices in the classroom, we recognised that there was more to do across the whole age range, and this work needed to be done with greater urgency. The RE curriculum has not always sufficiently acknowledged the role of religious and non-religious worldviews in injustice, both in the past and in the present. This led to a project supported by the Free Churches Group and Methodist Schools. Project partners whom this work would not be possible without include black, Asian and minority ethnic teachers, academics, religious and non-religious voices from many communities and managed, written and edited by Lat Blaylock, RE Adviser and editor of REtoday magazine. As you may know in the summer term these resources were somewhat castigated in certain parts of the media and by one or two politicians and a Bishop. We were so heartened by those of you that had read and used the resources who were able to put the record straight as we had to do too. We were pleased to finally be able to speak about our amazing and essential subject on the BBC.

The year 20/21 was a year of change for NATRE as we said thank you and goodbye to an old executive and welcomed a new one. It is essential that NATRE is driven by the voice of teachers and once again you voted in an amazing bunch. Ben Wood has been an amazing advocate for RE but has now stepped back from being chair to be assistant to the chair and we welcome Katie Freeman, the first Primary Chair for almost 20 years! What has not changed is the importance of working together with the whole RE community to ensure all pupils get excellent RE/Religion and Worldviews education. One of the ways NATRE do this is as part of the Religious Education Policy Unit (REPU), a partnership with the Religious Education council and REToday Services designed to promote political change that supports RE. Through this group we have spoken to shadow cabinet members and MPs from the government and had many questions asked in parliament. We are working together on ensuring RE/Religion and Worldviews is better understood and supported by key stakeholders. We hold regular meetings with the DFE and are able to help them understand the subject and sometimes even correct errors and omissions. We also work together to gain positive media attention and understanding.

NATRE have always worked hard with key stakeholders such as professional associations, OFQUAL, exam boards, Universities, DFE and OFSTED. We aim to support organisations to work with us to improve RE and to ensure all pupils in all schools receive the RE they deserve and are entitled too. Some of this liaison, advocacy and lobbying work we can speak publicly about and much more goes on behind the scenes. Rachael Jackson-Royal leads our work on qualifications and higher education and has been incredibly busy this year sharing teacher views, queries, and concerns with OFQUAL and exam boards.

We also take data and surveys seriously as we know this information has the power to change the minds of senior leaders in school and key stakeholders such as DFE and OFSTED. Thank you to all those of you who fill in our Secondary and Primary surveys and to Deborah Weston who is our research officer. Do check out our latest data section to see what you can use in your school. You might also find the RE defender toolkit or the report of a complaint at a school that was not providing sufficient RE useful too.

As you can see a busy year…

Fiona Moss, CEO NATRE

Looking forward…

In March 2021, I was elected as Chair of NATRE.  Becoming the Chair of our subject association what somewhat of a daunting role but also one that I am really excited about. As we look forward to the next academic year, NATRE has many plans to further support teachers of RE.

In January 2022, NATRE plan to hold another Strictly RE conference. We are grateful for the feedback that teachers of RE share with us each year and we strive to ensure that we act upon this to ensure that delegates receive the best quality training. There has been much discussion in the RE community surrounding a Religion and Worldviews approach to teaching RE and this theme will feature in the planning for the conference. One of the strengths of all of our Strictly RE conferences is that it is cross phase, for this reason, we will continue to ensure that a range of speakers from different phases will lead workshops that will feature ‘takeaway’ ideas for use in the classroom. Many teachers also shared that they really valued time to network with other professionals so we will be ensuring that this is a key feature of Strictly 2022.

In his time as Chair, Ben Wood planned to hold NATRE’s first ever curriculum symposium event.  The executive has been really excited about this idea and it has formed a key part of our action planning to move NATRE forward. As an executive, we felt that this symposium needed to be a face to face event so that teachers could discuss their curriculum design in detail and have support from other professionals that would help to move them forward. As the restrictions linked to the pandemic begin to lift, NATRE is putting plans in place for this event to take place. We have been excited to receive expressions of interest from teachers from different phases of education from across the country. Delegates that take part in the symposium event will be invited to write up their experiences so that other teachers can draw upon them and we hope that this will have impact on their own curriculum design. NATRE would like to extend its thanks to CSTG for helping to fund this event.

Fiona has already mentioned the success of our local groups and how they have supported teachers of RE throughout the pandemic. Over the lockdown period, teachers took part in a range of virtual training opportunities and Zoom meetings have now become a real feature of CPD for schools. NATRE wanted to draw upon these virtual meeting opportunities has started to set up a range of national groups to bring teachers together from across the country who want to focus on specific themes, provision or issues within the RE community. A great example of these national groups in the group set up by Sarah Payne to support teachers of RE in special schools. Huge thanks to Sarah and to Saima (our local groups officer) for all of their hard work in this area. Watch this space for more virtual national groups coming to a screen near you soon!

Throughout the pandemic, NATRE continued to create online resources to support teachers of RE, this work will continue over the next year so please do continue to check our website for news and updates. We will also continue to hold a monthly #RECHATUK and our social media team (Joanne Harris and Catriona Card) have worked hard to create a comprehensive list of topics and themes for the next year.  We are always keen to ensure that more teachers get involved in these discussions so I would encourage you to bring a friend to our September chat.

Over the last eighteen months the teaching community has had to adapt and work in so many different ways. I am proud of our profession, the work that we have done and how we have come together to ensure that our children receive the best learning experiences possible. I am sure that the next year will hold challenges and as a community many of us will have different ideas about how we think our subject should be taught or how it should develop. Let us remember though that we are a community who are united in wanting the very best for all of our pupils. In a world where we can be anything, let us be kind to ourselves and kind to one another.

Katie Freeman, NATRE Chair