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If you are anything like me and wonder where everyone gets the time to read educational journals and books you last set your sights on at university (I am convinced there is a secret community of teachers who own Bernard’s Watch!), then listen up!

My time saving secret is The RE Podcast! It is filled with insights into Religion and Worldviews, available in 10 – 30 minute sessions. As well as covering religious and non-religious worldviews, the podcasts delve into difference and diversity, philosophical debates and address current concerns such as decolonising the language we use and representations of religion in film.

Below I outline five ways the RE Podcast has added value to my understanding and development.

1: CPD for Teachers

Even when I choose a podcast I consider I have good subject knowledge in already, I am always left with greater insights, more examples and personal views to add into my classroom practice. A recent example is ‘The One About the Messianic Judaism’. Messianic Judaism is a topic that I sometimes refer to in lessons, so my knowledge was passable, but after listening to the podcast I have gained greater insight into what Messianic Judaism means in practice. The podcast presents Binyamin Sheldrake, Rabbi of a Messianic synagogue in Norwich, and his own views regarding Yeshua and the links between Jewish beliefs and Christianity. This fascinating interview gave me further understanding of Messianic views of the Trinity and salvation. This will clearly aid me in my lessons on the Jewish view of the Messiah and the Messianic Age.

Each podcast alternates between experts and every day experiences of religion. They are relatable, relevant, and easy to digest without important ideas being watered down. They offer statistics, stories, historical views and religious teachings. You can absorb the information whilst completing other tasks which make them the perfect way to add to your own knowledge without feeling the time restraint of reading heavy articles.

2: Manageable CPD for your department and non-specialists

Many departments contain non-specialists. The podcasts are manageable boosters in subject knowledge that don’t cost money or too much time. It’s easy to pick out topics that are linked to your curriculum, such as ‘The One About Ramadan’ or ‘The One About Easter’. This means the whole department has access to high quality, supportive subject knowledge.

Moreover, the podcasts help to put religion into context rather than the abstract nature of religion often found in textbooks and religious texts themselves. The podcasts have clear links to worldviews thinking, they contextualise religious and secular beliefs, draw on historical, religious and philosophical thinking whilst providing the interviewees personal insights into their faith. This improves accessibility by providing connections that non-specialist colleagues already know about.

3: Extra- and super-curricular activities for students

I have suggested many podcasts to my students for their home learning. This offers a variation on conventional written homework, and they have proven very popular. The podcasts can be used as pre-learning activities, as additional information, extension tasks or as the basis of discussion and P4C stimulus.

Podcasts I recommend for student development are ‘The One About Capital Punishment’, ‘The One Where God Exists’, ‘The One About Abortion and Euthanasia’ and ‘The One Where There Is Life After Death’.

4: Stay up to Date

Many of the podcasts address religious, philosophical and ethical themes from a modern and relevant context, without ignoring the historical roots of theories and religious beliefs. For example, ‘The One About Sikhi’, ‘The One About Halloween’ or ‘The One About Knowledge’. These show a connection between the world today and the subject knowledge I might be covering, allowing a more textured understanding of living religion and belief.

5: Shut out Distractions!

Finally, the podcasts provide background noise to your workouts, accompanies you on car journeys, entertains you whilst doing the housework, or even drowns out the sound of your partner/child/pet!

For more information check out Louisa Jane Smiths website https://www.therepodcast.co.uk/ and listen to The RE Podcast on Spotify or iTunes.

This year we are trialling a new approach to the start of year 7 RE. In my teaching career I have tried several approaches including looking at why we study RE and have never been happy with them. This year I created a new scheme that asks the enquiry question ‘How do we study religion and belief?’

We see students for one hour a week, so time is very tight, and I proposed to my colleague that we trial using a booklet with students. This is a great time saver as students don’t have to write titles each lesson and it’s easy to refer to page numbers which is the same for all of them. I have also found that when exploring a new approach it helps to organise my ideas and share them with my colleague as I’ve had to create and sequence the learning in the booklet.

The booklet pulls together the different ways we can study religion and belief and the things that we look at. One part of this approach involves introducing students to worldviews.

We start by thinking about our own personal worldview. We are clear that this is about how their own views have been developed over time (and will continue to develop) rather than being their specific view on something.

We have used two short clips to support this. The Theos ‘Nobody stands nowhere’ clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFRxKF-Jdos  and this ‘What is your worldview?’ clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXnSE0uvwzM

Interestingly, I have found a very small number of students have struggled to grasp this concept. It is very abstract and requires a conceptual understanding of themselves that some students cannot conceive. A couple of my students have replied ‘I don’t have a worldview’ or ‘My view hasn’t changed’. This kind of self-knowledge is a challenge for a small minority of students and colleagues that teach students with some types of SEN may find this more common.

To help students with this abstract concept I chose to use the metaphor of a magnifying glass; to help students understand that our personal worldview is how we ‘see’ things. I have used some ‘big questions’ to help them to understand how their worldview works and then we work together to unpick where our views may have developed from.

I have bought several magnifying glasses to add to the explanation. This has helped students to understand that we all have different personal worldviews as I hold them up when explaining each individual view. It also helps to illustrate other worldviews. I have also shown how these lenses can ‘cross over’ which illustrates how views can be ‘combined’. An example was when we were discussing ‘how did the world get here?’ Students came up with answers ‘God made it’ and ‘the Big Bang’. I held up a lens for each of these views and then crossed them over. For some students this was a new Christian worldview; that God created the Big Bang.

This has helped them to understand that it may be better for us to discuss the many views within a religion for example we discussed ‘Christianities’ as a better term to show that within Christianity there are many different interpretations.

It is interesting to see how their understanding of worldviews is shown in their explanations. Here are responses from two pupils:

“We can study religion and belief by looking at people’s worldviews and opinions. But before we start we need to understand how people get their personal worldview. You are not born in the world with our own opinions as you cannot understand anything yet. But over time as you grow up you start to develop your own worldview and beliefs as you are surrounded by many different influences like your parents and what they believe or your friends and even video games! If you are a religious person your religion may have a big impact on how you see the world as religions normally have quite a lot of sources of authority….”

Jude, Year 7

“We can study religion and belief by looking at our personal worldview. We have got our own worldviews from many things but these aren’t permanent. These worldviews can change throughout your life, for example, when you are younger your parents would be your main authority and sources of your opinions and beliefs but when you’re older you probably wouldn’t take as much notice of them”

Luke, Year 7

Hello! My name is Josh Cass and I am delighted to have recently joined the team at Culham St Gabriel’s where I will be supporting with advocacy and outreach work specifically relating to the Religion and Worldviews curriculum. As someone who has spent many, many years working in interfaith spaces, I am passionate about enabling conversations and encounters which allow more nuanced understandings of lived faith and belief to emerge. For me, that is what is so exciting about the Religion and Worldviews curriculum, and why I am delighted to be taking up this role. If you will excuse me, I will share with you something which happened recently which to me, highlights why this curriculum is so exciting.

One morning I was enjoying coffee and donuts (not necessarily a traditional Sukkot food but a treat nonetheless) in my sukkah at home with some friends (one Jewish, one Muslim, one Christian); it was a beautiful morning and sitting there I couldn’t help but feel that building a sukkah is one of Judaism’s loveliest mitzvahs full of meaning and metaphor. For those unfamiliar with the custom, a sukkah is a temporary structure which some Jews will build in their gardens, or on their balconies, or on their roofs, as part of the festival of Sukkot.

Being together in the sukkah, our conversation turned easily to its symbolism and other Sukkot customs. We talked about the origins of the festival, how it commemorates one of the three pilgrimages undertaken by the ancient Israelites, and the journey they would make up to Jerusalem to celebrate the harvest. From there, the conversation moved to harvest festivals, traditional prayers for rain in all our traditions, and the way in which our various faiths and beliefs enable us to reflect on and engage with the natural world and the changing seasons.

For me, this experience was exciting and insightful for a number of reasons. Firstly, and perhaps more superficially, I learned something new about the faith and belief traditions of my friends. Secondly, and for me, more importantly, I gained a greater understanding of how that element of their identity contributed to how they see the world and how it might play into choices which they make. I imagine that it was a similar experience for them in terms of how they understand how my Jewish identity shapes my choices and actions.

In my experience, while having a grounding in the teaching and traditions of different religions and worldviews is really important, even more critical is an understanding of how those teachings and traditions shape the way that an individual or a community engage with the wider world and with the key issues of the day. It is this contextualisation which is so central to the Religion and Worldviews curriculum, a contextualisation which I believe is critical for us all (not just students!). That is what makes the Religion and Worldviews curriculum so exciting to me and why I am delighted to be working with Culham St Gabriel’s in this role.

I would love to hear what you make of this piece and am always happy to receive feedback – I can be reached at josh@cstg.org.uk I hope to hear from you soon!

It took just moments to decide the focus of my project for the Edge Hill RE Subject Knowledge Summer School. I’ve always loved teaching Islam and enjoyed the challenge of developing my subject knowledge for the 2016 specification. The support of people like Zameer Hussain with Shi’a Islam has been greatly appreciated. However, at times my lessons felt a bit plodding and superficial. I recognised immediately the Ofsted Research Review[i] reference to the use of ‘proof texts’ in GCSE. I’ve been guilty of that. Although I had included some textual analysis and scholarship into my lessons, I still felt I could do better. I knew straight away, therefore, I wanted to develop my confidence with Islamic texts and consider how to deliver the content in a more memorable, engaging and meaningful way. After attending the Summer School, I developed a student anthology with carefully selected and sequenced readings, clearly linked to the specification content.

Day 1 of the Summer School included an inspiring session on text and story by Mary Myatt. She reminded us of something we all know, but too often forget when preparing students to sit exams: humans love stories and stories matter. Daniel Willingham claims ‘our brains privilege story’[ii]. RE has an abundance! Text and story are a wonderful way into learning about the Islamic traditions and can be used to enhance our GCSE. That’s what I set out to do.

Islamic texts are daunting: the many collections of Hadith, the varied commentaries and interpretations. Even as an RE specialist, I worried about my ability to get it right. This is why Edge Hill’s offer is so important. Surrounded by specialists including RE teachers and academics, I could ask questions, share ideas and consider feedback. The very patient Dr Harith Ramil supported me with my project, answering my endless questions, offering suggestions and critiquing my work. If only every RE teacher had opportunities like this.

The ‘final product’ is by no means final. Like the tradition of textual interpretation in Islam, it will continue to evolve. Not everyone will agree with my selections and the interpretations I have offered. However, I’m now able to justify my choices and engage my students in a deeper dialogue about the ways texts and story are used in the tradition. The anthology includes 7 texts from the Qur’an and Hadith, chronologically covering key events in the early development of Islam.

Back in the classroom I have proudly issued Year 10 with their anthologies. Together we have analysed and annotated Al-Fatihah (Surah 1:1-7) and an Al-Bukhari Hadith narrating the Night of Power. I can see Year 10 already have a strong foundation for investigating the Islamic understanding of God and the importance of the Qur’an. They are instinctively referring to the texts they have studied to support their claims rather that ‘sticking in a quote’. Will this have the desired impact? Time will tell, but the early signs are good; students are showing a richer and more contextual knowledge.

Edge Hill will put my resources on their website soon. I have included a list of the many resources I discovered and notes for each text designed to help busy teachers.

I feel privileged and grateful to have had this opportunity. If you get the chance to apply to the Summer School, I recommend you go for it.

[i] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-religious-education/research-review-series-religious-education

[ii] Https://www.marymyatt.com/blog/using-stories-in-the-curriculum

In response to the 2018 CoRE report many SACREs are considering how to update their Locally Agreed Syllabuses. Effecting change in a busy and fast-moving environment such as a school can be a daunting prospect. In this blog I present how we changed our curriculum at my Norfolk Primary school.

This was not just an update or tweak, we adopted change. We reshaped the curriculum to utilise three disciplinary pedagogies, imagined as lenses to look through; Theology, Philosophy and the Human & Social Sciences. As these names are quite the tongue twister, we call them Believing, Thinking and Living in my school when discussing with younger learners.

With a new pedagogy and new freedom in mind I sat down to look at our current RE curriculum and discussed with children what they thought of the subject:

“I like doing our stuff but it’s interesting to see their stuff and see how different people live.”

Having heard their thoughts, I threw the old curriculum in the bin and started afresh.

Our stuff and their stuff

Our student body is 95% white British and Christian heritage. It is for this reason I do not want children learning about “our stuff” (Christianity) followed by an entirely different unit of “their stuff” (everything else).

If children are to see the beauty and value of other people, religions and worldviews they will need the skills to appreciate them and, most importantly, find ways of connecting with them. This got me thinking about exploring: if you know where you have been, it gives you a good basis to explore the new. So, I decided to be bold: every unit of learning would start with Christianity. We would learn about what we already know, or thought we knew or (in the case of Christmas) thought we knew but was actually wrong; and then branch outwards. Finding links and connections between Christianity and Religions & Worldviews would form the bedrock of our curriculum.

Branching out

We are a church school and therefore at least 50% of our learning content focuses on Christianity. The first 3 or 4 lessons of each half-term have a Christian focus. This gives time to explore our Key Question and reflect on Christianity’s answers. From this solid understanding we can branch out to consider how one or more other traditions would respond.

For example a Year 6 unit begins by pondered the philosophical question, ‘why was the Earth made?’ using Genesis 1 and 2. They explore the different presentation of women and learn that the books  were written at different times by different authors and then collated together at a much later date. A lesson is spent looking at the scientific description of how the Earth was formed and what similarities this has to Genesis. This allows pupils to gain a greater sense of the context and concerns at the time Genesis was recorded.

From here we branch out to the events of the Hindu creation story and its expression of our universe as one in string of many (Samsara on a universal scale). Children quickly spot the beginning of the world in darkness and water and how a prime mover is needed to bring light and life into the world.

The most important part of the new curriculum is that the children begin by finding what is the same and then questioning why they are the same. How can two religions from different sides of the planet have similar beliefs? How can two faiths that appear so different actually be quite similar? This allows discussions of depth and richness.

Growing this new curriculum and pedagogy has taken time and lots of energy from the amazing staff at my school. As we move further towards a R&W curriculum, emphasis will be placed on denominations and how, for instance, there is no single “Christian Worldview”. The aim is that children can see how worldviews similar to their own can be very different, whilst the superficially different can be very similar.

Would you start an RE lesson with a boxing match? By that we mean a lesson about a famous boxing match, not a re-enactment in the classroom! To celebrate Black History Month we present a set of four learning sessions (suitable for Key Stages 2- 4) on Muhammad Ali, one of the world’s all-time greatest boxers. Ali was also a conscientious objector, antiracist activist and devoted Muslim. All these aspects of his life are intertwined, as our multiple worldviews are. As well as a contribution to teaching resources for Black History Month, these lessons are also an example of what worldviews can look like in the classroom.

Pupils might be confused to learn about a famous fight in RE, although some would absolutely love it. During his career as a boxer Ali fought in and won several iconic fights. His sporting career illustrates how he constantly challenged preconceived ideas about how a black athlete should behave in public. In our lessons, we present Ali’s actions inside the ring as just as important to an understanding of him as those outside. In a worldviews approach, the strands of someone’s life and context cannot be separated.

Ali was once called the most famous Muslim in America. Like most people Ali sometimes had contradictory beliefs and his Islamic interests shifted over the years. In our lessons we trace Ali’s path from Nation of Islam to Sufi Islam, to Sunni Islam. Pupils will consider Nation of Islam in historical and political terms, as well as religious.

After he had won the 1964 match, Cassius Clay announced to the world the name he now wanted to be known as: Muhammad Ali. He had always been interested in Islam. At high school he wanted to write an English paper on black Muslims (Nation of Islam), but was not allowed to. Muhammad Ali first saw Malcom X, one of the most influential black figures of his time when he spoke at a Nation of Islam rally and the two became friends. Malcom X watched Ali’s 1964 match with Sonny Liston match from the side-lines. The next day as the world was still in shock over Ali’s victory, with Malcom X by his side, he announced he was a Muslim and that he had a new name. He said ‘Cassius Clay is a slave name, I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it. I am Muhmmad Ali, a free name – it means beloved of God, and I insist people use it when they speak to me’.

Incredibly Ali visited the town of South Shields in 1977 to have his marriage blessed in the mosque there. The Al-Azhar Mosque serves the Yemeni community of South Shields, who had settled in the area around the First World War to work for the Merchant Navy. A short documentary details this moment, showing footage of Ali and his wife in South Shields and the pride of the local Yemeni community to welcome this dazzling figure to their mosque. In our lessons we give a link to this documentary, created by photographer and artist Tina Ghavari.

A worldviews approach to learning about Ali, whether in a lesson or at a lunchtime or whole-school event, means his antiracist struggle or his devotion to Islam is not separated from his whole life. Ali was an athlete, a campaigner, a public figure, a conscientious objector, a husband and father and a Muslim. All these strands make up the man. We hope you enjoy exploring Muhammad Ali with your pupils, you can find the resources on RE:ONLINE here.

Kate Christopher, part-time in a Secondary school teacher in East London and independent RE adviser

Lynn Revell, Faculty Director of Research, Canterbury Christ Chuch University

This September I am more aware than usual both of new beginnings and time passing. Although I have been in my school for almost two years, it has been mostly in lockdown. My experience of the school has not been in normal times, to say the least. When colleagues talk about a room, a person, a form to fill in, a process, an event, I am lost, it is like I started yesterday. I have existed in a bubble and now the bubble is burst.

Being back in the classroom, no longer confined to my metre box at the front, feels full of possibilities- students can work in groups and we can be more active in our learning, I can wander up to the back row or talk to a student quietly at their desk, rather than from the front of the room. Students can let off steam outside at break and lunch, no longer confined to their classrooms and bubbles. Being outside with all of year 7 and 8 as they tear around the playground feels surprisingly joyful, not how I would have described break duty before the pandemic.

I am also aware of changes closer to home. My daughter has started in Year 7. I have welcomed thousands of Year 7s in my almost 20 years in the classroom. Now I am finding out what goes on at home- making sense of the new systems, what books and kit are needed for each day, the pressures of homework. It is tiring and can be fraught if we are second-guessing a teacher’s instructions. But it is also exciting- a more independent young person is emerging, ready to take on these new challenges.

I have had the pleasure of working with Kathryn and the Culham St Gabriel’s team for some years. I am excited and privileged to take over stewardship of RE:ONLINE, building on the excellent work of my friend David Rees, who is much missed. RE:ONLINE brings together practical, classroom-focused guidance and resources, current research and information to keep you up to date. We will continue to offer high quality, practical and supportive material, whether for use in your classrooms or to adapt for another period of home learning. As always we welcome blogs from teachers or those working in and around religion and worldviews education. Email ideas you would like to share, however half-formed. We will develop them together.

We are developing an exciting online CPD platform for teachers- watch this space! The ‘In Conversation’ events which ran throughout two lockdowns will continue for the foreseeable future. These have been extremely beneficial in both communicating current research and thinking and allowing people to connect with others. It has been wonderful to see new faces at every session, perhaps people who would not usually join a face-to-face group for a variety of reasons. We look forward to welcoming new people to every event. These events and others like it have been an unexpected benefit of the pandemic.

As we look forward to a new term, some things feel really new- the mingling, mixing and moving feels at once rather scary and liberating. We are also looking back at almost two years of completely different working. We have learnt how to support each other in new ways, we have learnt to use Zoom (no mean feat), we have learnt how to carry on and how to change. Whatever is around the corner, we are looking forward to working with you. Have a great term!

Kathryn (CEO), Kevin and Kate (CSTG Consultants) chat about their favourite summer reading…

Kathryn writes…

Many years ago, I read Ken Follet’s masterpiece ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ about the interwoven lives of those involved in the building of a cathedral in a fictional town of Kingsbridge in the 12^th Century. Over the summer I have been reading the rest of this epic series. The Evening and the Morning, a prequal is set during the time of Viking invasions and tells the story of the development of Kingsbridge. The last one, which I am just finishing, A Column of Fire is set during the 16^th Century reformation and is full of political and religious intrigue and conspiracy!

However, the one that stood out for me was World without End. The mix of religion, politics and the messiness of society during the Black Death was fascinating. Even more poignant I felt as we live through another pandemic. Whilst realising that the book is fiction, I found the relationships between the different elements of the church fascinating (priors, bishops, monks, nuns, priests!). The impact of the Black Death on progress in terms of medicine, in particular the wearing of linen face masks, was very striking. However, the theme which encompasses the whole book is one of good overcoming evil – eventually! A theme which will be familiar to many who are familiar with stories from various worldview traditions passed down through the generations.

If you don’t have a Kindle beware, these are heavy tomes rising to over 1000 pages each! So perhaps for the October half term break….

Kevin writes…

Border Country by Raymond Williams was published in 1960, two years before I was born, and I still recognise the world it depicts (with altered cultural inflections: it’s set in working-class Wales, I grew up in working-class Merseyside). One critic described it as one of the most moving and accomplished novels of the twentieth century, written anywhere by anyone. I came across it by accident, discovering that Williams had written novels when reading his cultural and educational theory.

Border Country is about a village, Glynmawr, and within it, a family, the Prices. Harry, a railway signalman, suffers a stroke, and his son, Matthew, a lecturer, is called back from London. Conversations and memories uncover the detail and meaning of experience: counting the money, tampering with the schoolmaster’s cane, the General Strike of 1926, landscapes, births, deaths, and realisations. Details are meanings: “But a father is more than a person, he’s in fact a society, the thing you grow up into.” The twentieth century probably stretched this, but the novel is ambiguous about it (Matthew doesn’t inherit Harry’s work but inherits him in other ways).

I won’t spoil the story, just recommend the book, a fictional working-out of Williams’ principle that society is the positive means for all kinds of development, including individual development. I enjoyed it hugely, and it got me thinking about what learning is, at which point, I’ll stop!

Kate writes…

You might not expect me to describe Shuggie Bain, the 2020 Booker Prize winner by Douglas Stuart, as ‘uplifting’ and ‘beautiful’. You might be aware that the book recounts a few years in the life of Shuggie, a young boy growing up in poverty in 1980s Glasgow, with his alcoholic mother Agnes, his siblings and grandparents and various feckless, unreliable men. Despite the bleak backdrop of deprivation, violence and want, there are so many moments of hope and humour.

At the heart of the book is the tender love of a little boy for his mother. Despite everything, Shuggie loves his mum and she loves him. We look through Shuggie’s eyes and realise that he doesn’t see what we might see as adults. Shuggie is profoundly connected to Agnes. He delights in her good days, is resigned to her bad days and simply takes on the responsibilities of a young carer, as so many young people have to do. Caring for Agnes is part of his connection to her. In her way, Agnes shows Shuggie what love is. Agnes accepts Shuggie for who he is, but more than that, she delights in him. Agnes and Shuggie’s mutual knowledge and acceptance of their true selves is what will stay with me long after finishing the book.

The story takes place between inner-city Glasgow and the liminal, half-abandoned housing ‘projects’ on the city’s edge. I read the book on my commute through my own changing landscape between East London and the Essex coast. I have been left with a sense of the resilience and strength of children as they find their way in the world. It is a hard read at times, but also unexpectedly funny and hopeful, and does what a good book should; takes you to a time and place you cannot visit otherwise. I would like to meet Shuggie and Agnes and spend the day with them, I think we would have a lovely time.

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

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

We are delighted to host this blog for Culham St Gabriels to talk about AREIAC’s work to support high quality RE.

We are the first Co-chairs of AREIAC and we began in our role September 2020. If you are not sure what AREIAC does, we are an organisation for anyone who is a Religious Education inspector, adviser or consultant, whether they are part time or full time, new to the role or with years of experience. Our members come from all fields – some are Diocesan, others are independent and some are currently serving teachers who advise other schools on RE. We have also welcomed the Culham St Gabriel leadership programme candidates to our meetings and conference as part of their own leadership development in RE. We are here to provide advice, challenge, leadership, training and support for all those who advise others on multi-faith religious education in all schools and colleges.

AREAIC has an executive, organising committee and regional groups which meet regularly to share and develop resources, to support advisers and teachers and to discuss national issues around excellent religious education.

In our first year one of our priorities has been to reach out to as many advisers as possible through our programme of meetings and events throughout the year. For the first time this year we have introduced online webinars and an RE book club for our members as part of their professional development. Topics have included curriculum development, the future national framework for RE, Dharmic religions and the Cadbury lectures. We will be building on these in the year ahead and working with Culham on projects such as the RExChange programme to ensure that RE advisers have plenty of opportunities for such development on a regular basis.

 Last year with help from our membership secretary Stacey Burman and our web adviser Paul Hopkins, we updated and added further information to our website so that it is current and helpful for users. It now regularly features our Twitter feed, contains our members’ details for further advice and connects members with CPD that is of interest to them.

We continued to engage with other RE stakeholders throughout the year and we were part of the steering group with Culham St Gabriels developing the Leadership Programme for RE. This, of course, has built on the fabulous pioneering work of AREIAC through the Revitalise programme. Many of AREIAC’s advisors are involved as mentors on this programme and we have actively welcomed newer RE leaders through this route. We would like to encourage as many of these leaders as possible to join AREIAC in the future so do contact us for further information.

We produce two newsletters a year for our members and we have also introduced bulletins for the first time this year, which are shorter but keep our members up to date throughout the year.

A number of our members have been involved with other projects throughout the year, including the young ambassador project, the 5 Cities media project and the joint Collective Worship project with NASACRE. Information about these will be shared with members during the forthcoming year.

Growing the membership of AREIAC has been a priority for us this year and especially reaching out to advisers who are part time and working in schools. We have established a working group on membership that has met throughout the year and which has resulted in a new part time membership rate. Details of these are on the AREIAC website.

The highlight for us this year was the two day online conference held in July this year which many of our members and other guests attended. We were delighted with the positive feedback from this and we look forward to planning a face to face conference with our conference organiser Gill Vaisey next year in July.

A key project for us to work on this coming year is developing our response to research in AREIAC and we look forward to working with our AREIAC research group that can report to members on a more consistent basis in 2022 and build on the work started in our members’ CPD programme.

Finally, our review of the year would not be complete without thanks to our executive committee, who are always supportive of everything we do and who provide consistently good advice and expertise for us to draw on. We also would like to thank all of you for your own work in ensuring high quality RE in 2020-2021 and we look forward to working with you in 2021-2022,

Justine Ball and Julia Diamond-Conway, Co-chairs of AREIAC