It seems wonderful to be able to purchase a scheme of work that enables your school to teach excellent RE, equipped with PowerPoints, lesson plans, assessment tools, and so on. However, the expense may not just be to your school budget but may also be at the expense of teachers’ understanding and pupils’ learning.
This dilemma is not just found in RE but resounds throughout the curriculum. In recent research on primary maths, Marks, Barclay and Barnes (2023) noted schools curating of curriculum materials from a range of sources but highlighted concerns about the quality of these curriculum resources and textbooks. They found resources of dubious quality, with a particular concern about the limited cognitive demand of resources. Many resources focus on the pupils’ tasks, rather than the underpinning mathematical concepts. A similar research audit has not been conducted in RE but from enabling trainee teachers to teach RE in any school anywhere in the world with any syllabus I have had to examine many schemes and resources. I offer up a simple guide or checklist for you to assist with any consideration of purchasing a scheme.
The key areas to consider are conceptual understanding, knowledge and progression. Often schemes focus on subject knowledge but you need to ask questions about conceptual understanding and progression as well.
Conceptual Understanding
Does the scheme have a strong conceptual basis in the subject?
Does it enable teachers and pupils to develop that understanding?
Are you and your teachers confident about what the key concepts are in RE?
Anyone who has been involved in education for more than a few years knows that key terms and ‘buzz words’ change rapidly. Schemes need not just to pay lip service to these but to engage with conceptual understanding.
Progression
Is there clear progression through year groups and key stages?
Are skills repeated over the years or engaged with at greater depth?
Is progression in the scheme just a case of more subject knowledge added each year or is there a clear development of understanding in religions and non-religious worldviews.
Within RE, a further cautionary note is on whether the scheme conflates RE and collective worship. These are two separate and distinct entities with different purposes and nature so do avoid any attempt to marry the two.
This questioning process will take you a little extra time but will be worth it in the long run as you enable your pupils and teachers to teach excellent RE. There are many examples of excellent and exceptional RE in schools across the UK. Let’s seek out exceptional RE resources but let’s be clear about what that looks like.
About
Ruth has taught at primary, secondary, adult education, undergraduate and post graduate levels. Having lived and worked in India, Russia and Ethiopia her research interests are in intercultural communication, the origins and evolution of worldviews and the significance of these on education throughout the world.