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Working with a mentor on the Culham St Gabriel’s Leadership Programme was the springboard I needed to try something I had always been interested in. As a Secondary teacher I have often created curriculum materials for local Primary colleagues, as if I am the ‘expert’. However, this always bothered me. Not only is it disempowering for Primary colleagues, it completely overlooks their incredible expertise in pedagogy. An exchange of Secondary subject knowledge and Primary pedagogical expertise was the focus of my leadership year.

With the publication of Ofsted’s ‘Deep and Meaningful’ report, subject- specific CPD seemed even more urgent. I benefitted hugely from RE Hubs training on how to run a local group (full details below), and rekindled the Cambridgeshire group that had declined somewhat during the pandemic.

It was a steep learning curve. A well-attended launch of our Agreed Syllabus the year before meant my contact book was healthy, but I still had to work out by trial and error the best way to contact schools that elicited a response. A dedicated RE adviser for the country has been invaluable, both in connecting me to schools and the SACRE.

A mix of Primary and Secondary colleagues attended the first meeting of the Cambridgeshire RE local group network in December 2023. We had decided on face- to – face in order to build lasting relationships and a sustainable community. As Cambridgeshire is a large country, we agreed to move around, hosted by schools, to maximise attendance. It was immediately apparent that our Primary colleagues in our group were keen to hear about and develop accessible, good quality resources. Moreover, many were using ready-made curricula some of which did not lend themselves easily to adaptation and development.

Thus, we decided to embark on a shared curriculum audit. We found our new Agreed Syllabus allowed us to map progression of skills and knowledge across phases. We agreed it is important that secondary colleagues to not assume that pupils are coming to them as a blank canvas having not learned anything previously. Instead, I think we should be building on prior learning to make connections and links as we would within our own phase.

From this collaborative starting point we worked in smaller groups in our second meeting; sharing resources, identifying curriculum materials to collaborate on, and learning from each other. So much was achieved in one hour together!

Our final meeting of the term will be a keynote speech and workshop from a local Head of Department on using art in RE lessons. All those attending have been asked to bring an example of how they currently do this so that again we can continue to collaborate and learn from each other. Future meeting ideas include inviting in faith speakers, visiting places of worship together and continuing our shared commitment to curriculum.

The buzz of passionate people working together and the delight at leaving with takeaways they can immediately implement in their setting cannot be put into words. I am so pleased that the Leadership Programme has enabled me the time and focus to be able to revive this group and bring people together. I am hugely grateful that my work in this area also gave me the confidence to apply for a Trust Lead for RE position for September, in which I was successful. The power of cooperation, and particularly cross phase networking, cannot be underestimated and so I urge you, if you are not a member already, to reach out to your local group or even set up one of your own!

References:

Ofsted (2024) ‘Deep and Meaningful? The Religious Education Subject Report’.
RE Hubs training on how to run a local group.
Find a local group near you
NATRE RE in your region

RExChange is about ‘real world research for real world classrooms’ and so we asked three secondary school teachers Beth Blizzard, Ian Dover and Kelly Keatley to share some of their reflections. Beth and Kelly are all current participants in the Culham St Gabriel’s leadership scholarship programme.

If you were at the conference, consider how you are going to apply what you heard in your context? Who might you share what you heard with?

If you were unable to be at the conference recording of the Keynotes, In Conversation and Panel sessions will be available very soon. Also look out for the post conference newsletter which will have links to some of the research shared.

Keynotes

I loved the diversity of the Friday keynote session with Chine McDonald, Jasjit Singh, Iona Hine and Anastasia Badder on researching worldviews communities. It was interesting to reflect on how the public perception of religion and worldviews has shifted over recent years and why RE can be considered to be more important than ever. Jasjit’s input on the focus on how research is conducted with the Sikh community and the work from Iona and Anastasia on behalf of the water companies and the way water is used and seen by faith communities was fascinating. (Kelly)

I’m always looking for ways to engage students with real life examples of how worldviews are lived. Dr Iona Hine and Dr Anastasia Badders section of the keynote provided me with a brilliant project to use to demonstrate a catalyst into religious enquiry. I plan to implement this into lessons on the environment and ecology. (Beth)

Do listen to the recordings of this keynote and the very popular and much discussed keynote on AI.

Recordings are also available of the In Conversation and Panel discussions.

Seminars

Within my school and department, I am trying to incorporate more opportunities for improving literacy through work on vocabulary, extended writing and oracy and so I found the session on Using debating to teach argument and evaluation in GCSE Religious Studies by Beth Eades really inspiring. Beth’s approach with structured debates was so clear and practical and I am confident that as a result of this session, I will be incorporating lots of her strategies into my classroom with a view to conducting formal debates with my classes. (Kelly)

Personal knowledge is another area within RE that I definitely want to explore further, and I am keen to reflect on the space that I give within the curriculum for students to consider their own positionality and how they approach the topics we cover but also how the topics we cover affect their positionality. Emma Salter’s session provided a useful discussion around the concept of personal knowledge and how we incorporate it and whether we can assess it and report on it. Having attended Trevor Cooling’s session on ‘What is Knowledge?’, Emma’s session really drilled down into the practicalities of how we can support student development in this area. (Kelly)

My main area of focus in my role is the development of the RE and Worldviews curriculum here and to provide support to primary schools in my MAT. David Lewin and Kate Christopher’s session on the “After RE” curriculum framework provided me with questions and ideas to carry forward to support other colleagues. It has also prompted me to go back to the teacher led resources on the REC website and highlight these to other staff within my trust. (Beth)

Oli Aston’s session on supporting disadvantaged students made me consider more closely what it means for students to be disadvantaged. In many of our settings we have a narrow view about what disadvantage means in terms of Pupil Premium, SEND, Forces children etc. He encouraged careful consideration to other aspects of disadvantage, in my context, it has prompted discussion about how as a school we best support our students whose reading ages are well below those required to fully access the GCSE curriculums that we teach. (Beth)

In my context we are currently really focusing on using reading to support students overcome barriers to learning and so it was particularly interesting to hear Jane Yates focus on language use from a variety of languages and traditions in her session on ‘a culture of untranslatability in the RE Classroom’. Oli Aston talking about widening our understanding of disadvantage beyond the Pupil Premium label also supported our current focus. I feel these two sessions complemented each other nicely, as the acquisition of language, especially terms that students have not encountered before is one of the areas of disadvantage that is a focus for the department this year. (Ian)

Jas Butterworth’s session on the gender gap in RE made me consider the approaches that we use MAT and school wide to support boys achievement and the assumptions that we make. Some of these are drilled into school policy, leading me to think how we might open discussion as a school and a Multi Academy Trust to look at more research and effective strategies to support these students. In my wider role within school, I am beginning to embed a teacher led CPD programme, I want to explore in more depth the barriers to learning and research further to find out some clear strategies that can be delivered to whole staff to support these students in all areas of the curriculum across the school. (Beth)

So what as you return to school…

Sessions have provided a range of different sources of research to explore a bit more, and consider how they become embedded in our curriculum, and how we ensure that we allow students to appreciate, understand, and confidently engage with a range of highly specialised vocabulary without devaluing the ideas and concepts that they are a part of.

I am really looking forward to sharing the information from these sessions in the wider department and considering how best we can apply this research to support the whole of our diverse cohorts. (Ian)

Thank you to all three of our bloggers. What was your key takeaway?

RExChange is about ‘Real world research for real world classrooms’ and so we asked three primary school teachers Amy Clarke, Fiona Greening and Paul Marvin to share some of their reflections. Amy, Fiona and Paul are all current participants in the Culham St Gabriel’s leadership scholarship programme.

If you were at the conference, consider how you are going to apply what you heard in your context? Who might you share what you heard with?

If you were unable to be at the conference recording of the Keynotes, In Conversation and Panel sessions will be available very soon. Also look out for the post conference newsletter which will have links to some of the research shared.

Keynotes

In the first keynote, ‘Researching Worldview Communities’, we were presented with the idea of the role that religion and religious communities still play in today’s society. The work that Dr Jasjit Singh was doing with Sikh communities, made me consider the place that conversation and interview has in researching lived examples that can be shared in the classroom. He also made us consider our positionality when interviewing and researching.

The Keynote on AI seemed to provoke thoughts and wider conversations for everyone;

The Keynote session ‘Disciplinary perspectives on AI’, Wow is all I can say. Although this was a whole new area for me I found the discussion was at a level that I could understand and was presented in a way that I could see links into RE. I then spent lunchtime discussing it with my family!

This session left me considering how AI could be used by teachers to support their preparation for lessons. There is a serious concern around who is classifying and deciding upon the knowledge that different AI models have access to and whether this knowledge is biased or skewed in any way.

Do listen to the recordings of these two keynotes.

In conversation

Two of our bloggers attended the conversation between Adam Robertson and Fiona Moss on the research and evidence underpinning the new Oak academy RE curriculum and resources.

…the thinking and research from the RE Community that sits behind the curriculum has led to threads being created to link the different units together, with each unit also having a “disciplinary driver”.

OAK’s remit is to create a curriculum that will close the religion and worldviews “disadvantage gap”, to offer something that will support a range of people, including ECTs and non-specialist teachers. …

You can explore this in conversation and two others on our recordings.

Seminars

Trevor Cooling’s session on ‘What do we mean by knowledge in RE?’: I was left considering the question ‘What influences the formation of a worldview?’ I was also presented with the idea that proper knowledge in RE is personal, because it is influenced by our worldview (much like the idea of our positionality from Jasjit’s presentation). To be good knowers, we need to be aware of our own worldview. Trevor also compared the world religions approach (knowing information about world religions) with the religion and worldviews approach (including personal worldviews). He suggests the first is all about “information transmission”, whereas the second is about “reflexive dialogue” and “making sound judgements”. This helped to clarify the difference between the two, although Trevor did clarify that this portrayal was a crude binary model!

Clare Clinton: Tackling religious and worldview stereotypes in the RE Classroom: I wanted to revisit her work to support a project I am about to start. I was soon making notes on links to different videos and thinking about a way that I could use her toolkit in a primary setting effectively.

Ryan Parker Primary pupils can! A richer encounter with parables: Ryan was aware that too often we tell children the “correct” meaning of parables, without giving the children time to discover their own interpretation. As part of his doctoral studies Ryan has created two lessons based on hermeneutical questioning and the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

Justine Ball Developing child voice in RE in EYFS and Key Stage 1: The references to different research I will now read as part of a small piece of research I am doing. As the teachers shared their practice, I found I was reflecting on my current practices and writing down ideas.

Carrie Alderton and colleagues: Engaging parents in their children’s Religious Education: ‘How do we learn?’ is a question we were asked at the beginning of the session. Is it just reading or is it about doing, experiencing through senses, and problem-solving? And how can we involve parents in this? My key takeaways

• Understand The Power of Objects: Instead of relying solely on textbooks the team encouraged us in how we can use religious artefacts to spark curiosity and discussion. A kanga (Sikh), mandala (Buddhist), Rose (Alevi), Red thread (Hindu), candle (Jewish) were given to parents to take home and share with children, to discuss who they may belong to and where they would place them in their home.
• Encourage ‘Take-Home’ Projects: The research considered a project where parents and children take religious objects home to host in their own space. This allows families to engage with the item in their daily lives, prompting discussions and reflections.
• To encourage ‘Interfaith Dialogue’: Exposing families to objects from various faiths opens up conversations about how others think and experience the world. One comment from a parent involved in the project particularly struck a chord with me as she said ‘it didn’t change my faith but it definitely increased my exposure’.
• To see Religion as a ‘Jigsaw Puzzle’: Each object, story, or practice is a piece that contributes to the bigger picture of identity .

By involving parents in this material approach to RE, we can help pupils and parents see religion differently. It allows for deeper connections, opens up learning, and makes RE a subject that reaches the deepest parts of our understanding. This material approach can be incredibly powerful I thought, going beyond Eurocentric views and de-hierarchising texts. This approach can engage even sceptical parents, making RE a truly inclusive and enriching subject for the whole family.

Thank you to all three of our bloggers. What was your key takeaway?

The Religion, Belief and Worldviews Hub has been created to address some key, relevant issues concerning religion. The first issue was ‘Religion and Belief’ in the Equality Act (2010). We were aware that OpenLearn had an excellent and award winning ‘Race and Ethnicity Hub’. We wanted to create another Hub which was useful to teachers and others in the public sector – for example, healthcare – and in professions such as law, in thinking through the implications of ‘Religion and belief’ as a protected characteristic in the law. The second issue we wanted to address was the growing importance of ‘Worldviews’ or a religion and worldviews approach in education. We wanted our hub to help people think through the implications of this development and support them in the classroom.

The Religion, Belief and Worldviews Hub is a platform which offers quality, free resources on religious and non-religious worldviews developed by academics at the Open University. You will find animations, videos, articles, short courses, and longer courses; for example, teachers will find resources for the classroom – from ’60 seconds in religion’ films (narrated by David Mitchell) to our 360 degree tours of London’s religious buildings. Teachers might want to start with our new animation called ‘Why Worldviews?’ to introduce our approach to the Hub. We also commissioned another animation, ‘Religion, Faith, Spirituality and Worldviews’ to explain what these different categories mean and why we use them.

We hope that this resource can help teachers of RE where there are gaps in teacher knowledge. The feedback we have had so far has been very encouraging. There must be close to 100 individual resources on the hub, addressing everything from individual festivals and events in the religious calendar, to key pedagogical issues such as decolonising religious studies. There is a rich range of materials here, which can highlight the sheer internal diversity of religious and non-religious worldviews. There is also much for continuing professional development, for example around teaching worldviews. We also have some highly innovative pedagogical resources, such as our Badged Open Course on making ‘Docutubes’ (short films) in the classroom about religious diversity, toleration and peace.

Teachers and those working in Higher Education (HE) need to learn to from each other. It should be a two-way conversation. The more we are talking to each other, aligning and making consistent  what and how we teach, the better the experience for students as they move through their education. The HE sector can also assist where there are issues of capacity in teaching RE in schools. We know about the lack of resourcing for RE in the UK, and that it is sometimes taught by teachers who might be excellent but are not necessarily experts in the area and may be time poor. Where the HE sector can help by providing relevant resources which help these teachers, I think it should do so.

There is some remarkable work going on now in our subject. The move towards a religion and worldviews approach is extremely positive and groups such as the Religious Education Council, Culham St Gabriel’s and others are doing important work developing this agenda. This approach is important because it allows students to ask a different set of critical questions about religious and non-religious worldviews. In this way, it aligns well with the ‘lived’ or ‘vernacular’ religion emphasis in Religious Studies. This moves us beyond the idea of homogenous traditions and sometimes unhelpful binaries like ‘religion’ and ‘secular’.

Teachers might want to check out our free course, which lives on the hub, ‘An education in Religion and Worldviews’, which goes into the religion and worldviews approach in greater depth.

Visit the Religion, Belief and Worldviews Hub

Previously I have written about how and why my department have moved towards using booklets in RS. Here I explain how we have implemented the use of booklets for GCSE RS classes, and what we will change for the next academic year.

Context

In my school, RS is compulsory. All students sit the full GCSE. Students have RS three hours a fortnight with student who have elected to take three sciences at GCSE, having RS only once a fortnight. Ultimately, there is a lot of time pressure on staff and students to complete the course.

As a result, efficiency matters. Booklets are a way of cutting down on wasted time (sticking sheets in, for instance) and student voice found that students did not find their books helpful for their revision as they were poorly organised and had ‘too many sheets’ and not enough ‘useful notes’.

1. Start with a house style

It might seem superficial, but the attractiveness and professional quality of the booklet matters. My view is that students are more likely to treat something with respect if it looks good.

Therefore, I spent time designing a ‘house style’ for each GCSE booklet.

• What will the front cover look like?
• What size will the font be?
• What will the font be?

Although this took time, it made the booklets recognisably ‘RS’, rather than any other booklet students receive during their school career. When staff plan lessons for me and make booklets from these lessons, they adhere to this style and this helps ensure consistency for all.

2. Explicitly teach students how to use booklets

Before booklets, I would print copies of the specification and lesson overviews and students would stick them in before starting the topic. However, unless you micromanage a 14 year to stick sheets to your exacting standards, these sheets invariably looked like they had been glued in by a child.

Therefore, each booklet has a copy of the specification as well as a host of other useful things: links to previous learning, links to other subjects and QR codes with links to online resources to help with revision. This is explained to students at the start of the lesson. Students are also remined not to ‘race ahead’ and try to complete the booklet without teacher guidance.

Although this might seem like I am penalising proactive students, the rationale is that the teacher many go above and beyond the contents of the booklet, they may even not complete sections and therefore students need to listen.

At the start of each topic, students are explicitly reminded about how to use their booklets, that they are there to help with their studies and why what is on the specification is important. This might seem obvious, but we can sometimes assume students know this when they don’t.

3. Booklets, not book less

Each lesson ends with some form of exam practice. This year, students completed this exam practice in their booklets. However, on reflection, students often did not complete as much as if they were writing in their usual exercise books. For next year we are moving to a booklets, not book less approach. Here students will complete their ‘do now’ and exam practice in their exercise books and everything else in their booklets. It also gives teachers more flexibility to adapt lessons as they see fit: the booklet is a pedagogical tool, not a tool to confine teachers.

Overall, our department and students find booklets useful. They are not a replacement for great teaching, high student attendance, revision etc, but I have found them very helpful in the context in which I teach. Naturally, our department are frequently reflecting on how we use booklets, making adaptions to lessons, and will continue to make changes in the future. The key elements I have found to be important when implementing booklets at GCSE have been:

1.  A house style
2. Explicitly teach students how to use booklets
3. Booklets, not book less

Booklets are like marmite; you love them or hate them.

My own view on booklets had been a high- minded scepticism. I knew of teachers, entire schools and even academy trusts that implemented a ‘booklet-based curriculum’. My view was ‘you do you’, but not for me. I viewed booklets as all the things I did not want teaching to be; reductive, inflexible and uninspiring.

However as Subject Lead I agreed to give them a try, persuaded by others in my team who have had a positive experience. And so, inevitably, came my Damascene conversion.

This was both pragmatic as well as pedagogical. Practically, no precious RS time was taken up with ‘Sir, I don’t have a glue stick!’. Moreover, I spent no more time fixing a jammed photocopier, something we have become so adept at, it should be on Teacher’s Standards.

Pedagogically, I found booklets were not a barrier to the sort of curriculum we are working towards, that is, ambitious and academic. Such a curriculum needs to be coherent and well-sequenced, which booklets allow. I realised booklets at the appropriate level of challenge provided clarity and consistency for the team as well as students. Expectations are clear, and high.

My first booklet was for Year 9 about the existence of God. As a booklet novice I provided every explanation, every keyword, every activity. For some students, this was helpful, for others it was stultifying. For teachers, it was a straitjacket. I had created exactly the type of booklet I did not want.

I completely changed my approach. Out went activities and in came the ‘non-negotiables’ such as reading a high-quality text, well thought-out explanations and questions which teachers could choose how they deliver. For instance, a lesson may feature reading a text and completing a table. This new approach shows what the main focus of the lesson should be, the non-negotiable, but gives plenty of time and space for exploration and discussion.

Students certainly needed time to learn how to use the booklets so they were a springboard and source of support, but not a prison. Teachers are free to go beyond the booklets in conversation, and we tried to avoid the sense that the booklet just needs to be finished as fast as possible.

We as a teaching team have had to adapt. Some booklet- based lessons have been great and others have bombed; whether too long or too short, or suitable for one class and not at all for another. I now bring a spare booklet to each class and scrawl notes at the end of a lesson. The adaptation process has provided some extremely helpful professional conversations. The booklets have been helpful for our non-specialists in supporting them to grasp the trajectory of a scheme of work and give high quality explanations, but they do not replace the conversations we have had as a team, addressing misconceptions and identifying improvements.

When it comes to graphic design, I am about as talented as someone on the Apprentice. However, a clear and attractive design is important. We include lines and extra lines for writing, in response to student feedback.

Despite my reluctance, booklets have transformed my practice. In the next blog, I explain exactly how we structure our booklets to help students prepare for GCSE study.

My top tips:

1. Non-negotiables, not activities
2. Teach students to use the booklets
3. Be prepared to adapt
4. Present clearly and attractively

Want to know more? Read my next blog Booklets, not book less: Implementing booklets in GCSE Religious Studies.

Well applying for a new job after working for 15 years for somewhere that you love surprised me. Here are a few reflections on that change…

I don’t know if the summer seems dim and distant to you but I had a couple of exciting holidays, both with family and a large number of friends (in one case over 30 friends that I have known many of since my late teens). From Scotland to Switzerland we swam, walked, water-skied, kayaked and chatted, sometimes attempting German or French. Knowing I was leaving one job and joining another gave me a chance to regale them with the amazing world of religious education but also had me thinking about change.

On our journey back four of us stopped off in Reims in northern France. We wandered into the centre to be tourists and of course explore the Cathedral. We soon realised it was quiet because it was a bank holiday, August 15th, unbeknownst to us it was a significant day in religious terms too. My daughter and I went into the Cathedral where a service was taking place. We found a place at the back and were handed an order of service, unsurprisingly in French, and tried to work where we were within the service and what the service was marking.

Despite my learning in French finishing at O level my understanding of what happens in a church service helped me through. Identifying the servers bringing bread and wine for mass and the familiar words of the Lord’s prayer/Our Father.

As I transition from working with NATRE and RE Today to working with Culham St Gabriel’s Trust it is clear that I’m in a different context, just as I was in Notre Dame Cathedral in Reims. There is the familiar, the joy of working with the Leadership Scholarship Programme that I have been involved in for the last 4 years. There are also things like working with RExChange and on E- learning, familiar to my previous work training teachers around the country but subtly different as I learn more about E- learning. Perhaps like the Lord’s prayer/Our Father in a Catholic service, remembering not to say

‘For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.’ Or depending on how good your French is
‘car c’est à toi qu’appartiennent le règne,
la puissance et la gloire, aux siècles des siècles.’

There will also be the new but very exciting aspects such as working directly with Masters and Doctoral scholars. A little like working out the service was marking the Solennité de L’Assomption or Feast of the Assumption celebrating the death of Mary and her ‘assumption’ into heaven.

I hope I have lots to bring from my work with NATRE/RE Today and particularly my role getting research and teacher research disseminated more widely into the classroom.

As we joined in the parade behind Mary, something entirely new but moving nevertheless, I saw a community united behind something intensely significant to them. Similarities to the world of RE/REV/RME/Religion and worldviews?

I maybe ridiculously stretching an analogy here but as I sat in the service, in a foreign language, I saw these connections to starting a new role. Some of you have started new roles this summer, maybe this resonates?

In my research of the month, I talk about a hospitable approach to religion and worldviews, and a pedagogy of embrace. Someone pointed out to me this week that in many ways this was ‘lived out’ recently when photos emerged of Muslims embracing protesters outside UK’s oldest mosque in Liverpool.

Creating space, encountering others and listening for wisdom lie at the heart of what I propose as a hospitable approach to religion and worldviews education. I use the analogy of an embrace to capture the heart of what this means not only in terms of pedagogy, but in terms of what it means ontologically for those enacting the embrace. It seems to me this approach is needed more than ever before.

I was on holiday in Portugal when the horrifying scenes in many cities across the UK emerged on my social media feed. On Culham St Gabriel’s social media feed, we got behind the Faith and Belief Policy Collective Statement which so clearly articulated how many of us feel in the charity sector and faith and belief space. We held on to and continue to hold onto hope and love amidst the displays of hate.

At Culham St Gabriel’s our vision is for a well-informed, respectful and open society.

In a recent board meeting, prior to the recent riots, trustees agreed to make the following a key focus area for future grant making in 2024-25.

• interfaith/belief dialogue and promoting warmer community relations in schools and communities, including consideration of ‘the common good’

Do you or your organisation have a project which you need funding for to bring communities together? Do you have a grassroots project that needs some funding to get off the ground?

We are currently supporting several projects which aim to foster warmer community relations, religion and belief literacy, as well as researching where religion and worldviews education takes place beyond schools. These include work led by Theos Think Tank, Queen’s University Belfast, Faith and Belief Forum, The Religion and Belief Literacy partnership and the Open University. These varying projects are engaging with children and young people, faith and belief community groups, parents, the civil service and public sector employees. We will continue to support initiatives which aim to provide a positive narrative in terms of dialogue and interfaith and belief engagement.

Next weekend we are hosting a stand at the Greenbelt Festival. The festival organisers say:

Our history is firmly rooted within a Christian tradition which is world-affirming, politically and culturally engaged. Ours is a belief that embraces instead of excludes. And, as such, the festival is an inter-generational celebration, inclusive and accepting of all, regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexuality, background or belief.

This vision seems more appropriate than ever before. Our team will be there welcoming and accepting all.

Kathryn Wright

CEO, Culham St Gabriel’s

Further reading

Kathryn’s research of there month: https://www.reonline.org.uk/research/research-of-the-month/

BBC News article: Mosque leaders find moments of hope after violent disorder: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c84jjv7kp1wo

Faith and Belief Policy Collective Statement: https://faithbeliefforum.org/working-to-quench-the-flames-of-hatred/)

Greenbelt website: https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/

Earlier this year, I was fortunate enough to tick off a bucket list destination – I went on holiday to Tokyo. I knew I wanted to do two things: eat as much ramen as I could possibly stomach and cram in as much culture as I possibly could. I’m happy to confirm that I achieved both.

One of my highlights was when I visited the city’s oldest temple, Sensō-ji (浅草寺), and the neighbouring shrines. If you have ever googled pictures of Japan, chances are you’ll have come across Senso-ji Temple located in Asakusa, it’s very red and very big and very crowded! Upon arrival in Tokyo, I soon realised that the famous Buddhist Temple was just a short walk away from my hotel. As I made my way over, I remember being taken aback by its grandeur. Seeing a temple nestled in amongst a booming metropolis was like nothing I had ever seen before.

Religion in Japan is a mix of Shinto and Buddhism that have been harmoniously blending for hundreds of years. Shinto is Japan’s original religion and carries the philosophy that everything in the universe has a spirit, which can influence their lives. Then there’s Buddhism, which came from Korea and China in the 6th century. It brought new ideas and traditions that were seen as a welcome addition to Shinto.

Whilst exploring Sensō-ji, I was particularly fascinated by the cultural importance of wishes, luck, and karma. In Japan, these concepts reflect how people see life and the universe. A popular tradition that links to this is Omikuji; random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Omikuji has been used for centuries; originally it would decide who should govern the country, who one should marry or who should be [his] successor, but now they contain information on aspects such as love, health and studies. I decided to test my luck…

I paid my voluntary offering and picked up the metal box containing various sticks. I shook the box a few times, (silently wishing for a good fortune!), and, once satisfied, turned the metal container over so that my stick would fall out. The number on said stick matched a drawer where my fortune was waiting – the moment of truth. A good fortune is kept, however if you receive a bad one, you must tie your slip to a tree branch in the temple grounds; leaving the slip at the temple should improve your luck. Fortunately, mine was good… phew!!

Taking part in this small tradition allowed me to me personally reflect on the idea of religion in Japan, which to me, appeared to be very open and flexible, compared to the West. People are more focused on achieving well-being and worldly benefits as opposed to following doctrines or beliefs – omikuji has been used as an instrument to unify communities without complications, making spiritual practices a seamless part of daily life. It’s truly a unique and beautiful aspect of Japanese culture!

I decided before I went to Iceland that I’d write a blog about its interesting religious and spiritual history rich in Norse tradition of Asatru (which is notably on the rise again) as well as over 1000 years of Christian traditions and heritage. As we travelled around for 10 days there was no doubt that the number of church buildings per head is very high. The countryside is dotted with small largely Protestant Lutheran churches often serving one small farming community. There were also some stunningly unusual structures some of which had rainbow roads as a sign of acceptance leading up to them.

However, top of the list of things we wanted to do as a family was whales watching. On land/online there are numerous companies to choose from, all wanting you to take a tour with them, all offering something unique or special. We had pre-booked online. However, when out at sea they all work together. They are on radios to each other, they let each other know of sightings, they all want their customers to have the best experience. The competitive drive disappears once out at sea. Alongside this the companies have collaborated in the town of Husavik to advocate for a ban on whaling.

This reminded me of how the religion and worldviews community, which sometimes seems diverse and divergent, and perhaps even a little competitive at times, has come together on numerous occasions over the last year to provide the best professional development possible for teachers and promote the importance of the subject. I’m sure I’ll forget some things, but the following particularly come to mind:

• The Open Letter to the previous secretary of state calling for return of a bursary for beginner teachers of RE in England as well as other recruitment and retention intiatives throughout the year
• The National Content Standard for RE in England being recommended by multiple organisations and school providers
• The highly successful joint AREIAC-AULRE Conference last month, and plans for another in 2025
• Various steering groups drawing on many of the RE organisations which support RE Hubs, RExChange, Culham St Gabriel’s Leadership Programme
• Using joint social media assets across the RE community prior to the election to set out our asks from the new government

This collaboration and fostering of partnerships is a huge strength of the religion and worldviews community. We should celebrate it!

Oh… and yes… we did get to see some whales!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Kathryn Wright, CEO Culham St Gabriel’s