Viewing archives for CPD

Starting out as an NQT can be exciting but your first two years as a teacher can also bring its own special challenges as well!

We are here to support you with bespoke professional development as you begin your teaching career.

Our Teach:RE tutored modules offer flexible distance learning with your own professional tutor to support you.

https://www.teachre.co.uk/tutored-modules/

We are offering Secondary RE NQTs and NQT +1 a 10% discount on all tutored modules. Usual price £85 per module.

Reduced Fee £76.50 per module.

Your school can be invoiced.

If you are interested in taking up this offer, please use the code NQTOFFER2020 in the registration form under ‘how you heard about this course’.

Please note we reserve the right to contact your employer to verify your NQT/NQT+1 status.

If you would like more information or wish to discuss modules please email trec@cstg.org.uk

Explore a new way of thinking about religion and worldviews by understanding religious literacy as method as much as content. Teaching about religions is a bit like teaching the skills of literacy. But instead of how to read texts, we’re teaching our students a competency in approaching worldviews very different than their own. This process also allows us to understand our own world and ethical framework in more nuanced ways.

I’d like to draw your attention to a free online course that comes out of the collective experience of the OU’s Religious Studies department. It draws on our experience looking at lived beliefs and practices, the internal diversity of Islam and Christianity, the study of indigenous traditions, and the study of small and controversial religious movements. However, content is secondary to a focus on principles. We want to emphasise the importance of developing skills to approach religious and non-religious worldviews that will create more constructive discussions and decisions. This course emphasises how religious literacy works on principles and methods which can then be applied to understand both religious and non-religious worldviews in a variety of real-life situations.

It might be a fun refresher with some ideas for how you can enliven discussion and teach new topics in your RE classrooms. We’d love to hear your thoughts on our approach and how we could work together better with RE teachers in schools.

Check out the next presentation which starts on 2 November here: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/why-religion-matters/

Suzanne Newcombe

Lecturer in Religious Studies

The Open University

@religion_ou

Inspired by RExChange this new series of free virtual seminars brings researchers and teachers together through conversation. In each session the researcher will give a very brief summary of a key piece of research and invite participants to ask questions, provide feedback and comment. The themes connect to sessions led by each researcher at the RExChange conference.

The following In Conversation events will take place in the Autumn Term.

Wednesday 14^th October 4.15-5.15pm In conversation with Vivienne Baumfield

Theme: What do we know about teachers’ engagement with research in RE?

Reserve your place

Wednesday 28^th October 4.15-5.15pm In conversation with Abi Maguire

Theme: Teaching Controversial Issues in the Secondary RE Classroom

Reserve your place

Wednesday 11^th November 4.15-5.15pm In conversation with Jo Pearce and Alexis Stones

Theme: RE, Big Questions and Knowledge

Reserve your place

Wednesday 25^th November 4.15-5.15pm In conversation with Emma Salter

Theme: Teachers doing research: supporting teacher-agency in research through a communities of practices approach

Reserve your place

Wednesday 9^th December 4.15-5.15pm In conversation with Martha Shaw

Theme: Innovation Through Co-production:  Teachers and researchers working together to generate innovation in religion and worldviews education.

Reserve your place

Spaces are strictly limited to allow everyone to participate fully in each session. Once registered joining details will be sent out at least one week prior to the event. Some sessions may include pre-reading. If you have any questions please email enquires@cstg.org.uk

Teach:RE: Start your professional development journey

Thursday 24^th September

4.15-5pm

Are you looking to improve your subject knowledge, find out about research or expand your skills?

We are delighted to invite you to attend a FREE webinar to find out about the Teach:RE modules.

These successful modules have been running for many years and are regularly updated to reflect changing conversations about religion and worldviews education.

Come along to find out about the different modules and what they offer, how you will be tutored and other practical matters.

Sign up to start your journey today. A webinar link will be sent to those registering.

Register now on Eventbrite

This webinar is suitable for all teachers of RE (Primary and Secondary). It will also be useful for those who provide guidance to others about professional development e.g. advisers, school or MAT CPD leads.

There is no requirement to sign up to undertake a module as a result of attending this webinar.

More information about the Teach:RE modules can be found here: www.teachre.co.uk

What does effective subject leadership of RE in the Primary phase look like? What does an RE subject lead need to know and plan for? Teach: RE are delighted to announce the launch of an updated module focussing on RE subject leadership in Primary schools.

The module will be of interest to anyone who is already a subject lead or would like to be one. Additionally, the module supports the updated RE quality Mark criteria. Work completed as part of this module will contribute to evidence considered for the RE Quality Mark.

The updated Primary Leadership module will enable you to consider your vision for the subject, how to implement this vision, and how RE can support the school more widely.

Find out about Teach: RE modules here.

Teach: RE is offering a NEW opportunity to take just one module. If you are interested in improving your knowledge and skills but feel you can’t commit to three modules, this could be for you. Find out more about the One Module option on the Teach: RE Tailor Made webpage.

We are offering those planning on undertaking Initial Teacher training from Autumn 2020, beginner teachers and all serving teachers three special opportunities until the end of August 2020:

We have launched a new Primary Leadership Module which links to the newly updated RE Quality Mark criteria. Primary Subject leaders can undertake this one module with a professional tutor for just £50! Sign up here.

We have launched a FREE self-study module Religion and Worldviews: Developing subject knowledge for teaching. More information is available here.

We are aware teachers may want to undertake just one module of the Teach:RE Tailormade or 60 Hour course rather than undertaking the whole course. We are therefore opening up the course so you can pick just one module of your choice, be tutored through the module and have your work assessed. The cost for this is just £50. Please register for this here.

In addition, our FREE primary introduction course remains available and is particularly suitable for primary beginner teachers, NQTs, HLTAs. More information available here.

Why Religion Matters: Religious Literacy, Culture and Diversity (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/why-religion-matters/2) has been designed by the Open University’s Religious Studies Department and showcasing current university-level approaches to Religious Studies.

This course highlights how religious literacy can perhaps best be understood as a skills-based approach to exploring religion within a particular social context. By applying the principles learned on the course, you may be able to more confidently engage with current events and controversies involving religious and non-religious worldviews in the classroom. You can access a sample step exploring how religion might relate to current environmental protest movements, like Extinction Rebellion here (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/why-religion-matters/0/steps/73899).

The next moderated presentation begins on 11 May 2020. The course itself is free, but if you can receive a FutureLearn/Open University Certificate of Completion suitable for demonstrating CPD by paying £42 and successfully completing a short end-of-course test.

Working With ‘Big Ideas About’ – a curriculum package and CPD (Continuous Professional Development) resource, intended for use by teacher educators, teachers and teacher trainees involved in the delivery and development of Religious Education (RE) in secondary schools. The aim of this handbook is to offer you a range of theoretical and practical resources for exploring – together with us – a multi-disciplinary/multi-methodological approach to the study of religion(s) and worldview(s), specifically designed to encourage students to think about the significance of different methods of inquiry in RE and to reflect on the role of different perspectives or ‘positionalities’ from which the study of religion(s) and worldview(s) can be approached.

The handbook builds upon the ‘RE-searchers’ approach to Religious Education, developed at the University of Exeter for use in primary schools (Freathy, G. et al. 2015; Freathy, R. et al. 2017) and the textbook Who Is Jesus? Supplementary Materials for Religious Education in the Upper Secondary School (Freathy et al. 2018), also developed at Exeter.

Download the handbook here

We are offering those planning on undertaking Initial Teacher training from Autumn 2020, beginner teachers and all serving teachers two special opportunities until the end of August 2020:

We have launched a FREE self-study module Religion and Worldviews: Developing subject knowledge for teaching. More information is available here.

We are aware teachers may want to undertake just one module of the Teach:RE Tailormade or 60 Hour course rather than undertaking the whole course. We are therefore opening up the course so you can pick just one module of your choice, be tutored through the module and have your work assessed. The cost for this is just £50. Please register for this here.

In addition, our FREE primary introduction course remains available and is particularly suitable for primary beginner teachers, NQTs, HLTAs. More information available here.