Primary Initial Teacher Education Resources

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Supporting Primary Religious Education: Planning, Observation and Target Setting for Beginning Teachers

Lead: Helen Sheehan (Sheffield Hallam University)

This resource has been developed to support mentors and teacher educators working with beginning teachers in primary Religious Education. Drawing on current expectations within Initial Teacher Education and the Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework, it offers practical prompts to guide planning discussions, lesson observations and target-setting conversations. Rather than acting as a checklist, the document is intended to support focused professional dialogue about subject knowledge, pedagogy and effective RE practice. It aims to help mentors provide meaningful, RE-specific feedback that supports beginning teachers in developing confidence, expertise and reflective practice in the teaching of Religious Education.

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Useful Websites for Primary Beginner Teachers and Trainees

Leads: Helen Sheehan (Sheffield Hallam University) and Lizzie Yeomans (Liverpool John Moores University)

This resource brings together a wide range of organisations, websites, publications, classroom materials and professional learning opportunities to support beginning teachers of primary Religious Education. Designed as a practical starting point, it signposts trusted sources for subject knowledge, curriculum planning, teaching approaches, visits and visitors, classroom resources, professional networks and academic reading. Whether developing confidence in teaching RE, deepening understanding of religious and non-religious worldviews, or seeking inspiration for lessons, this guide provides accessible routes into the rich range of support available for primary teachers and trainees.

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What do we mean by Ways of Knowing in primary RE?

Leads: Imran Mogra (Birmingham City University), Fiona Moss and Paul Smalley

What do we mean by “ways of knowing” in religion and worldviews education? This short animation introduces the idea of disciplinary knowledge in RE/RME/RVE and explores how pupils can deepen their understanding of religion and worldviews through different lenses, including theology, philosophy, and the human and social sciences. Using examples from Judaism and Buddhism, the film shows how pupils can gain different insights by engaging with stories, artefacts, lived experience, questioning and observation. Part of Ways of Knowing Focus Week, this resource is designed to support teachers, leaders and anyone interested in developing a more scholarly approach to RE.

FILM

The Three Forms of Knowledge in Primary RE for Beginner Teachers

Leads: Imran Mogra (Birmingham City University), Fiona Moss and Paul Smalley

This short film introduces the three types of knowledge that underpin high-quality Religious Education: substantive knowledge, disciplinary knowledge (or ways of knowing), and personal knowledge. Designed for mentors, ITE tutors and beginning teachers, it explores how these interconnected forms of knowledge help structure progression in RE and support pupils in developing understanding of religious and non-religious worldviews. The film explains each knowledge type, illustrates its role in classroom practice, and highlights how they work together to enable meaningful, reflective and academically rigorous RE.

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Rationale: What is RE? Why RE?

Leads: Rhiannon Love (University of Winchester) and Lizzie Yeomans (Liverpool John Moores University)

This PowerPoint presentation is designed to be used by mentors and teacher educators as an introduction to the subject and could form the basis of an ITE teaching session. The notes sections give further guidance. It helps beginner teachers consider the purpose of RE and its statutory position and introduces the idea of positionality.

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Understanding Our Worldviews

Leads: Ruth Flanagan (University of Exeter) and Rhiannon Love (University of Winchester)

This PowerPoint presentation is designed to be used by mentors and teacher educators as an introduction to the concept of personal worldviews. It is intended to be delivered as part of an ITE teaching session. The notes sections give further guidance. It explains what worldviews are, suggests some methods for identifying worldviews, considers how beliefs, values and behaviours are interlinked and explores how worldviews are formed.

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The Initial Teacher Training and Early Career Framework (ITTECF): RE subject-specific pedagogical knowledge

Leads: Imran Mogra (Birmingham City University) and Paul Smalley

All ITE is underpinned by the ITTECF. While the framework is not subject-specific, beginner RE teachers still need to develop the pedagogical content knowledge that enables them to teach the subject well. This document maps the ITTECF statements to the particular demands of primary Religious Education, supporting mentors and ITE tutors in designing sequenced training that builds beginners’ expertise and confidence in teaching high-quality RE.

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Pedagogical Approaches in RE

Leads: Rhiannon Love (University of Winchester) and Imran Mogra (Birmingham City University)

This document is designed to support mentors and ITE tutors in helping beginners understand, select and apply appropriate pedagogies in RE, and to provide a practical foundation for planning training sessions that exemplify these approaches. Drawing on the experience of teachers and experts in the subject, the series introduces practical approaches that can be used in the classroom, from creative storytelling and the use of images to belief lines, qualifying language and a worldviews approach. Each video offers an accessible starting point for thinking about effective pedagogy and how different strategies can support thoughtful, inclusive and engaging religion and worldviews education in the primary classroom.

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Decolonising RE

Leads: Lizzie Yeomans (Liverpool John Moores University) and Ruth Flanagan (University of Exeter)

This PowerPoint presentation introduces beginner teachers to what it means to decolonise Religious Education and why the process is essential. It explores how colonial assumptions, inequitable power dynamics and dominant cultural norms can shape curricula, and invites teachers to reflect on their own positionality, worldview and classroom power. The resource summarises key ideas from decolonial scholarship, highlights the importance of lived experience, dialogic pedagogy and multiple forms of knowledge, and offers practical ways to create democratic, inclusive and critically reflective RE spaces. It also showcases approaches such as funds of knowledge, Docutube storytelling and lived-experience encounters, helping mentors and ITE tutors support beginners in developing RE that is intellectually rigorous, socially just and responsive to diverse voices.

ANIMATION

Personal Knowledge

Leads: Ruth Flanagan (University of Exeter) and Rhiannon Love (University of Winchester)

This animation supports mentors and ITE tutors in helping beginner teachers appreciate the role of personal knowledge in RE and integrate it thoughtfully into their practice. It introduces the idea of personal knowledge in Religious Education and why it matters. It explores how all teachers and pupils inhabit personal worldviews that shape how they interpret information, engage in dialogue and make meaning. The animation explains the relationship between belief, knowledge and lived experience, highlights the importance of positionality and worldview consciousness, and shows how tools such as stories, optical illusions and reflective activities can help pupils recognise and articulate their own perspectives. It also considers whether and how personal knowledge might be approached in assessment, emphasising that understanding self is essential for meaningful dialogue with others.

ANIMATION

A Religion and Worldviews Approach

Leads: Helen Sheehan (Sheffield Hallam University) and Paul Smalley

This animation introduces beginner teachers to the Religion and Worldviews approach and shows how it reshapes both the content and pedagogy of primary RE. It explains that all pupils and teachers inhabit worldviews, and that understanding both organised and personal worldviews is central to interpreting religious and non-religious life. The animation highlights how this approach begins with people and their lived experiences, explores key concepts such as belief, authority and meaning and examines how traditions vary across time and place. It demonstrates how disciplinary methods such as theological, sociological, historical and philosophical enquiry help children ask different kinds of questions and build scholarly understanding. Through examples of classroom practice, encounters with visitors, local studies, dialogue and intellectual humility, the animation shows how pupils can become thoughtful interpreters of diverse worldviews through engaging with high-quality primary RE.

ANIMATION

Diversity Within a Religious Tradition

This animation supports mentors and ITE tutors in helping beginner teachers understand how to promote equity, challenge discrimination and foster genuinely inclusive practice in primary RE. It explains the difference between equality and equity, outlines the legal responsibilities set out in the Equality Act 2010, and highlights how unconscious bias, lived experience and classroom dynamics shape pupils’ interactions. The animation shows how teachers can respond to hurtful, insensitive or racist comments, model school values, and critique ideas rather than individuals. It emphasises the importance of representing diversity within and across religious and non-religious traditions, avoiding stereotypes, and using language such as some, many and few to reflect real variation. Through examples of dialogic practice, image analysis and reflective activities, the animation demonstrates how RE can help pupils recognise assumptions, challenge prejudice and develop as thoughtful, respectful citizens in a diverse society.