Leaving University and applying for PGCE provided me with a conundrum. Finish my RE and Theology degree and begin Primary training, where my instincts told me I would best fit, or hold tight to RE –  the subject that I loved and train as a secondary teacher? Much to the disappointment of some of my secondary school and University tutors I opted for the former, promptly volunteered myself as RE subject leader within my small North Somerset primary school, and set about enjoying the challenge of enthusing my colleagues, updating school practices, and engaging my pupils in Key Stage 2.  After a few years though, I found myself really missing any major engagement with RE, and frustrated by the issues clearly facing the subject in my area and in general, I decided to investigate how I might get involved with the subject a little more at a local level. I volunteered myself for my local SACRE where a position was luckily available for me.  It was invigorating to spend time amongst others for whom RE was so important and I began to enquire how else I may be able to support the subject.

Along came Learn Teach Lead RE!  After several years of success in Area 1 – Devon and Cornwall, the LTLRE team were to develop ‘Area 2’ in my region and were seeking enthusiastic teachers and potential leaders of RE to work in this area. I was excited and optimistic on successfully receiving the role of ‘hub leader’ for North Somerset and set about developing local group meetings three times a year. This sadly coincided with a huge reduction in funding in my local authority and I have found myself filling a gap for local teachers of RE who now only have LTLRE to offer them any forum for networking in our subject. My group affiliated to NATRE and I was hugely grateful for inspiration from the termly newsletter I received from the local groups team, as well as ideas and information from my termly issues of RE Today received through my school membership. Through this I heard of the new Ambassadors programme in 2018 and was thrilled to be appointed as Regional Ambassador for the South West region in January last year.

I found myself sat on a train to Birmingham on a snowy day in February, and once again spent a day hugely inspired by being in the company of a passionate and motivated team who had been appointed by NATRE to represent ten regions across the country. We are united in our hope of improving teacher access to local support in RE and are all working hard to try and join some dots locally and nationally to provide greater consistency in the CPD opportunities both Primary and Secondary teachers are able to access in RE. Amongst many project aims is the key goal of making Religion and Worldviews teacher groups accessible to all teachers of the subject across the country, and at a reasonable distance from where they work. So far through my role I have embraced the somewhat scary world of RE social media (see my Facebook group ‘RE in the Southwest’ or follow me on Twitter @mrsharrisRE), sought and supported new local group leaders of RE just like myself, attended numerous meetings and events where I am now able to hear about important developments in our subject and pass vital information on to teachers across the region.

I would urge anyone with a passion for RE to take the plunge; see what opportunities might be out there for you, approach your local SACRE or LTLRE hub, contact us at NATRE local groups, or visit your nearest hub or group and offer your support and enthusiasm. You never know where you may end up!

To see who your Regional Ambassador is visit https://www.natre.org.uk/about-natre/re-in-your-region/re-ambassadors/

As a Primary teacher and then Headteacher I have taught pretty much everything over the years. However I love RE because of the variety of areas within the subject. I have always been fascinated by students’ responses to what they learn in RE, especially if they have a ‘lightbulb moment’.

I retired from Headship and took up a post as a local RE adviser. I did this so I could continue to be involved in policy and debate about RE, as well as the development of teaching and learning. As a local adviser I try to share and support the areas of the subject that I believe are essential for education in the 21^st Century. I try to kindle the excitement I feel about the subject when working with the council, local faith bodies and other stakeholders.

I have run a Primary and Secondary network for years now. The network is small but we have members from a variety of settings. This is particularly important to me; to be able to support all phases and types of school. RE matters in all of them. Some members attend regularly, others can only make it once a year. All are keen to attend and keep in touch. When members can’t attend it is always due to their busy lives, the demands of childcare, work and family.

My overall aim for the network is simple; to support teachers so they can do their best for their students. Teachers need to be kept abreast of current and future changes. I hope to empower teachers to work positively with their senior team and colleagues so they can be the best subject leader they can (without dying in the attempt).

I keep the network going by publishing dates and agendas early, and sticking to them. I need to be well-planned and forward thinking as well as responsive to needs and requests when setting agendas. I also keep in touch between meetings, especially if help is sought. Teachers don’t always need help on the date of the scheduled meeting, an adviser doesn’t stop being an adviser between network sessions. As an adviser I see it as my job to ensure important policy, national and local directives are explored and time is given to teachers to discuss and make sense of them.  I like to share examples of good practice, teaching resources or CPD. Teachers are inspired by all sorts of new ideas, and it is my job to bring a wide selection for consideration.

At sessions I am welcoming and friendly, and when possible enable teachers to lead meetings themselves so the network belongs to them. I always involve teachers in local policy development such as our revised Locally Agreed Syllabus. I respect their views, welcome their input and take their concerns seriously.  Issues I have had recently are teachers’ worries about preparing for Ofsted, especially in situations where the senior team are not fully supportive of RE’s place in the curriculum or it’s status in law, as in some local academies. My teachers are dedicated and passionate but they are also overworked. They struggle to keeping RE fresh and new, lively and interesting in their schools, as they don’t always have the time to plan new material.  I have also had to support teachers who are dealing with withdrawals from RE. in all instances I need to be prepared and briefed, in order to give the best advice.

Ongoing issues for teachers are when staff meetings, parents’ evenings  or Inset days are diarised by headteachers to take priority over attendance at Network Meetings. We have a local system which should avoid this, but so often RE is not seen as important enough to protect. I am sure many other advisers around the country find that it is not teachers who are the problem, it is the lack of support, status and interest paid to teachers of RE that is so often the problem.

Despite the battles we sometimes have to fight, local networks are truly excellent value. They allow teachers to help other teachers, sharing ideas, successes and news about special events. My teachers as a group offer each other so much.  They support each other to achieve excellence in subject leadership, especially those new to the role, as well as sharing news about good venues for visits, good local speakers and resources they have used and found helpful. However the moral support and friendship is what really makes the network special, and why teachers come back.

I hope that RE will be embraced as the fantastically rich, varied and engaging subject it undoubtedly is. I see RE as the route to understanding what it is to be essentially human, socially connected, aware, positive and responsive to the local and national community. I see deep value in RE’s capacity to foster, between different groups, understanding, respect, empathy, mutual trust and liking so people can live together in harmony and with mutual support.

I wonder as teachers how you view the start of term and the new school year? I always remember having very mixed emotions!

Have you approached it with anticipation? Hope of change? Having ambitions? Set with worry? Wanting a fresh start?

Wherever you are in your career as a teacher of RE, you may have a complex mix of all these going through your mind. One of our aims here at Culham St Gabriel’s is to support you through all stages of your career journey. We want to nurture those who have just started out on initial teacher education, to resource those who are already teaching, and to equip leaders of the subject.

This year, I believe we should be ambitious for RE in our schools, academies, colleges and in university settings. I am beginning to use more widely the term ‘religion and worldviews’ (R&W). I’ve blogged before about why I think this is such a positive way forward for our subject. Having been a bit sceptical about a name change, I have come to realise that this sums up what our subject should be. I’ve been working on a summary of the Commission on RE (2018) proposed Statement of Entitlement. I thought I’d share this here with you. It is a work in progress and I welcome comments:

Pupils are entitled to be taught knowledge and understanding of:

a. what religion and worldviews are and how they are studied;

b. the impact of religion and worldviews on individuals, communities and society;

c. the diversity of worldviews in society

by well-qualified teachers who are given adequate time and resources to fulfil this entitlement.

What is your ambition for our subject this year? I was at the ResearchEd National Conference this weekend and a few themes came through for me. The first was the use of the language of disciplines gaining ground across subjects. Secondly, discussion and research around curriculum is obviously high on the agenda. Thirdly, how to ensure that research impacts on classroom practice and leadership so that pedagogy and curriculum are evidence based was an underlying theme through the whole day.

At Culham St Gabriel’s we want to journey with you as you work through these and other questions. Let us know how we can support you. Have you ever considered applying for a grant to develop a really ambitious, innovative project? Have you checked out our resources? Have you considered the Teach:RE course? Have you interrogated any of the research available?

Have a great term everyone and be ambitious for religion and worldviews!

Find out more about our support for Primary ITT and NQTs here: https://www.teachre.co.uk/teach-re-course/teachre-primary/

Find out about our subject knowledge enhancement programme for secondary ITT here:

https://www.teachre.co.uk/teach-re-course/religion-and-worldviews-ske/

Find out more about our resources here: https://www.reonline.org.uk

Find out more about how we are equipping all teachers of RE, including leaders here:

https://www.teachre.co.uk/teach-re-course/teachre-tailor-made/

Find links to research relating to RE here: https://researchforre.reonline.org.uk

Find out more about our grants programme here: https://www.cstg.org.uk/how-we-help/grants/

Email your questions to our Email a Believer team and ask them about their beliefs http://pof.reonline.org.uk/

A time to reflect

I’m sat writing this in a trendy coffee bar, where I’m intimidated into ordering the only drink name that I recognise, it is already deep into the summer holidays (although the weather outside would make you think otherwise), which means that I don’t mind watching the world go by and making it look that I’m working on some profound prose – a look which I think I’ve perfected well.

This summer I’ve been able to switch off more than ever, I slipped seamlessly from a long and full on term, to a relaxing and culturally enriching time travelling in Germany (a beautiful country which despite my numerous visits, I have still failed to grasp the language). Now despite having around half the holiday left, I knew that I needed to start getting my brain back into gear, something which took an adventurous leap into a coffee which I couldn’t pronounce and hadn’t tried before.

As a sat watching the rain fall outside and the seemingly mammoth task of what I needed to prepare for the coming school year (having recently been appointed as a Head of Department – the RE:Online practical checklist has been a real help with this https://www.reonline.org.uk/leading-re/a-practical-checklist/) I started to firstly think back to what I had already tried to do in the year gone by. I’ve thought about curriculum design a lot in the past, normally whilst completely caught up in the hustle and bustle of teaching and the chaos of school life – which isn’t always a situation conducive to innovation in the classroom.

Not one to shy away from a weather metaphor, as the weather started to clear so did my mind and the fog that hung over my thoughts started to shift, giving me much needed clearance on the path that I knew I needed to take.

A wider focus

Too often my focus has been too narrow, focussing on just the aims and purposes of the subject itself, but I’ve rarely looked at the wider picture of what RE can build on from other subjects, or equally as important, what other subjects desperately need from RE.

For example, we have often explored topics such as the Holocaust without due regard to when this has been studied in History, conversely in History they study the Reformation without consulting us on what prior knowledge they may have acquired from their RE lessons. Similarly, we look at ethical issues such as abortion without considering what knowledge they may have from science and in their science lessons they approach the ethical side of genetic testing without seeing which philosophical skills they have developed in their RE lessons.

In my previous blogs I’ve tried to explore the nature and direction of what I am trying to achieve in my subject for the students that I teach, but my focus has been too narrow, if I want pupils to really enjoy and excel in the subject, then I need to look beyond the subject itself – to see what other subjects offer to RE and what RE offers to them – this I believe will be central to rooting RE at the core of the curriculum, as no other subject has the power and overlap to do this.

This isn’t to say that I want RE to run as a course to purely compliment other subjects, I want to develop a real passion for the subject with my students. However, I also want to make better use of the material that is studied and learned in other subjects as well as showing students the wider importance and appeal of the subject itself.

For this stage I had to hurry home (partly because of the rain, partly because I was on a roll) in search of the biggest piece of paper that I could find. I started by mapping out all of the topics that I want and need students to study. My initial draft looked just at topic headings, then with a different colour I went through and started fleshing out the details, what do I actually want students to learn in those topics, with a third colour I went through and added in the areas of my curriculum that linked, with a fourth I went and wrote in curriculum links that I knew already existed. Now, at this point I’ve hit a stumbling block – there is so much of the curriculum that I’m completely unaware of.

In English for example, I know that they look at poems, plays (at least one is bound to be Shakespeare) and different novels. Which ones they look at, however, I’m completely at a loss. But there are bound to be invaluable links that are just waiting to be built upon, but as of yet are completely hidden within the curriculum that we are building.

Whilst I can start building my new curriculum around what I already know, there will still be a lot of work and collaboration amongst departments that will need to happen across the next academic year to ensure that a genuinely coherent and supported curriculum is offered to our students.

A new direction

I believe that having the curriculum mapped out in a really explicit way, with the links and progressions between skills and content is essential, not only for teaching, but also for pupils to be aware of. If we are trying to help them to navigate their way through a complex, and often confusing, curriculum then the least we can do is provide them with a road-map of how we go from A-B.

As a example of what our new Y7 will be studying:

– What influences us?

– Should we follow rules?

– Moral maze

– When disaster strikes

– Religion in the media

– Philosophical thinking

Now, there are six topics, but these do not correspond to the fact that there are six terms in the school year. These topics introduce pupils to a range of disciplines – theology, ethics and philosophy – tackling ideas in a more thematic way. For example, the ‘When disaster strikes’ topic will look at natural events and how Christians would be influenced by their beliefs to act in charitable ways to help those in need.

In many ways this reflects aspects of the GCSE exams, but is also driven by feedback that came from student voice sessions that I ran with current A-Level, GCSE and KS3 students – those who had picked the subject and those that hadn’t. Now, this might sound like I’ve just gone for topics that are the ‘fun’ ones in an attempt to win over the pupils, but I’ve mapped out all of the requirements from the locally agreed syllabus to ensure that the curriculum we are offering is completely compliant. I’ve also ensured that it equips students with the full knowledge that we would want them to have. The religion in the media topic, for example, looks at issues such as offence whether through portrayal of Christianity in comedies, or the misrepresentation of Islam and terrorism.

The coming year

The next year is going to be a steep learning curve, I’ll be starting my sixth year teaching and it will be my first as a Head of Department – I’ve been developing schemes of work for my whole teaching career, but with the new changes from Ofsted it feels like a whole different responsibility altogether.

There will also be non-specialists teaching the subject, meaning that the resources and training that I need to provide will need to work to ensure that the lessons taught remain engaging and relevant.

I will also be making a big push on the subject, not only in terms of visibility across the school, but with families at home and also in terms of further career opportunities. I have a set of the brilliant posters produced by RE:Online and will be doing as much as possible to raise the profile of the subject and challenge the parental misconceptions of what we learn in the subject – for example, each topic will have a homework task which involves working with a parent/guardian.

Without a doubt there is a big task ahead, but it will also be enjoyable and rewarding. Hopefully my next few blogs will be detailing the successes that I am having – but also the challenges that I face.

The aim of the Farmington Institute (part of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University), is to support and encourage teachers of Religious Education in schools. This can be in either primary or secondary settings or other centres offering RE teaching including places of worship, and often encompasses being released for a fixed period of time to research a specific area pertinent to RE, be it literacy, teaching of a specific religion or something a bit more unique.

We, as a collective, became one of the first group scholarships, with the brief to provide support to secondary RE teachers in Suffolk.

If you asked somebody to name something about Suffolk, my guess is that most think of Ed Sheeran. They will have heard of John Constable. Some might think of the Adnams or Greene King breweries or Aspall’s cider. They might mention Ipswich Town Football Club (they’ll look unhappy if they do), or they may talk about our beautiful coastline. My guess is that they might not know that the honeycomb in the centre of a Malteser is made in Suffolk, or that we are home to an endangered species – the Suffolk Punch horse.

But I can almost guarantee that they will not think of multiculturalism, or a large amount of different beliefs and worldviews being prevalent. And they would be right.

Of a population of around 750,000 people, 61% of those claim to be Christian according to the latest census. The closest belief next to that are the ‘nones’ at 30%, with each of the other major belief systems all being in the 0 point something percent. While the increasing rise of the ‘nones’ reflects UK society in general, for each of the other beliefs, Suffolk lags behind with every other belief in the country. Resultantly, many students in Suffolk are less exposed to the diversity of beliefs in the UK and, we would argue, this makes RE even more crucial in their development as citizens of our country.

And yet, RE has found itself increasingly on the margins; squeezed into PSHE schemes, given a couple of cursory drop-down days every now and again, or just purely forgotten about. And, for those schools that do commit to it, do see the benefit in it and fulfil their obligations to their students, RE teachers are often left to fend for themselves, largely in single-staffed departments. Energetic and talented NQTs often find themselves leading subjects in their first year in the job, even having to create the programmes of study on the fly. RE departments are often led by well-meaning, non-specialists crying out for a bit of guidance and no knowing where to turn for it.

And then there are the practical Suffolk issues: how can I get my students used to different places and ways or worshipping when the closest Synagogue or Mandir is 90 minutes away? Can I afford the time to drive 60 minutes for a network meeting to then drive 60 minutes back home again? How can I keep up to date with new resources and ideas to keep RE interesting? Who do I turn to when I need some support and advice?

These were the questions that the four of us were hearing through our roles as Professional Advisors to Suffolk SACRE, where we update local faith representatives and politicians about developments in RE, both nationally and locally, providing us with a clear insight into the status of RE in the county. Thanks to some clear guidance and support from passionate people such as Jan Maguire and Helen Matter on SACRE, as well as those at Farmington, Suffolk Resolve was created. All of us are subject leaders (as well as, somewhat typically for RE teachers, having other roles in our schools), but most importantly, we all care deeply about RE being done and done well.

There have been a number of outcomes from the project. Firstly, we were able to offer teachers the chance to go on an organised trip to Coventry, to look at two places of religious significance; Coventry Cathedral and the Sikh Gurdwara. This was done to show that it is possible to expose our students to wider religious beliefs and practices, as well as providing valuable CPD for teachers.

Secondly, we made ourselves available for coaching and mentoring across the county (and a little bit beyond the borders too!), especially for those aforementioned who might not have much subject specific support. The intention is that this is ongoing. One colleague who benefited from the coaching said that it was particularly beneficial to have “a subject specialist observing me for a day, giving feedback, suggestions for improvement and sharing expertise and experience. To have an experienced practitioner as a go-to, at any time has been exceptionally useful.”

Finally, our website (www.suffolkresolve.co.uk) was created to host our project and share our learning. On the website, we have made the latest research and developments in RE easily accessible in a single location, so that we can keep improving our practice in order to benefit those we teach. This includes articles, podcasts and signposting to various RE influences, including RE:ONLINE. The website also hosts a plethora of resources developed by one member of our team, with ideas based on requests from local teachers as well as looking to cover the range of specifications, topics taught and worldviews that our students should encounter. These will remain available and we hope you find them useful too.

We are yet to see the full impact of our project, but many have stated a greater confidence, a greater feeling of support and a sense of relief that there are people there to help, and who want to help. They now know that they are not on their own. This is something that we have all felt when working on the project together – the benefits of talking to each other regularly about what we are doing and why, either in person or online has made us all better teachers; as the saying goes ‘iron sharpens iron’. Despite our geographical distance and various contexts, we have felt that we are a team who have experienced each other’s struggles and successes and it has become more and more apparent that too many RE teachers feel like individuals out there in the wilderness and we want to be a part of the solution to these issues.

Teaching is a team game and this is most certainly true for RE, so we believe that we should be treating it more like that and we will be endeavouring to continue to play our part. For us, there is more and more evidence that as experienced professionals, we need to share. Share resources. Share experiences. Share ideas. Share our struggles and share our successes. So we will keep sharing, and hopefully play our small part in making this great subject a little bit better.

Find out more about us at www.suffolkresolve.co.uk

Martin Cobbold, Debenham High School

Sarah Cobbold, St Benedict’s High School

Wayne Buisst, Ormiston Denes Academy

David Yaroslaw, Debenham High School

For more information about Farmington scholarships, visit http://www.farmington.ac.uk

As the alarm sounds at 4am, through the fog, my mind clocks that today’s the day for the AREIAC conference.  It was hard to get away from class even for one day – which was all I was going to manage – not because of SLT but because of my class. Year 6 can be a volatile place at this time of year, which has meant I haven’t had chance to think about leading and supporting RE teaching for some time.  I was excited, curious and hopeful.

The conference was entitled Agents of Change.  As I sat on the train, I wondered how it was going to change me.

The first keynote speaker was Mary Myatt.  Her focus on the use of stories hit a nerve.  Two years ago, I re-evaluated and redesigned our school’s English planning.  I was worried that children had lost their love of English (or perhaps they’d never found one).  I wanted to inspire children (well I’m a teacher, it’s what we do) so I started with stories.  I know that seems an obvious thing for English but I mean really good, vocabulary rich stories.  Stories that took a term to read and became the springboard for their creativity.  Since then, our reading and writing scores have rocketed.  Children have a love of reading.

Mary talked about starting with stories, really rich, meaningful engaging stories in RE.  Of course!  Why would it only be English?  I have been striving for a way of raising children’s religious literacy – particularly in community Primaries where children have barely any.  They have no way of connecting RE to their lives, no foundation of religious vocabulary to build upon and deepen.  We needed a way in and there is nothing more profound in teaching than a story.  It is in our human nature.  Beyond culture and throughout time, stories have been used to connect, inform, engage, and inspire!  So, my first change?  Every piece of planning to include a story.  And right there – English and RE making a genuine connection where both subjects can be taught simultaneously without compromising the key skills of either.

After lunch, Luke Donnellan spoke about Humanism and World Views.  He began with the stats.  A strong case in themselves to teach non-religious world views, but along with others I was worried about just ticking the ‘no religion’ box as evidence for those who have ‘non-religious world views’.  As though reading our minds, he went on to clarify what exactly was meant by ‘non-religious world views’: that this did not, in itself, mean atheism, nihilism or ‘no religion’.  For the Primary curriculum, ‘non-religious world views’ is new to many teachers.  Indeed it’s only really touched upon in Year 6 if at all.  I have often seen humanism mixed with atheism and a lack of understanding of the ‘world view’ part of this.  So my next change?  Clarifying what is meant by ‘non-religious world views’ to my primary colleagues and removing the misunderstanding.

My time at the conference was brief, but it only took a whistle-stop tour for me to be inspired by the vision, commitment and drive to see the changes I need to make to ensure that the teaching and learning in Religious Education and World Views is accessible, rigorous and of course inspirational for all children!

AREIAC 2019’s conference was entitled Agents of Change: RE Leadership in a New World.
A New World; state of flux; uncertainty; chaos; challenging times. One RE adviser laughed, “When has RE not been in challenging times?”. As an “emerging leader” in the RE community, I must confess to being excited by this New World – in it I see potential, I see opportunity, I see hope. But, like many hopeful leaders, I don’t really know where to start.

I don’t know where to start was the point Ben Wood, Chair of NATRE and Head of RE at Haslingden High School, made in his reflections on how to change a curriculum. As a RE subject lead currently grappling with curriculum choice, I felt an enormous sense of relief listening to Ben. If he, who has read widely, shared widely and climbed to the top of the RE game, doesn’t know where to start, it’s OK that I am still deeply uncertain. Hear this, RE Subject leaders – uncertainty is OK. Don’t let the fact that, as Ben admits, the curriculum occasionally keeps us awake at night lead to paralysis. Maybe, due to the paradox of choice, we will never be satisfied.

Ben argues for the value of constraint as we consider our curriculum choices, he suggests we should enforce constraints on ourselves that chiefly concern us as teachers in school. Constraints of time, planning the planning, using subject knowledge and playing to our own strengths. Your constraints will depend on your school your circumstances. I feel now, it’s OK to take the time to look before I leap in curriculum choice – with the knowledge that I will have to leap!

Curriculum choice is keeping me awake at night. I anticipated hearing Mary Myatt speak on Curriculum: Controversies, Concepts and Conversations. Since initial RE CPD, I have been profoundly influenced by her philosophy: RE should have beauty and depth. Mary reminds us to run our schools for our children not inspectors; OFSTED are not looking for anything – they are looking at what we’re doing. When planning our curriculum, we must begin with the end – what do we want children to know at the end? It is too easy to get caught up in content and to forget that RE needs to be underpinned by demanding concepts, big ideas – we’re trying to make our learners think. We must privilege thinking over task completion, this is important for the teacher to remember in the classroom – this is empowering.

Richard Kueh too spoke of empowerment. In these times of change, we need to prioritise RE teacher agency, we must nourish, nurture, strengthen and challenge our teachers. When shaping and crafting teacher agency, teachers must have intellectual confidence, without which they are left to drown in complexity. Richard pointed out, to a room full of advisers, that there was a gulf between advisers and emerging leaders in the classroom – there is a tension here, can we make this a productive tension? There is a need for mentoring, for transformative change leading to a community of professional hybrids. Advisers must cultivate teacher agency beyond the classroom to ensure a legacy which elevates beyond new heights.

This is where my own story jigsaws in, as one of the first cohort of AREIAC REvitalise mentees. I am a HLTA who has been leading RE in a large primary school for nine years, during which time I have carried out research, led CPD, completed leadership programmes and led our school to the gold REQM. Over the last year, I have benefited from the mentoring support of Jan McGuire, an RE Adviser and former teacher. The personalised guidance of an experienced mentor has “bridged the gulf” between adviser and this emerging leader, this “professional hybrid”. At the conference, I shared with delegates how REvitalise has been a professionally formative experience. During this year, in which I became the NATRE East Anglia Regional Ambassador, culminating at the AREIAC conference, I had the opportunity to think beyond the classroom, beyond my school, my MAT, my region to a “New World” national RE agenda. These bigger picture considerations I now feel empowered to take back to my region, my MAT, my school and back to my classroom, which is after all, where the big picture really matters.

REvitalise was a one-year project funded by AREIAC and CStG, it supported 20 teachers already starting to lead RE training for others outside of their school.

Having had the privilege to be part of the REvitalise project has enabled me to have a far better understanding of how to improve RE provision within my own school, as well as for others, allowing me to grow as well as help develop the leadership qualities in others.

Every minute of my involvement with this project has been extremely useful, as I have been immersed in high quality CPD with the best people and have been given amazing opportunities to meet other organisations such the 3 Faith Forum and The Ismaili Centre in London. It was useful to find out more about these organisations so that I could impart my new-found knowledge with my RE leaders’ group. I found out about the Faith and Belief Forum’s diversity workshops and their school linking programme: I have since shared this information with other RE leaders in Frimley. The visit to the Ismaili Centre was a fantastic opportunity to find out more first-hand about a branch of Islam that I didn’t previously know much about. This subject knowledge has since been used to inform my own planning and that of other leaders’. Being part of this program has allowed me to have a year’s membership to AREIAC- a fantastic opportunity to meet and work with advisers and consultants- learning from highly experienced people in the field of RE!

One of the best things I have learnt, which has had a huge impact on my training of other teachers, was learning about andragogy. It answers the ‘So what?’ and ‘Why should I be interested?’ questions that many teachers ask when involved with CPD at the end of a day’s teaching. The power of effective andragogy is vital in order to give teachers worthwhile ideas for the classroom and a wealth of resources to take away. I now use a variety of practical and engaging ‘starters’ at the beginning of my training sessions which make teachers think deeply about the content of the training- compared to ‘jumping into’ the training content that I used to do. I feel that I now conduct useful, interesting and highly relevant CPD for all- I now look at what I do with ‘a fresh pair of eyes’!

Attending the AREIAC conference in Manchester this July seemed like a natural progression as I come to the end of my year on the REvitalise project. It was evident that within the RE community, it is vital to make connections between organisations, supporting each other and helping to grow new leaders for the future- in essence just what the REvitalise project has aimed to achieve.

It was an honour to hear the wise words of the high calibre of speakers at the AREIAC conference. Mary Myatt’s words about ‘High Challenge, Low Threat’ made me think about offering a training session for the RE planners in my school and within my trust, based on examining closely, the quality of lessons being offered to pupils. During Mary’s speech, I found myself questioning myself about the quality of texts and images being used in my own classroom. Ed Pawson gave a brilliant speech which made me think about how the CORE report translates into what we do next as an RE community. Ed’s speech also highlighted the need for preparing training for teachers of RE to prepare for ‘deep dive’ inspections. This is something I hope to do in the next academic year. It was a fantastic experience to hear about Dr Richard Kueh’s multi-disciplinary approach to stressing the importance for subjects to be more linked. I now understand more about finding a strategic way to improve the standards in my trust and to influence change with respect to RE planning and ultimately, the quality and content of what pupils are learning. Dr Kevin O’Grady made me think about research opportunities: consequently, I would like to ask my local group members if they would like to research any area of our subject, with a view to sending a research proposal to Kevin in the future. To summarise, all speakers made me think clearly about curriculum design and how my leadership can be used to help develop the quality of the subject for others. I am particularly interested in looking at previous research with a view to how it can inform my planning and teaching of RE, which in turn, will be of benefit to the teachers I train.

REvitalise has also given me the opportunity to network with others in similar roles.  I now feel empowered to ’push further’ and work with other advisers to coordinate a pupil conference for higher prior attainers in RE, with a view to providing a conference for RE teachers in Surrey. Without this incredible project, I would never have broken out of my ‘comfort zone’.  Now I have the courage to keep striving for excellence in RE on a much larger scale and taking others with me on this journey. I am so grateful for being part of the REvitalise project- I will never look back!

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