Religious education newsletter - May 2024

Sign up to attend the June launch events for the new RE syllabus for schools in Devon, Torbay and Plymouth, ready to teach in Sept 2024. Star presenters and syllabus writers Fiona Moss and Stephen Pett from RE Today will be leading the day:

• Mon 17 June (Bideford )

• Tues 18 June (Exeter)

• Wed 19 June (Plymouth)

• Wed 10 July (online)

This will be a great day of RE inset for primary, secondary and special school teachers – not to be missed!

The new syllabus (in pdf form) will be sent to all schools by email on Thurs 20th June. From that date it will also be available to be downloaded from our website.

Password: DevonREsyllabus2024

The recently released Ofsted report: Deep and Meaningful: the religious education subject report gives a helpful, but challenging assessment of the health of the subject. You can find a useful report summary from NATRE here.

Some key points to note:

1. Careful sequencing of vital curriculum concepts needs attention

2. ‘A superficially broad curriculum does not always provide pupils with the depth of knowledge they require’. Evidence shows deeper learning enables pupils to embed knowledge more fully.

3. ‘The RE curriculum rarely enabled pupils to systematically build disciplinary knowledge or personal knowledge.’ Teachers need to plan more opportunities for pupils to explore different ‘Ways of Knowing’, and also to deepen their own personal understanding.

4. Pupils need regular opportunities to review and build on important knowledge over time

Please note: the new RE syllabus for Devon, Torbay and Plymouth sets out a programme for the subject that addresses the issues raised in the report.

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Learn Teach Lead RE (LTLRE, Area 1)

LTLRE hub (twilight) meetings are free and open to all teachers of RE, primary and secondary. See LTLRE website for full details.

SWIFT SW RE hub: Thurs 6 June (online), book here

Cornwall: Wed 19 June (online)

Exeter, East Devon, North Devon: Thurs 27 June (online)

Buddhism: Dharma Day

Secondary RE teachers: join us on Fri 7 June to engage with Buddhist teachings and practice at Hartridge Buddhist Monastery,nr Honiton. Contact Ed Pawson for details. Cost: £50.

Primary RE survey 2024

Primary teachers: could you spare 15 minutes to complete the NATRE bi-annual teacher survey? This really helps NATRE to support great teaching and learning about Religion and Worldviews in schools.

Join NATRE

If you are not a member, why not consider joining NATRE (National Association of Teachers of RE). It’s a vibrant and supportive community for RE teaching professionals and the largest membership organisation for RE teachers.

Those buying the Primary Enhanced membership get free access to a suite of Classroom Ready resources. This will be offered at a reduced rate at the syllabus launch events.

Primary RE subject leaders

The NATRE Primary Subject Leader toolkit, is a FREE resource for primary school RE subject leaders. Access a whole number of resources and links to support your role.

Pilgrimage on BBC

Pilgrimage is ‘praying with your feet.’ Follow the personal ups and downs as seven celebrities make an emotional and personal Pilgrimage through North Wales following in the footsteps of Celtic saints as part of the BBC’s Pilgrimage. It’s really inspiring RE on TV.

Religion and Worldviews Hub

The Open University’s Religion, Belief and Worldviews Hub is a brilliant multi-media site for exploring religion, spirituality and non-religion. This short video about Religion, Faith, Spirituality and Worldviews is very well explained.

Women in Mosques

A campaign has been launched to open British mosques to more women.

Find out more about Inclusive Exeter and Inclusive Mosques.

Buckfast Abbey visits

Contact Buckfast Abbey to find out more about visiting the Abbey and about the RE resources they offer. Please email to education@buckfast.org.uk or call on 01364 645517

Exeter Cathedral visits

Exeter Cathedral offers a great range of exciting RE experiences linked to the RE Agreed Syllabus.

Sentientism: a worldview

Find out about Sentientism as a worldview. The belief in ‘compassion for all sentient beings’ has much in common with religious concepts like ahimsa and compassionate stewardship – while its ‘evidence and reason’ shares the naturalistic thinking of Humanism. 

£600 for Christianity resources

The Jerusalem Trust’s Small Grants to Schools Scheme supports the teaching of Christianity within RE. Apply for grants of up to £600 to purchase resources for use in RE lessons.

Wider reading for RE

A list of 100+ books (from EYFS to KS4) that link with RE topics and will inspire young readers to love RE (only available for NATRE members).

Challenging Religion and Worldviews stereotypes

This ‘Challenging Religious and Worldview Stereotypes’ toolkit is a resource to

support schools in dealing with the topic of stereotyping and how to overcome

it. It contains resources and films on which to base your teaching within RE, PSHE or Citizenship lessons and in tutor time.

Beyond Belief archive

The BBC Beyond Belief archive is fantastically rich public resource that provides a wide range of communities across the UK with the opportunity to learn about issues in the study and practice of religions, about cultural and religious diversity, and about the contemporary experience of people in faith communities.

Celebration Kitchen

Celebs and chefs share recipes, treats and traditions with the BBC Saturday Kitchen team. It's the perfect recipe for a glorious celebration of faith through food.

Spiritual Development in RE

In this short article (which is only available to NATRE members), Nicki Bonell explains ‘How I plan opportunities for spiritual development in RE lessons.