Religious education newsletter - September 2025

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Devon Education Services colour logo
Photo of Ed Pawson, LTLRE logo, Diocese of Exeter logo, SACRE Devon and SACRE Torbay logos

September 2025

Contact:efpawson@gmail.com

FAO: Headteachers, senior leaders, governors, teaching and support staff

RE school support

For RE support, please contact Ed Pawson.

For Church school support, contact please Jo Hunter


Concepts and stories in RE

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”Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory. Disconnected facts in the mind are like unlinked pages on the Web: They might as well not exist.”

Steven Pinker


“Our brains privilege stories.”

Daniel Willingham


Mary Myatt talks about the way concepts act like learning baskets, serving to collect and link our subject knowledge into meaningful patterns. The 2024 Ofsted RE subject report points to the importance of creating a curriculum where pupils can ‘build up a connected conceptual framework about religion and non-religion.’ Stories are an important vehicle for the development of conceptual knowledge.


Does your RE curriculum identify key stories to read and concepts that run through topics and across units?


Here are some primary RE story books recommended by Mary Myatt.

LTLRE conference 2025

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Embracing Diversity and Inclusion through a Religion and Worldviews approach to RE

Revd Anjali Kanagaratnam: Understanding the Rich Diversity of the Global Christian Community

A wide array of workshops for primary and secondary, including a special feature on Lived Experience and Pilgrimage.

           

Friday 17 October - St Mellion, nr Plymouth 

Cost: £80, Book here.

Learn Teach Lead RE  

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

Devon hub: Thursday 20 November

SWIFT professional community: Wednesday 25 November

Cornwall hub: Thursday 27 November

Israel-Palestine Education

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Book a Solutions Not Sides visit to your school. SNS has been teaching skills of empathy, active listening, communication, critical thinking and conflict resolution through exploration of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict since 2010. SNS will be leading secondary school sessions in the SW in January 26 and there’s still availability: 19, 20, 23 January 2026. Highly recommended! Book early!

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Other news

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Interfaith Week 2025

Are you making plans for Interfaith Week 2025? Taking place from 9-16 November, it aims to  raise awareness of the diverse contributions of faith and belief communities and promote understanding among people of different religious and non-religious beliefs.

Ideas: invite school speakers, visit Places of Worship, set up discussions, cultural events and activities etc.

RE Hubs

Visit the RE Hubs website for all your RE needs: accredited School Speakers, Places of Worship, Advertise RE Jobs, Resources, Calendar of CPD Events, Local Groups.

Access local Religion and Worldviews visitors for RE.

NATRE secondary survey

Secondary teachers: please complete NATRE’s RE teacher survey to help campaign for our subject!


Islam survey 2025

The British Muslims census report provides useful facts about the diverse makeup of the Muslim population in the UK in 2025. There are some useful graphics here.

Mo Farah on Hajj

“My faith has remained important to me throughout my career. To visit Mecca fulfilled a dream of mine.” Mo Farah Facebook post

Malala on the Qur’an

“I started learning the Qur’an with translation at around age 10 and remember that it had these powerful messages about doing good and being a virtuous person. They made a big impression on me then and have stayed with me ever since.” Malala Yousafzai Facebook Post

Muslim England footballer

Djed Spence has become the first Muslim to play for the senior England men's football team.

Christianity under-reported

Christianity is not accurately reported in Britain today, giving a narrow and stereotyped view and failing to reflect the reality of the fast-changing and diverse UK church.

Judaism- Any Questions

Join the informal drop-in session 3.30-4.30pm on 23 October. Anna Silver from the Board of Deputies of British Jews will be available to answer questions about Judaism.

Picture news

Picture news offers great ways for your pupils to encounter current affairs and spark their interest in the world around them. Special offer - free sample for the start of a new school year.

AI in RE

In The Missing Link podcast AI and RE Krys McInnis shares some excellent ideas on the use of AI in RE, redefining AI as a creative and reflective tool, rather than just a short cut to complete tasks.

RE is about meaning. The AI algorithm is not neutral. Can AI understand the sacred?

Humanism: the word

Today, the word ‘humanism’ is widely understood to describe a non-religious worldview. But, the word ‘humanism’ has a long history, and its meaning has varied across time and according to the context in which it is being used.

RE programmes for KS3 and 4

Message from Lat Blaylock: These BBC programmes for GCSE RS (and 11-14s) are rather unknown, but I'm proud of them. They are usefully collected all together in one place on this link. Build them into your schemes of work if you like them.

Education and the Holocaust

“Education is not memorizing that Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Education is understanding how millions of ordinary Germans were convinced that it was required. Education is learning how to spot the signs of history repeating itself.”  Noam Chomsky

HMD 2026

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2026, 'Bridging Generations', is a call-to-action. A reminder that the responsibility of remembrance doesn't end with the survivors - it lives on through their children, their grandchildren and through all of us.

Events are being planned for Exeter on Tuesday 27 January 2026.

RE MAT leaders

Do you lead RE across a MAT? Training opportunities here.

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