What is happening in RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

1. What is happening in RELIGIOUS EDUCATION HULL JOHN KEAST, Chair of the Religious Education Council 19 April 2013

2. Preamble: What is the RE Council? • Umbrella body for all RE community • Faith communities • Professional and academic organisations (including NATRE, ISRSA) • Voluntary groups • National united voice of RE working with and through its member organisations

3. Introduction:Recent improvements in RE • National Support, ie curriculum development, exemplification, qualifications, training • Model syllabuses 1994 • Funding for training 1994-6 • QCA support for SACREs – conference, analysis of reports • Development of GCSE short course • Non-statutory Guidance 2000 • Non-statutory National Framework 2004 • Local Support, ie SACREs, Las, Peer groups through NATRE

4. RE nationally since 2010 • RE not required by statute to be taught in academies and free schools: funding agreements only (Academies Act 2010) • Academies not required to teach RE according to LAS(A Act 2010) • No response given to 2010 Ofsted Long Report: next due this May • Abolition QC(D)A: no national support (2011) • Removal of all national exemplars and Programmes of Study (2011) • Reduced targets for RE PGCE places by a third, putting many courses at risk of closure, because numbers are single figures (2011) • Removal of bursaries for RE PGCE applicants – decline in applicants • Exclusion of RS from EBacc (2011) • Exclusion of RE from the government review of the school curriculum • Discounting of GCSE short course in school performance • Reform of GCSEs announced: future of RS (& others) unclear (2012) • Ofsted no longer carrying out subject surveys, no national picture of RE

5. RE locally since 2007 • Loss of paragraphs on RE in Ofsted inspection reports • Loss of RE adviser posts • Diminishing or no budgets for SACREs • Most secondary schools now outside the remit of SACREs • Some SACREs failing to meet and/or carry out duties • Statutory Agreed Syllabus reviews increasingly not carried out • Virtual disappearance of local CPD

6. Interpretation: what is happening to RE • Dismantling of national support and structures for RE • Increasing collapse of local support and structures for RE • Consequences • Nobody locally knows what is happening in RE in schools • Little or no opportunity for continuing professional development • Fewer qualifications likely to be taken with knock on effect to HE • Fewer trained teachers • Fragmentation of RE curriculum • Marginalisation, decline in status, provision and quality • Risk of downward spiral in non-faith based schools

7. How the REC is responding • Coming together of the RE community to take responsibility for RE in a new educational world • Strategic Plan (2011-15), including • Curriculum Assessment and Qualifications • Professional Development • Public Relations • Representation to government to seek • Signal of importance of RE • Support for RE Council and its work

8. Key Strategic plan activities • Own Review of RE • Parallel to review of National Curriculum • Restated aims, core curriculum, assessment, guidance • Phase 2 now starting based on Expert Panel Report (Jan 13) • Qualifications reform: REC role? • All Party Parliamentary Group for RE: • Report of enquiry on Teacher training and support just published – RE: The truth unmasked • RethinkREwww.rethinkre.org • Links with trusts, heads and governors • RE Quality Mark • Young ambassadors for RE

9. Conclusion • National support for RE has led to its improvement since 1994 but support for RE teachers nationally is now being eroded • Local support for RE has depended on national initiatives but is now fragmenting • RE is in danger especially in non-faith based schools • RE Council is stepping into the void!

10. Questions?