Religious Education in Church Schools

RE was first made part of a pupil's legal educational entitlement in the 1944 Education Act. In the 1988 Education Reform Act it was placed alongside the National Curriculum subjects as part of the Basic Curriculum; despite recent changes to the National Curriculum RE has retained its place in the Core Curriculum.

RE is locally determined, with each county or unitary authority establishing its own distinctive Agreed Syllabus, or adopting that of a neighbour (just as Peterborough has adopted the Cambridgeshire Syllabus). Each syllabus is based on model syllabuses brought out by SCAA in 1994 and follows the requirement of the 1988 Act that Agreed Syllabuses "shall reflect the fact that religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian". In the LEAs covered by the Diocese of Ely, the Agreed Syllabuses cover six faiths (Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism) by the end of the primary phase. Voluntary Controlled Church Schools follow their LA Agreed Syllabus for RE in the same way as do Community Schools, unless the parents of a school specifically ask for "denominational teaching" to be made available. At present, very few Voluntary Controlled Schools in the country have denominational teaching in RE; none of these are in Ely Diocese.

Parents have the right to withdraw their children from RE lessons on religious grounds, and this should be clearly stated in the school's brochure.

RE in Voluntary Aided Church Schools

The Roman Catholic Dioceses and some Anglican Dioceses in England have their own RE Syllabuses for use in Voluntary Aided Schools. This is not the case in Ely Diocese where, for many years, it has been the policy of the Diocesan Board of Education & Training to encourage all church schools to use their LA Agreed syllabus as a basis for their RE.

In Voluntary Aided Church Schools the RE policy and schemes are the responsibility of the governing body. The governors have the freedom to nominate the number of religions which will be taught in their school; as long as Christianity is studied in some depth, a further one to five faiths (see above) may be encountered. Schools are recommended to consult the officers of the Diocesan Board of Education & Training when considering changes to their present RE provision.

The county Agreed Syllabus remains the recommended base for RE in Voluntary Aided Schools, but should be supplemented by the support materials found in the Diocese's printed "Religious Education Guidelines for Church Schools".

In Voluntary Aided Schools RE will be inspected as part of the Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools (SIAS).

RE Documentation and Resources

RE is allocated 5% of curriculum time in a primary school's timetable. In practical terms, this becomes the equivalent of 50 minutes per week at KS1 and 1 hour at KS2. This may be taught as regular weekly lessons or in larger topic blocks, as the school deems appropriate. Many schools will choose to spend additional time on RE related topics at Christmas and Easter. Cross-curricular topics are no longer as popular as they once were in primary schools, and the move to discrete RE lessons and RE topic work has been proved by OFSTED to benefit the teaching of RE.

Like all curriculum areas, RE requires policy documents, schemes of work, long and short-term plans and a budget. It should be properly planned, coherent, demonstrate progression (especially at the time of the major Christian festivals) and academically rigorous. At present (1999), most Agreed Syllabuses use broad end of key stage attainment statements as the basis for assessment. This seems likely to alter as the Agreed Syllabuses come up for review, and eight level attainment statements are introduced to bring RE in line with other curriculum areas.

A common problem: There may be some confusion in staff or pupils minds about the relationship between RE and collective worship, especially as the two areas overlap in subject content. RE is a curriculum subject, collective worship is not.

The approach to the two areas is also different; in RE one is helping the pupils understand religion, but is distanced from it (just as, for example, one is necessarily distanced from the Tudors in the history curriculum); in collective worship those present are being given the opportunity to involve themselves in the worship of God.

The language and approach of the two activities are necessarily different and should not be confused. Schools, therefore, should not include collective worship within their allocated RE time, or make either activity the servant of the other.

The officers of the Diocesan Board of Education & Training are always happy to advise schools on RE. A more detailed coverage of the subject may be found in the printed Diocesan "Religious Education Guidelines for Church Schools".

Further information can be obtained from Dr Shirley Hall

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