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RE NEWS
Spring 2019 EDITION
Resources and
This Photo by Unknown Author
Opportunities
There are many festivals during the Spring
(follow this link to a list of them)
http://www.reonline.org.uk/supporting/festivals-calendar/
1
Contents
RE Support .................................................................................................................................................... 2
RE Conference - 2019 .................................................................................................................................. 3
Understanding Christianity ....................................................................................................................... 3
Local RE Networks – CPD for teachers and subject leaders ................................................................ 4
“Torn from Home” Holocaust .................................................................................................................... 5
Memorial Day 2019 ..................................................................................................................................... 5
Strictly RE 2019 – RE Today’s Annual RE Conference .......................................................................... 6
The Jewish Museum: iCalendar & Podcasts ............................................................................................ 6
Introducing humanism: non-religious approaches to life................................................................... 6
Culham St Gabriel's: Building the future of Primary RE ...................................................................... 7
University of Birmingham: Life of the RE Teacher Project .................................................................. 7
University of Exeter: ‘RE-searchers Approach’ ...................................................................................... 7
The Muslim Council of Britain: Visit my Mosque Day........................................................................... 7
Teaching about Christianity as a world faith in RE ............................................................................... 7
What do Christians think the Bible says about contemporary issues? ............................................. 8
RE Professional Development Portal....................................................................................................... 8
Funding and Professional Development for RE teachers .................................................................... 8
Farmington Scholarships – A report and an opportunity.................................................................... 8
RE Support
The diocese employs a dedicated RE Adviser who is available to visit schools to offer training, advice,
support and resources. Check out the RE pages https://www.oxford.anglican.org/schools/religious-
education/ of the website for the Diocesan Scheme of Work for RE, support materials and links to
teaching resources. New resources and additional units of work for the scheme of work are planned
for the new year. Look out for emails telling you when the updates are available. In the meantime,
do contact me on the details below if you have any queries or comments.
Any comments or suggestions for inclusion in future editions;
any other questions or queries on RE, please email
anne.andrews@oxford.anglican.org
Anne Andrews (RE Adviser)
Oxford Diocesan Board of Education Tel: 01865 208238
Church House Oxford Mob: 07884 655097
Langford Locks Web: https://www.oxford.anglican.org/schools/religious-education/
Kidlington
OX5 1GF
2
RE Conference - 2019
This, our third biennial conference will take place on 26th March 2019, at Moor Hall Conference Centre in
Cookham, Berkshire SL6 9QH and a few places are still available.
Entitled Contradictory Convictions: Conflict, Dialogue and Debate this
conference aims to equip teachers with the skills they need to engage in the
classroom with some controversial issues and topics that cause division.
Much research recently has identified the need for teachers to develop the
skills of handling dialogue and debate to promote genuine understanding
between different religious groups and so the conference will cover religion
and non-religious world-views; science and religion; conscience, community
and culture in the Reformation and art as a means of expressing conflict.
This conference is a bargain at £90 + VAT for schools in the SLA and £100 + VAT for all other schools.
Further information can be found in the Excellence in Schools brochure and on the diocesan website. A
brochure with more details has been sent to schools. To book follow either of these links:
https://www.oxford.anglican.org/event/re-central-re-conference-2/ or
https://www.oxford.anglican.org/schools/religious-education/courses-and-training/
Understanding Christianity
There are still a few spaces available on the training courses for this resource,
published by RE Today, with support from the Church of England Education Office.
The resource, offering teaching units on Christianity from Early Years through to
Year 9 is only available to schools completing the 15 hour training course.
Training Dates for 2019 (Cohort 3)
Church House Oxford, Langford Locks, Kidlington, OX5 1GF
Group 1: 11th Jan: 9.30–4.00; 2nd April: 9.30–4.00; 4th June: 2.00–4.30
Group 2: 18th Jan: 9.30–4.00; 17th May: 9.30–4.00; 17th June: 2.00–4.30
Group 3: 15th Feb: 9.30–4.00; 20th May: 9.30–4.00; 2nd July: 2.00–4.30
The same person from each school should attend all the three dates. A certificate and full access to the
Understanding Christianity website and materials will be awarded to those who complete the course
COSTS: £235 (+VAT) for Schools in Diocesan Service Level Agreement (SLA) who do not have the resource
materials.
£280 (+VAT) for Schools not in the Diocesan Service Level Agreement.
Schools sending a second delegate, or already in possession of the resource may attend the training for £30
If you are unsure, please check by emailing training@oxford.anglican.org or calling Mary Cook on 01865
208272 .
More details are available on the Diocesan website:
http://www.oxford.anglican.org/schools/religious-education/courses-and-training/
3Local RE Networks – CPD for teachers and subject leaders
The New SIAMS schedule places more emphasis on CPD for all staff. Diocesan training will contribute
towards CPD records for staff who attend. These meetings are free of charge to enable all staff to
attend, regardless of school budgets.
To book please email: anne.andrews@oxford.anglican.org unless indicated otherwise.
Oxfordshire
North South
Date: Wednesday 27th February 2019 Date: Thursday 21st March 2019
Time: 3.45-5.15 pm Time: 3.45-5.15 pm
Venue: Deddington School, Deddington, Venue: Benson School, Benson, OX10 6LX
OX15 0TJ
Topic: Spring Festivals Topic: Spring Festivals
West Central
Date: Monday 4th March 2019 Date: Wednesday 6th March 2019
Time: 3.45-5.15 pm Time: 3.45-5.15 pm
Venue: St John’s School, Bluebell Way, Venue: Church House Oxford,
Carterton, OX18 1JF Langford Locks, Kidlington OX5 1GF
Topic: Spring Festivals Topic: Spring Festivals
Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes
Central South
Date: Tuesday 5th February 2019 Date: Tuesday 12th March 2019
Time: 3.45-5.15 pm Time: 3.45-5.15 pm
Venue: Buckingham Park School, Aylesbury Venue: Hazlemere School, nr High Wycombe
HP19 9DZ HP15 7PZ
Topic: Spring Festivals Topic: Spring Festivals
North and Milton Keynes
Date: Thursday 14th March 2019
Time: 3.45-5.30 pm
Venue: Greek Orthodox Church in Milton Keynes, MK11 1JA
Topic: Orthodox Christianity
To book this session please contact: Janet.Gleghorn@Milton-keynes.gov.uk
4East Berkshire
Bracknell Forest RBWM and Slough
Date: Thursday 28th February 2019 Date: Tuesday 19th March 2019
Time: 4.15-5.30 pm Time: 4.00-5.30 pm
Venue: Open Learning Centre, Rectory Lane, Venue: Holyport CE Primary School, Stroud Farm
Bracknell, RG12 7GR Road, Holyport, SL6 2LP
Topic: Spring Festivals Topic: Spring Festivals
To book, contact Sue Shields: To book, contact Elaine Norstrom:
sue.shields@bracknell-forest.gov.uk elaine.norstrom@achievingforchildren.org.uk
Support for RE in other areas of Berkshire is provided by the local authorities and their SACREs.
Please see their websites for further information.
“Torn from Home” Holocaust
Memorial Day 2019
Christ Church Cathedral, in partnership with Oxford
Jewish Centre and the Museum of Oxford, will hold an
event for teachers about approaches to Holocaust
history, genocide, and peace education.
25th January 2019 from 9.30am–3.45pm
Programme details:
9.15am Meet at the Oxford Jewish Centre, 21, Richmond Rd, Oxford OX1 2JL
9.30am-10.30am Synagogue Visit and Talk with Sarah Montagu, Oxford Jewish Congregation.
10.30am-11.15am walk to Christ Church along part of the Jewish Quarter trail.
11.15am-12.30pm Town Hall
a) A visit to the Town Hall Cellars with Kate Toomey, find out more about links to the Jewish quarter of
medieval Oxford. The cellar of the Town Hall features a late medieval crypt.
b) Oxford Stand Up to Racism “Never Again” exhibition, which helps to bring key HMD issues up to date, with
recent and current prejudices and genocides.
12.45-1.30pm Simple buffet lunch at Christ Church in the McKenna Room
1.30-2.15pm Talk by Martin Gorick (Archdeacon of Oxford) about the history of the Jewish community in
Oxford.
2.15-3pm Torn from Home. Seminar on this year’s HMD theme, with Jackie Holderness.
3.00-3.20 pm Tea
3.20-3.45 pm A short, reflective meditation in the Cathedral with Bede Gerrard.
3.45 pm Depart
To book your place, contact education@chch.ox.ac.uk
£15 including lunch (£10 for student teachers)
5Strictly RE 2019 – RE Today’s Annual RE Conference
https://www.natre.org.uk/courses-events/strictlyRE-2019/
Date: 26 January 2019
Location: Park Inn, London Heathrow
Full price: £175
NATRE members get up £80 discount*
Booking: Complete the booking form on the website
“Some of the best practical CPD I’ve had (in 17 years), tons of ideas to transfer directly to the classroom”
27 seminars to choose from | Thought-provoking keynotes | Exciting and relevant exhibitors | Networking
and connections
Choose from 27 seminars on a wide variety of topics, including:
• Teaching about non-religious worldviews in primary schools (primary)
• Getting Shia Islam correct: misconceptions, Imamate and Ashura (secondary)
• Dealing with withdrawal in RE (cross phase)
• Inspiring and creative RE for younger pupils (primary)
• Teaching the arguments for the existence of God at A level (secondary)
Conference price includes lunch and refreshments, downloadable handouts and presentations from all
sessions.
The Jewish Museum: iCalendar & Podcasts
Download the iCalendar: https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/schools/asset/icalendar/
Keep up with the Jewish Festivals during this academic year 2018-2019 by downloading the iCalendar. The
calendar will be added to your own calendar and includes information on the Festivals with a related object
from the Jewish Museum collection.
Jewish Museum Podcasts: https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/?sfid=492&_sft_jm_asset_type=podcast
The podcast series ‘Community Chats’ is now live with the first two episodes available on our Teachers’ Portal.
‘Community Chats’ explores the views of different Jewish people within the community. Follow the link to
listen to the different views of an Orthodox and a Liberal rabbi.
Introducing humanism: non-religious approaches to life
A free online course on humanism for teachers and students.
Join Sandi Toksvig for an exploration and evaluation of the humanist approach to life. It's ideal for teachers
looking to improve their subject knowledge or sixth-form students interested in developing their own
understanding of humanism or preparing for a degree in the humanities. Including contributions from
academics, humanist campaigners, celebrants, pastoral carers, and members of the public. It will widen your
awareness of what it means to be a humanist today.
The course is open for enrolment now. For more information, please follow this link:
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/introducing-humanism
6Culham St Gabriel's: Building the future of Primary RE
Culham St Gabriel Trust is funding a project to develop Recommendation 6 of the Commission on Religious
Education’s Report (CoRE, 2018). This calls for a minimum of 12 hours’ contact time for Religion and
Worldviews in Primary Initial Teacher Education, funding for subject knowledge enhancement and two new
modules for Primary ITE and CPD. We are keen to work with Primary ITE tutors and teachers across the country
over the coming few months, to explore ideas about improving provision and identifying examples of good
practice. These will be shared at a conference at Middlesex University on Saturday 13th July 2019 and on line.
If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Linda Whitworth at l.whitworth@mdx.ac.uk
University of Birmingham: Life of the RE Teacher Project
The Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues at the University of Birmingham is conducting research into the
perspectives, views and personal lives of religious education teachers. Would you be able to spare up to two
hours of your time to participate in an interview? For more details, please contact Jason Metcalfe (email:
j.m.metcalfe@bham.ac.uk; telephone: 0121 414 4799).
University of Exeter: ‘RE-searchers Approach’
You may remember this project from the RE conference in 2015. The University of Exeter invites Primary and
Secondary RE teachers to participate in a trial of the innovative ‘RE-searchers Approach’. For more details see
the article on the RE Online website: http://www.reonline.org.uk/re-searchers/.
International colleagues would like to hear your feedback at a workshop in October. If interested, please
contact H.C.John@exeter.ac.uk
The Muslim Council of Britain: Visit my Mosque Day
The national #VisitMyMosque day will be taking place on Sunday 3rd March 2019, where
Mosques all over the UK will be opening their doors to the general public. The day is facilitated
by the Muslim Council of Britain to help boost community engagement and to dispel any
misunderstandings around Mosques and Islam. Schools are invited to arrange visits for pupils
to a local mosque on Monday 4th March 2019 at selected mosques nationwide.
Contact visitmymosque@mcb.org.uk for more information.
Teaching about Christianity as a world faith in RE
Where in the world? is an active 2-hour CPD session from Barnabas in Schools
for primary teaching staff, that explains how to creatively teach about
Christianity as a world faith, using a broader, more diverse range of expressions
to those normally experienced in the UK. The course’s resource book has
recently been accredited for use with the National Society’s Understanding
Christianity project.
This Photo by Unknown Author
A similarly-themed Barnabas RE Day of drama, storytelling and discussion is also available for lessons in
primary schools and academies.
Follow this link for details: https://www.barnabasinschools.org.uk/where-in-the-world
7What do Christians think the Bible says about contemporary
issues?
The Jubilee Centre, one of the UK’s leading Christian think tanks offers this set of
13 pamphlets providing accessible introductions to biblical perspectives on a
range of modern ‘hot topics’—from consumerism, to social media, to
surveillance. http://www.jubilee-centre.org/tba-offer/
Concise, thought-provoking and attractively presented, these 8-page pamphlets
are great resources for teachers and students.
Tackling key topics, such as poverty and the family, each pamphlet is structured around three key questions:
What’s the problem? What does the Bible say? And, where do we go from here?
Building on over 30 years’ worth of research, these robustly-researched, yet engagingly accessible pamphlets
explore Christian ethics by unpacking how the Bible is relevant in our 21st century world.
RE Professional Development Portal
All the latest professional development opportunities in RE are tweeted and retweeted via the RE PD Portal
Twitter account @RE_PDPortal and on the REC website: http://www.theredirectory.org.uk/pdportal
The RE PD portal is managed by the Religious Education Council and is a one-stop shop for teachers of RE to
find out about professional development opportunities of all kinds. The portal includes a database of courses
across the UK and online.
Funding and Professional Development for RE teachers
Culham St Gabriel’s Trust exists to support and promote excellence in RE. Here are some ways we and our
partners might help you and your colleagues:
• For Masters funding, now including leadership and management Masters:
http://www.cstg.org.uk/how-we-help/3forre/
• For excellent RE resources go to RE:ONLINE: www.reonline.org.uk
• For training opportunities see the new TEACH:RE course: http://www.teachre.co.uk
• Join the National Association of Teachers of RE: www.natre.org.uk
• Post your RE research output or search for topics: http://researchforre.reonline.org.uk/
Farmington Scholarships – A report and an opportunity
Julie Easton from Wokingham writes…
“Last year I applied for a Farmington Scholarship. These are granted by the Farmington Institute which is part
of the Harris Manchester College in Oxford. The scholarships are available for any teacher of RE (Secondary)
or RE coordinator (Primary) in a teaching role in a school and provide time and support to enable the teacher
to carry out a piece of work in connection with RE and Collective Worship.
We have a high percentage of children on the autism spectrum in school and I had experienced a few
difficulties when teaching lessons that came under the area of ‘Learning from Religion’ with my classes, in
particular those classes where I had several children with a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome or autism. I
therefore decided that I would apply for a scholarship to research how children access this part of the
curriculum, with a focus on children on the autism spectrum.
8I was awarded a scholarship for six weeks. This paid for a member of staff to cover my teaching role, my fees
at the university for the term, a mentor to support me in my work and all travel expenses. I was based in
Oxford and took the time in the Spring term, either side of half term, giving me seven weeks to carry out my
project.
I was able to spend many quiet hours in the libraries in Oxford reading about RE theory and teaching methods,
development of the skills needed for accessing Learning from Religion (Theory of Mind) in children generally
and children on the autism spectrum in particular. I found it fascinating and loved being able to study again. It
made me realise how much we do in school, but how we lack time to go into things in any depth.
I was also able to carry out some Action Research. I visited several different schools to work with children, 50%
of whom were diagnosed as on the autism spectrum. The schools ranged from private to state, Primary to
Middle schools, Catholic and Church of England to no Church foundation and ranged from as far as
Gloucestershire and Warwickshire to more locally in Reading and Wokingham. It was a real privilege to work
with some amazing children who took part in my tasks with enthusiasm and were very honest in the feedback
they gave. The work I did with them gave me a real insight into how children think when approaching “Learning
from Religion” tasks.
I could have kept on reading and researching quite happily but all too soon the seven weeks came to an end.
I wrote up my findings in a report for the Farmington Institute and prepared my presentation for school staff
and the Farmington Scholars weekend in June. I was limited to 25 minutes and it was so hard to stick to the
time! Being a lover of graphs, I had plenty comparative reports to show and left just enough time to share my
conclusions at the end. If you are interested in my findings you can read my report in full by requesting it from
the Farmington Institute Website http://www.farmington.ac.uk/index.php/scholars-reports/ .
The aims of a Farmington Scholarship are two-fold. Firstly, to support the teaching of RE in schools, but also
to enable the teachers involved to have a sabbatical from their teaching responsibilities. My tutor was
constantly reminding me of this and so I made the most of my time in Oxford. I visited as many of the libraries
as time allowed, went to concerts at the Sheldonian Theatre, took a full part in college life (we even took the
college tandem for a spin!) and enjoyed simple pleasures like relaxing with a coffee on the train journey into
Oxford every day.
The Farmington Scholarship has been one of the highlights of my teaching career and I would thoroughly
recommend anyone who is eligible to apply. It gave me the time and freedom to exchange a huge workload
and constant day-to-day problem solving, for the luxury of in depth thinking about educational issues. I had
the privilege of meeting and working with some amazing children and adults, seeing a wide spectrum of
different schools in operation and becoming a student again, in Oxford of all places, with all the unique
experiences which that brings. It also meant being part of one of the most positive teacher training
environments I have been in, where Primary, Secondary and Special School staff all share knowledge and
experiences on an equal footing. Not only have I taken back to the classroom a greater depth of knowledge
and understanding, but also a renewed enthusiasm and energy for teaching which 25 years in the classroom
had inevitably sapped.
My heartfelt thanks go to everyone at the Farmington Institute and all those who were involved in my project
in any way. I would encourage everyone to look at the wide range of work that has been carried out on the
website, I have found it a really useful resource as an RE Coordinator, and to seriously consider applying
yourself! The closing date for applications this year is 27th January.
9You can also read
