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Five years ago, today I started as Chief Executive of Culham St Gabriel’s Trust. I think because much of that time was impacted by Covid-19 it seems to have gone extremely quickly!!! As I think back over the last few years, I am particularly struck by the amazing people I work with on a day-to-day basis within our Culham St Gabriel’s team, but also more widely with an increasing number of stakeholders and partner organisations. Someone asked me the other day what I like most about my job. I truly said, ‘all of it’! However, the opportunity to bring about change and make a positive difference is what energises me each morning.

In the last few years Culham St Gabriel’s has refined its vision, but also broadened its reach. Many of you will know the Trust through our RE:ONLINE website, and five years ago this was probably the most important programme we ran. I still believe it is vital, but we have also developed new activities and reshaped existing programmes such as our four scholarships (Masters, Doctoral, CTeach, Leadership), RExChange and our e-learning platform. We have created a ‘family’ of grant-funded projects. We have launched campaigns relating to teacher recruitment, public perception and freedom of religion or belief. We are increasingly engaged in policy and advocacy work and are using our influence within the wider educational sector.

In light of this, we have decided to bring a little more coherency to our brand over the coming months. This means we can engage with a range of audiences more easily.

Firstly, we are going to use one logo for all our work, and programmes like RE:ONLINE and RExChange will use this logo too. We also have a new strapline ‘Championing religion and worldviews education’. This says very clearly what we are about!

You will notice that the @reonline_tweets handle is changing to @culhamstgabriel and that our Facebook page has also changed from RE:ONLINE to Culham St Gabriel’s. This aligns them with our Instagram and LinkedIn handles. Our newsletter will also soon be branded as Culham St Gabriel’s, rather than RE:ONLINE.

The RE:ONLINE website is getting a bit of a refresh so it looks and feels more like the Culham St Gabriel’s website. This will take place over the coming few months.

This week for me is a great example of how Culham St Gabriel’s is reaching into diverse spaces and where coherency of our brand vital. We met with school improvement leads at a Confederation of School Trusts conference, are attending a conference on The Bloom review One Year On, and then supporting the RE Council of England and Wales with the launch of the religion and worldviews approach handbook.

I hope over the next five years we can champion religion and worldviews education together.

Ofsted’s recently published Deep and Meaningful? The religious education subject report (2024) is a sobering read. However, there is hope.

Others have provided some helpful summaries[1] outlining Ofsted’s call for updated guidance from the DfE, the lack of depth and substance to the curriculum, over emphasis on teaching to an exam, long gaps between lessons and the need for subject specific professional development. The report foregrounds issues which those of us working directly in this field have raised for some time and have lobbied government about alongside our partners such as NATRE and the RE Council of England and Wales.

However, there is also hope. There are examples of effective practice where teachers are exemplifying scholarly and ambitious approaches to the subject. There are signs that some senior leaders are taking the subject very seriously despite the pressures on curriculum time, valuing its importance for young people in an increasingly complex world. In many ways this report is a call to action within educational establishments and a call for action by the current and future governments.

The recommendation that government should urgently update guidance reinforces the significance of the recently published National Content Standard for RE in England (RE Council 2023). As a charity which champions religion and worldviews education we have actively supported this publication and continue to lobby for its wider endorsement. In addition, we look forward to the publication by the RE Council in early May of a curriculum toolkit to support a religion and worldviews approach based on research and good practice.

Two of the factors which Ofsted highlight as contributing towards better quality RE are strong teacher subject knowledge and access to professional development. Culham St Gabriel’s provides freely accessible subject knowledge support through RE:ONLINE and our e-learning platform. Our varying scholarships, particularly our leadership programme exemplify the areas of professional development which Ofsted highlights- namely policy, curriculum subject knowledge, pedagogy and research. Some of our grant funded projects are also contributing to an understanding of assessment and curriculum breadth and depth.

At Cullham St Gabriel’s we will continue to do all we can to secure a religion and worldviews education which is deep and meaningful for all children and young people.

To find out more about our support for teachers:
Sign up to our newsletter
Check out our free e-learning courses
Find out more about our advocacy work

[1] see for example:

NATRE – OFSTED ‘Deep and Meaningful The Religious Education Subject Report April 2024’

RE Counci of England and Wales – Comment on Ofsted’s report on RE “Deep and meaningful? The religious education subject report” from RE Policy Unit.

Schools Week – Ofsted criticises ‘limited and poor quality’ RE lessons

Many of you will know that government funding for subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses for RE has been cut from 10^th April this year. In light of this a small group have got together to create a list of largely free alternatives that may be of interest to all ITT providers. We hope you find it helpful.

 

Developments at Culham St. Gabriel’s Trust

We are sure many of you will have noticed the recent changes within the staff team at Culham St Gabriel’s. In the last few months, we have welcomed Taylor as our Communications Officer, Liz as our Finance and Administration Officer, and most recently Julia as our Grants, Governance and Partnership Manager.

Today we are advertising one final new role, an Education and Programmes Manager. You can read more about this here. The changes to personnel structure, including this latest new role, will enable us to fulfil our strategy as effectively as possible, build capacity, support more teachers and be an even greater ambassador for religion and worldviews education.

However, this change also means that we will be saying goodbye to some of our consultants at the end of August as their work will be taken forward by the person who is appointed to this role. We want to say publicly that the work of our consultants has been of outstanding quality over the last few years. Each of them has contributed greatly to the work of the Trust and they have been a dedicated and creative team. We know that many of you have benefited from their expertise, advice and support. We plan to continue partnering with many of them in new ways over the coming years.

We plan to say a huge thank you to our consultants later this term.

Education and Programmes Manager

• Reports to: Chief Executive
• Hours of Work: Full Time, 35 hours a week
• Location: Home based, with once-a-month in person meetings
• Salary: £55,000
• Key Benefits: 10% employer pension contribution, Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Holiday Entitlement: 25 days per annum, bank holidays and four discretionary days

Subject Knowledge Enhancement (SKE) courses are indispensable in the realm of teacher education, especially in the preparation of teachers for intricate subjects like Religious Education (RE). The recent decision by the Department for Education (DfE) to withdraw funding from SKEs for RE has sparked significant concerns within the RE community. This decision, attributed to budget constraints and policy shifts within the DfE, was made without adequate notice, exacerbating apprehensions among training providers.

The ramifications of this decision are profound, particularly in the recruitment of RE trainee teachers. Despite efforts such as the introduction of an Initial Teacher Training (ITT) bursary to stimulate RE recruitment, projections indicate that recruitment will still fall short of targets. The DfE’s stance on prioritizing funding for subjects facing significant recruitment challenges, such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, computing, and languages, disregards the persistent under-recruitment in RE over the past decade. RE attracts candidates from diverse backgrounds, enriching the teaching landscape, but this diversity underscores the crucial role of SKE courses in ensuring a versatile and well-prepared teaching workforce. The future of RE teacher training now hangs precariously in the balance.

Critiques of the DfE’s justifications are warranted. The assertion that the number of RE trainees engaging with SKEs is relatively small belies its significance, as it constitutes 30% of the current training cohort, without which the subject would be in a considerably worse position. Additionally, the claim that RE SKEs account for only 3% of the overall SKE budget overlooks their vital contribution to RE training and any reasoning behind cost saving. Suggestions that trainees can supplement their knowledge post-ITT using generic resources contradict the imperative of high-quality specialist subject knowledge and training advocated by Ofsted. Moreover, the persistence of non-specialist teachers teaching RE underscores the inadequacy of such justifications.

The importance of SKE courses is exemplified by individuals like Syara Bano, a former Edge Hill University PGCE trainee, whose valuable RE teaching career continues to thrive thanks to the SKE boost. Her testimony underscores the invaluable role of SKE courses in shaping proficient RE teachers: https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/person/syara-bano/student/

It is imperative that the current and future governments address these concerns and reinstate funding for RE SKE courses to ensure the continued excellence of RE teacher training.

Grants, Governance and Partnership Manager

• Reports to: Chief Executive
• Hours of Work: Full Time, 35 hours a week
• Location: Home based, with once-a-month in person meetings
• Salary: £43,000
• Key Benefits: 10% employer pension contribution, Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Holiday Entitlement: 25 days per annum, bank holidays and four discretionary days

Last week, Culham St Gabriel’s had a stand at the Confederation of School Trusts’ Annual Conference. The theme was #belonging. In our publicity for this event we focused on people, place, and purpose. In changing and challenging times in the education sector we can feel unsettled. However, the sense of belonging in the religion and worldviews community is strong. We need to make sure we shout about this, particularly with those who are entering the profession this term.

People: Nurturing relationships and dialogue

We talked to delegates about our scholarship programme communities, RExChange and our strategic partnerships with many RE organisations. It was a real delight to host our stand with Fiona Moss, CEO of NATRE who could immediately share the value and importance of subject association membership with school leaders. It was good to be able to talk about the vast numbers of networking opportunities for teachers of RE, and MAT RE Leads in particular.

Place: Making connections and supporting community identity

We talked about promoting community identity through promotional films, through our resourcing and funding RE Hubs. We also shared our campaigning work in particular in relation to teacher recruitment and retention and also advocating for freedom of religion or belief. We heard stories from Trust leads about the challenges of recruiting teachers of RE and talked about the ways in which the RE Policy Unit are lobbying for a bursary and wider funding for the subject at the party conferences.

Purpose: Advancing the cause of an education in religion and worldviews

We promoted our project grant awards, scholarships and e-learning courses. We also shared more about the recently published National Content Standard for RE, an important document to clarify standards and support excellence in the subject. In this regard it was good to talk to some of the other exhibitors, including publishers about how they might benefit from the subject having a National Content Standard.

Download the National Content Standard for RE

A webinar about the Standard is being held on 5th December for senior leaders

Pupils in schools are either receiving tokenistic religious education or none at all, according to a group of more than 30 MPs and peers who have written to the Education Secretary. The MPs blame a lack of trained teachers and funding for the poor quality of religious education. They argue that this lack of education leaves children ill-prepared to understand their own and others’ world views, hindering their ability to participate in society. The MPs are calling on the Government to provide funding for bursaries to encourage more people to pursue a career in religious education and improve teacher recruitment. The cross-party group warned that RE received no Government funding for subject-specific projects between 2016 and 2021, while music received £387m, maths £154m and science £56m. The Department for Education states that religious education is compulsory for all pupils up to the age of 18 and is taught in secondary schools.

Link to full article in The Daily Telegraph

Our strategic objectives over the last three years have served us well, and we believe we have made much progress. However, the educational context has changed; society is shifting, and we must respond to this. You will see that our revised objectives are similar, but with some subtle changes which I will explain a little more about.

Our new strategic objectives 2023-26 are:

1. Promoting positive public perception and understanding of an education in religion and worldviews
2. Influencing governments’ policies in supporting a high-quality education in religion and worldviews [1], including the implementation of a National Plan in England
3. Advocating for the importance of high-quality education in religion and worldviews within the education world
4. Empowering the current and next generation of religion and worldviews teachers and leaders
5. Fostering and nurturing collaborative partnerships within the religion and worldviews community

[1] By the phrase an education in religion and worldviews, we are including what is currently to referred in legislation as Religious Education in England, Religion Values and Ethics in Wales, Religious and Moral Education in Scotland and Religious Education in Northern Ireland.

In our first objective we have added the word ‘understanding’. Our commissioned surveys over the last two years indicate that there is much positive perception, but often there is less understanding of what an education in religion and worldviews means. We will be developing our work and looking to support those who are seeking understanding. We see our work on promoting and protecting freedom of religion or belief as a key strand within this.

Our second objective has changed significantly to refer to the different governments within the UK, as well as to the implementation of a National Plan in England specifically. This aims to highlight the fact that CSTG supports work across the whole of the UK, as well as focusing on achieving change within England specifically.

The third objective is unchanged. We still aim to advocate for the subject within the wider education world, including with organisations such as Ofsted, Oak Academy, Unions, Multi- Academy Trusts, as well as with governors, headteachers and parents.

Our fourth objective aims to place more emphasis on supporting teachers and leaders throughout their career. There is a more specific nod to recruitment and retention here in the language we have used, and to empowering leaders of the future.
Lastly, our final objective builds on our work facilitating the religion and worldviews community to work more cohesively together over the last three years. We feel RExChange and our Leadership Programme have supported this. We sense that many organisations within the sector are collaborating and working in partnership and we would like to support this strategically, particularly through the RE Hubs.

Culham St Gabriel’s is entering a new season. We hope you will want to partner with us as we continue to work towards our vision for a broad-based, critical, reflective education in religion and worldviews contributing to a well-informed, respectful, and open society.