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Some thoughts on the role of a curriculum leader for religion and worldviews

Over the last week I have been at various events around the country talking about and listening to various conversations about curriculum. I have heard curriculum leaders for religion and worldviews compared to a juggler, and to contestants of Bake Off! However, I have another analogy which I have found helpful in my reading over the last month.

I have recently read a book called Modern Grant Making: A guide for funders who believe better is possible. This sets out some very helpful thinking for charities and foundations around the value of service. How are we serving others? They point out that sometimes grant funders design their grant making policies and processes and do not revisit them for many years. They tend to assume that everything still works for everyone. They use the analogy of an architect, saying that it is like designing a house and building it. However, after living in the house for a while, the client realises that the stairs are in the wrong place. Having probably spent quite a lot of time and money they ‘live with it’ for some time, perhaps years, before deciding to make any changes.

The authors go on to say that charities and foundations need to be take an attitude of service, where they constantly evaluate and re-evaluate what they do, developing continually new and improved iterations of policies and practices. They compare this to a chef. A chef provides service daily to their customers. They are continually providing the best service possible. They refine their menu, improve recipes, rethink ingredients and so on. It is an iterative process daily. I found this a very powerful analogy as someone who oversees a charitable foundation.

I wonder though if this analogy is also helpful for curriculum leaders of religion and worldviews. Are we more like architects where we design a curriculum, and then leave it for some time before we revisit it? Or are we more like chefs who understand that it is a continual process of designing and redesigning? Having been involved with the development of the Norfolk Agreed Syllabus (2019), there are things I would now change or amend. My own wrestling with the subject has grown, and I want to apply my new learning.

My sense is that we need to be more like chefs. We need to realise that a curriculum is not static. It is constantly moving and shifting. It needs to consider changing contexts, but also the transitional nature of religious and non-religious worldviews themselves. If we engage in and with scholarship, we must surely apply this to our settings through an iterative process. In addition, I wonder if we reframe out thinking about curriculum in terms of service. How are we serving the children and young people in our schools? Are we continually offering the best diet possible to enable them to become religiously literate? To become expert interpreters of religion and worldviews?

 

Reference:

https://moderngrantmaking.com/

Between 2018-2020 a grant was awarded to RE Today Services by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust and The Jerusalem Trust to develop an infrastructure of regional support across 10 regions in England. The aim was to gather and support hub related initiatives through 10 regional ambassadors, under the leadership of a national ambassador. St Peter Saltley Trust has also funded important continuing development aspects of this project.

This project had much success including:

• Increasing networking, communication and information gathering across regions
• Increasing in the number of local groups supporting those teaching RE and practitioners
• Providing platforms for CPD
• Increasing in attendance at local groups due to online meetings
• Increasing in number of NATRE affiliated groups
• Development of a new website Regional Hubs website (to be launched with the new initiative)

The funding was for a two year project and through the evaluation development opportunities have been identified to progress this initial project to better meet the perceived needs in the RE/R&W community over the next three years.

We have developed a Theory of Change to support the next steps for the project as follows:

Overarching Aim and Impact:

The RE/R&W community working effectively together nationally (multi-nationally) and across the regions to support all teachers and leaders of the subject in a sustainable way.

Specific Aims:

To improve communication between teachers, professional development providers and resources, and research communities

To improve connections and interactions between different parts of the RE/R&W Eco-System

To increase accessibility for all teachers to local and regional professional development and research through an information exchange

To enable teachers to teach with greater confidence through their access to the support, knowledge, training and resources available in their region

To create a sustainable long-term model for future provision

Outcomes:

Improved communication between teachers, CPD and resource providers, local/regional adviser networks and research communities

Improved cohesion and strategic operations between different RE/R&W organisations and groups

Improved engagement by teachers with RE/R&W local groups/networks

Increased access to wide range of professional development locally and regionally

Secured long term funding for this project

Improved accountability lines for the project

What does this mean in practice?

In order to work towards these outcomes the following changes will be taking place from November 2021:

• A Steering Group is being created to oversee the project and work on developing a sustainable model from 2024 onwards. This steering group will include representatives of the main RE organisations.
• A new reimagined National Hub Leader role will be developed to lead the Regional Hub Co-ordinators, and to connect different groups and people at the highest level and look for strategic opportunities for working together
• New reimagined Regional Hub Co-ordinators roles will be developed to connect different groups and people at a regional level, and share knowledge from the national level.
• A well-resourced and up to date Regional Hub website, with appropriate administrative role to support and facilitate the information and knowledge exchange requirements.

This development means that the current national and regional ambassador structure and roles have come to an end. All those in these roles have been part of the conversation and have been informed of the changes; we were greatly encouraged that there is overwhelming support for moving the project in this direction. One or two are continuing with some specific events in the next few months, and all working information is being gathered to build on the success of the existing project.

The Steering group have their first meeting in November, and after this more details will be released about the new roles and how the project will work on the ground.

If you have any questions please do contact us.

Kathryn Wright ceo@cstg.org.uk

Zoë Keens zoe@retoday.org.uk

We are an endowed charitable foundation, committed to providing teachers of religion and worldviews and other professionals with the support, connections, challenges and professional development they need.

Interested in joining us?

We are looking for trustees to join our Board who have one or more of the following areas of expertise or experience:

• Serving primary and secondary teachers

• Communications, marketing, public relations

• Human Resources

• Finance, account and controls experience

• Digital/Media expertise

• Lobbying

For more information download the document below.

For an informal conversation with our Chief Executive, Kathryn Wright, please email ceo@cstg.org.uk

I’m sure many of you have read about the survey results we published a couple of weeks ago.

As a Trust, we primarily commissioned the survey to establish a baseline for our campaigning work, and we were surprised by the results. Of course, we had hoped most people would say that understanding each other’s religious and non-religious worldviews was important. However, the fact that 69% people said so was, I confess, unexpected. In particular, the fact that nearly two thirds of people thought that RE was an important subject on the school curriculum seemed to suggest a very different attitude compared to previous polls.

For some reason I think we have assumed that most people don’t value an education in religion and worldviews, that the school subject is not seen as important. I’m not sure why this is. We seem to often see a glass half empty. Maybe it is because we know some schools are not teaching it (NATRE survey) or because the Commission on RE (2018) was not taken forward by the DfE. There may be other reasons. However, according to our survey the public do value the subject.  This is surely a reason to see a glass half full!! This research shows that most people are not questioning why RE is on the timetable, and in fact quite the opposite. They value it highly because it:

• Provides pupils with the opportunity to learn more about other people, beliefs, worldviews and cultures
• Fosters the mutual understanding of different beliefs among young people
• Encourages young people to openly discuss their beliefs with others.

So this term take up the opportunities on offer to promote our great subject and to develop your own expertise and knowledge. There are lots of great new resources to support you on RE:ONLINE and free CPD available. We are sharing more about religion, worldviews and public perception at our in conversation events with Adam Dinham and Ruth Peacock in November, and you can also catch on listening to me talking about our survey.

The UK Public think our subject is important! It’s time to shout about it!

 

In summer 2021, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust commissioned research through Savanta to understand more about public perception of an education in religion and worldviews.

Find out the results here

This time last year I wrote a blog to launch our ‘inspired by’ series. As we start a new academic year, I’m going to write a more personal blog about who has inspired me this last year, and then share some ways in which I hope CSTG might inspire you over the coming year.

Firstly, I’ve been inspired by my family. My two teenage sons have shown remarkable resilience through extraordinary times. My eldest had changes to exams and assessments and a planned gap year working with a charity cancelled. Yet he continued to remain positive taking up new skills and hobbies, and rethinking plans. I know many have struggled and the impact on mental health of young people has been devastating, but many have also been hugely resilient and taken up new challenges. On many occasions, their ability to adapt, or change plans at the last minute has been incredible.

Secondly, I’ve been inspired by my friends. In our village we set up a group to support women and keep connected during the lockdown. We held fortnightly Zoom social events including wine and cheese tasting, quizzes, craft evenings and even chocolate sampling! All creatively managed by delivering bags of items to each person. My husband organised something similar for men focused on beer tasting. This provided a great sense of belonging.

Thirdly, I’ve been inspired by colleagues. The ability to adapt, to seize opportunities, or reimagine existing programmes has been amazing. The increased sense of teamwork despite not seeing each other face to face and joined up thinking across different organisations has been so valuable. Colleagues have also been actively publishing research and articles for us to read over the last year, and this has opened a feast of new ideas.

As we move into the new academic year, I hope that CSTG can help you to be resilient, have a sense of belonging and provide you with opportunities. That you will be inspired.

I hope we can help the Religion and Worldviews community to be resilient by nurturing leaders, promoting positive relationships between organisations, and supporting campaigns to advocate for our great subject.

I hope we can increase the sense of belonging to a vibrant and energetic Religion and Worldviews community through our blogs, events programme, resource provision, communities of practice, focus groups and research.

And lastly, I hope we can provide innovative opportunities through our programmes and grant making. I hope we can inspire you to consider your own learning or take up the challenge of a new project.

How will you be inspired over the next year?

This week I’ve been lucky enough to take part in two great online events. The first was the AULRE conference, the second was our own Culham St Gabriel’s Grants Showcase.

The AULRE conference clearly demonstrated the depth and range of research taking place across the religion and worldviews community with themes including applying research to agreed syllabus development, worldview literacy, teacher agency and inclusive classrooms.

I was struck by the different ways in which many presenters wrestled with what we understand by knowledge in our subject. Professor Lynn Revell referenced the work of Bell Hooks (Teaching to Transgress, 1994) and the notion of collectively listening. Dr Brian Gates also presented about listening to others. For me, this principle of listening together, learning from one another, actively listening for the wisdom in another’s understanding of knowledge adds richness and is one of the huge benefits of working within the religion and worldviews community. It also struck me that the ethos and atmosphere created by AULRE provides a truly hospitable space for early career researchers, as well as more experienced colleagues to contribute to the conversation, and be listened to!

Our Grants Showcase event had me captivated and intently listening for two hours. We had invited some of our grant award holders to share their work, and it was an inspiring evening. Without the creativity and innovation of grantees, our Trust would not be able to make an impact. High quality professional films about the diversity of career options for Theology and Religious Studies graduates were shown. Innovative approaches to the teaching of religion and worldviews were demonstrated, including alternative ways to approach curriculum design, visual resources and use of the creative arts. Two projects demonstrated in depth analysis of how teachers engage in and with research. There was also an opportunity for some new award holders to share their plans. These included projects to promote positive attitudes towards the study of religion and worldviews especially with parents, educationalists, policy makers and the media.

Both events this week showed me that our religion and worldviews community is thriving with innovation and creativity. We are a community of deep thinkers; but also, one of enterprising and pragmatic individuals and organisations; We are a community where insight and imagination abounds; yet, also one where application to the classroom lies at the heart and a passion for promoting the importance of our subject underpins all we do.

If you are interested in applying for a small or large scale project grant more details are available here: https://www.cstg.org.uk/grants/projects/

Details of all our current grant projects can be found here: https://www.cstg.org.uk/grants/projects/grants-awarded/

 

The recent Ofsted Research Review has sparked much debate and discussion particularly on social media. The review sets out what it understands by a quality education in RE. In terms of the curriculum this is defined in terms of three types of knowledge:

• Substantive
• Ways of knowing
• Personal

One of the questions which struck me as I read the review, was how we theorise the relationship between these three types of knowledge. This is illuded to in the report (see Interplay of knowledge in the RE curriculum), but I felt I needed to think about it creatively. I like to think in pictures. So, what I offer here is an analogy. It is not perfect, but I hope it will help us to understand a little more about the interdependence of different types of knowledge.

Let us weave a knowledge tapestry….

The curriculum– this is like a developing tapestry. In theory it may have an ‘end point’ (i.e., end of formal education) but in my opinion it continues through our lifetime as we develop the three different types of knowledge.  Therefore, it might be described as an unfinished tapestry. This emphasises the flexible nature of curricula. Yet this fluidity still enables the tapestry or knowledge to build over time into a beautiful masterpiece….

Substantive Knowledge – this is the warp. These are the threads on the loom over and under which other threads are passed to make the tapestry. Without this there would be no tapestry! The warp is laid out at the beginning with a clear sense of what you are going to produce. There is some intent here. Choices must be made about how many threads, how wide the tapestry will be and so on. This is like the choices that must be made in relation to the substantive content. Ofsted talks about illustrative content that leads to an end goal.

Ways of Knowing or Disciplinary Knowledge – these are threads of the weft. They are woven in and out of the substantive content. This is important. Unless they are woven into the content, they will not contribute to the overall tapestry.  This means that as pupils’ journey through the substantive content they learn about and use a range of tools and methods such as interpretation, observation, analysing data and so on.

Personal Knowledge– these are also threads of the weft. They are also woven in and out of the substantive content. Our own positionality, our own worldview is woven into what it is we learn about. This means being self-aware, recognising and reflecting on how we relate to the ‘warp’ or content. This is a process of reflexivity.

So, now is the time to think about the tapestry you are creating, what choices will you make to build towards and create a masterpiece….

 

References:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-religious-education

Culham St Gabriel’s welcomes the publication of Ofsted’s RE Research Review today. This review clearly articulates the importance of understanding what we mean by substantive knowledge, ways of knowing or becoming scholarly in RE, and personal knowledge. We support the call for the effective sequencing of knowledge enabling pupils to build towards subject-specific end goals. The review reminds leaders that RE is to be taught in all schools and in all key stages, and that an ambitious curriculum is to be delivered. We believe that this review supports our own vision for a broad-based, critical and reflective education in Religion and Worldviews contributing to a well-informed, respectful and open society.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ofsted-publishes-research-review-on-religious-education

Voices of children and young people.

This was the question that many teachers posed to their pupils last term for our inaugural Blog Competition. We had an amazing number of entries and it is clear that everyone has a view on Religion and Worldviews (or Religious Education). At the end of this blog you can see the names of all the winners, but here I want to draw out some of the key themes and creative ways in which pupils want to advocate for our incredible subject.

An education in Religion and Worldviews enables us to understand diversity in our world.

The diversity of our complex world was a recurrent theme. Bloggers spoke of everyone being different, having different worldviews and the importance of appreciating this. Many felt that studying Religion and Worldviews brought a genuine, real and authentic understanding of the lived experience of being a religious or non-religious believer. For many blog writers, Religion and Worldviews is about the nature of humanity; understanding who and what we are as human beings with all the complexity and divergence that this brings.

An education in Religion and Worldviews increases our knowledge, providing global and historical perspectives.

The importance of knowing about and understanding religious and non-religious worldviews came through very strongly in many of the blogs. Young people spoke about the importance of understanding historical contexts to comprehend the way things are today. They highlighted the interweaving of history with religion. Many felt that knowledge acquisition led to respect and to challenging some of the media stereotypes of some worldviews.

An education in Religion and Worldviews supports development of positive values.

Bloggers talked about the many values they felt an education in Religion and Worldviews promoted. These included peace, respect and empathy. A number talked about the way in which this was modelled in their schools by safe spaces being created to talk about controversial issues.

An education in Religion and Worldviews helps you with your future career.

From the youngest to the oldest, bloggers highlighted the value of Religion and Worldviews in terms of future career paths; professions highlighted included law, international development work, counselling, mental health services, diplomatic roles and journalism. Many more spoke about the importance of the subject for simple daily interactions with people they meet.

An education in Religion and Worldviews offers something more…..

For many of our bloggers though the subject offers something more…. It sparks the imagination and curiosity, it empowers and opens doors of communication, it unlocks a tapestry of ideas and enables young people to develop their own patchwork of views. It gives each one of them confidence to talk about religious and non-religious worldviews in the public sphere.

For our bloggers, an education in Religion and Worldviews is considered vital so they are prepared for the real, complex society in which we all live. They want to be able to navigate this world and begin to make sense of it. They want to have knowledge, understanding and skills, but also values and attitudes which will enable them to be confident, free- thinking participants in this ever-changing global landscape.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR WINNERS!!

Key Stage 1

Winners

Areilla, Newbold and Tredington Primary School

Abhijot, Clifton Primary School

Harnoor, Clifton Primary School

Highly Commended

Namanpreet, Clifton Primary School

Ishana, St Andrews (Barnsbury) Church of England Primary School

Key Stage 2

Winners

Soha, Old Trafford Community Academy

Catherine, Lythe Church of England Primary School

Nancy, Newbold and Tredington Primary School

Emily, St Andrews (Barnsbury) Church of England Primary School

Highly Commended:

Sohani, Clifton Primary School

Farzad and Idris, Old Trafford Community Academy

Avineet, Clifton Primary School

Hunter, Pickhurst Junior Academy

Key Stage 3

Winners

Matthew, Thomas Gainsborough School

Abby, Saint Francis Xavier School

Arwen, St James’  Senior Girls School

Maxwell, The Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England School

Cara, King’s Rochester Preparatory School

Highly Commended

Skye, Prenton High School for Girls

Maisie, The Morley Academy

Brooke, Prenton High School for Girls

Niamh, The Bishops’ Blue Coat Church of England High School

Vanessa, Goldington Academy

Ella, Lincoln Christ’s Hospital School

Olivia, St Mary’s Catholic School

Key Stage 4

Winners

Scarlett, Fulston Manor School

Caitlin, Goldington Academy

Lucy, Cox Green School

Maisy, Hagley Catholic High School

Highly Commended

Meadow, Saltash Community School

Jordan, Saint Francis Xavier School

Lily, Albany Academy

Pennie, St Hild’s Church of England School

Zama, Bradford Academy

Key Stage 5

Winners

Ashton, Old Hulme Grammar School

Ella, Highworth Grammar School

Jessica, Highworth Grammar School

Anna, Hagley Catholic High School

Megha, Langley Grammar School

Highly Commended

Reva, Langley Grammar School

Philippa, Old Hulme Grammar School

 

Kathryn Wright, on behalf of the Judging Team 2021