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As we come to the end of 2023, I thought I’d reflect in a seasonal way on our last year….

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a CRM system created by Tracey

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the fourth day of Christmas my true love sent to me four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me seven conferences attended, six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the eight day of Christmas my true love sent to me eight new connections and partnerships, seven conferences attended, six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the nineth day of Christmas my true love sent to me nine (hundred) online meetings, eight new connections and partnerships, seven conferences attended, six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me ten research of the months, nine (hundred) online meetings, eight new connections and partnerships, seven conferences attended, six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me eleven masters and leadership scholars, ten research of the months, nine (hundred) online meetings, eight new connections and partnerships, seven conferences attended, six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me twelve recommendations of the National Content Standard, eleven masters’ and leadership scholars, ten research of the months, nine (hundred) online meetings, eight new connections and partnerships, seven conferences attended, six e-learning courses, five funding awards, four Board meetings, three doctoral scholarships, two new members of staff and a CRM system created by Tracey.

Have a great festive season, however and whatever you may be celebrating! We look forward to working with and supporting you in the New Year.

Kathryn Wright
CEO, CSTG

Please note: Numbers do not necessarily equate to reality except in some cases!!!!!!

The latest official government statistics released today show that ITT recruitment for 2023 entrants was only 44% of the target for secondary religious education beginner teachers. This equates to 285 new entrants into the profession, with a target of 655. This is well below the average for all subjects and phases (62%), and below the overall secondary subject average of £50%. Whilst the target had increased significantly from previous years (from 450 to 655), this is a very worrying picture. Under-recruitment over many years has led to 51% of RE lessons in secondary schools being taught by non-specialist teachers, with pupils now three times more likely to be taught Religious Education by someone with no qualification in the subject.

Without well qualified teachers of the subject, the drive to improve standards as highlighted in the of the recent Ofsted Annual Review (2022-23) will be even more of a challenge. In the absence of consistently high-quality RE, our children miss out on an essential opportunity to learn knowledge and skills that will equip them to create harmonious and cohesive workplaces and communities, especially in the context of a diversifying and globalised world.

Whilst Culham St Gabriel’s Trust welcomes the reintroduction of a bursary for those training to teach from September 2024, this is not enough to resolve the ongoing recruitment issues from previous years. Culham St Gabriel’s has long been an advocate and supporter of initial teacher education both in the primary and secondary phase. Empowering highly skilled and well-informed teachers of religious education/religion and worldviews is a core part of our mission. The Trust will continue to promote teaching of the subject through its campaigning work, and resourcing of the profession. We will continue to lobby for further government funding and support for the recruitment of teachers and ongoing professional development for the increasing number of teachers who are called upon to teach religious education without a qualification in the subject. Urgent action is needed.

For detailed information about the Initial Teacher Training Census see: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census

“RE in schools is generally of poor quality” and “as a subject on the curriculum, it is under-valued” says the Chief Inspector of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, in her annual report.

Whilst these statements from the Chief Inspector are sobering, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust are pleased to see Ofsted identifying barriers to better RE and how the lack of clarity and support from government is making improvements within the subject much more difficult.

The report presents a list of challenges for Religious Education in schools:
• Many schools are failing to meet the statutory requirement to teach RE to all pupils in all year groups;
• pupils not being taught enough substance to prepare them to engage in a complex, multi-religious and multi-secular society,
• non-examination provision typically not being of high quality;
• schools not teaching topics in the RE curriculum deeply enough for pupils to develop a substantial understanding of the subject matter.

Ofsted have called on the government to provide “clear expectations about RE provision in schools. Schools should follow these. Current non-statutory guidance for RE should be updated and include clear information for schools about the breadth and depth of the syllabus they are expected to teach”.

One of the Trust’s recently revised strategic objectives is to influence English government’s policies in supporting a high-quality education in religion and worldviews. Although the publishing of a National Content Standard for RE in England by the Religious Education of England and Wales has acted as one step towards this, Ofsted’s report has further confirmed our decision as a Trust to advocate even more strongly for clear expectations in all schools. We will continue to strive for a broad-based, critical and reflective education in religion and worldviews contributing to a well-informed, respectful, and open society. We hope you will partner with us as we continue to work towards this.

Kathryn Wright
CEO, on behalf of the Trust

To read the Ofsted Report 2022/23 in full, please see here.

At Culham St Gabriel’s we award project grants up to £30K. We welcome applications for small, new innovative projects or seed-corn funding; as well as applications for larger research projects or initiatives which support the Trust’s vision and strategic goals.

Within our applications, we look for a clear theory of change: What is the issue, why is it an issue, how will you try and change or improve the situation, what change will you bring about, what impact will it have, how will you evaluate the impact…

One particular theme that was popular amongst applicants was interfaith dialogue, and the need for supporting/building on deeper literacy of religious traditions.

In celebration of InterFaith Week, we would like to highlight our grant funded projects who have/are contributing to the strengthening of good inter faith relations at all levels…

From 12-19 November it is Interfaith Week! In honour of this, members of our team have taken part in a ‘share and learn’ activity that showcases a variety of beliefs.

One of the main aims of Interfaith Week is to increase awareness of the different and distinct faith communities in the UK and this has been a fun way to get our wider team involved. Let’s see what everyone’s been up to…

Barfi

Made by our CEO, Kathryn. Here she explains the meaning behind it..

I have wonderful memories of barfi. When I started work as a teacher in East London many years ago, some of the young people from many different faith and belief backgrounds would bring in barfi for staff to share. It was particularly popular at Diwali. I have never made it, but to celebrate Interfaith Week I thought I’d give it a try. It reminds me of the incredible positive interfaith relations in the Year 7 form class I was tutor of when I was began teaching. In my class we had Sunni and Shia Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians from a range of different denominations as well as those with non-religious worldviews. Some were refugees, escaping war torn areas of the world, other had lived in Newham all their lives. Yet the bonds of friendship they created were incredible, a lesson for us all, I think.

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‘Losing My Religion’ Podcast

Tracey listened to an episode of BBC Radio 4 Beyond Belief podcast in which Janet Ellis talks about becoming a humanist – she said it was fascinating to listen to people exploring where we find values and morals.

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Dumplings

Taylor made some homemade dumplings. Here’s what she said about them…

Dumplings hold a lot of significance in Chinese culture, particularly for those who follow the philosophy and religion of Taoism. The dumpling symbolises wealth because the shape is similar to money-related instruments such as the tael. They also symbolise prosperity and the brightness of the moon – they are commonly served during Lunar New Year to  indicate the promise of a bright and prosperous year ahead.

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Berenjena Guisada

Kevin sends a recipe; for food, or good inter-faith relations? Well, both. Muslims brought the aubergine to Andalucía, and Jews then spread their love of it throughout Europe. This Granadan dish combines both cuisines. Maimonides of Córdoba taught that sharing meals bridges cultural gaps, and that when cooking and eating, people should have a good calm attitude of spirit. The story, recipe, and thoughts of Maimonides are from Marlena Spieler’s Jewish Traditions Cookbook (London: Lorenz Books, 2005); 301. 9.

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Middle Eastern Feast

Stacey and her family have been trying dishes from the Middle East over the past couple of weeks, both Israeli and Palestinian recipes. One day, they cooked shakshuka, and then also included typical Ashkenazi or Eastern European for dessert as well. A very multi-cultural meal!

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Soul Cakes

Made by Kate, let’s hear her story behind these baked goods…

My children love Halloween – I have found out that lanterns, carved turnips, disguises, asking for ‘treats’ door-to-door, bonfires, candles and spooky figures like witches, skeletons and ghosts all come from the old tradition of ‘souling’. A hollowed-out turnip with a candle burning inside represents a soul in purgatory. People sang mournful for the souls of those in purgatory, and were given a ‘soul cake’ for their effort. I baked soul cakes- a buttery, spicy biscuit with raisins. They are delicious, I am tempted to give these out to trick or treaters next Hallowe’en instead of sweets.

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Gujarati Vegetarian Meal

Claire cooked up a variety of dishes with her friend Jay who is a Gujarati Hindu…

We made a mung bean daal, onion bhaji’s, puri, poppadum’s, coriander dip and some filled chilli’s – they are some of our favourite dishes, it was so delicious! Whilst we cooked, my friend kept her Ganesh Murti – her family deity – alongside us. We thanked God for our food before eating together, then continued to share our little feast whilst talking about and sharing our faiths with one another.

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

Culham St Gabriel’s Trust’s vision is for a broad- based, critical and reflective education in religion and worldviews contributing to a well-informed, respectful, and open society. The publishing of a National Content Standard for RE in English schools by the Religious Education Council is therefore welcomed wholeheartedly by the Trust.

One of the Trust’s recently revised strategic objectives is to influence government’s policies in supporting a high-quality education in religion and worldviews, including the implementation of a National Plan in England. The publishing of a National Content Standard is one step towards this as it seeks to establish a benchmark for what constitutes high quality in the subject. It provides clarification and promotes academic rigour in the subject, supporting syllabus creators and curriculum writers in developing excellence in all schools.

Culham St Gabriel’s aim to support those who want to use this National Content Standard by providing continuing professional development through our e-learning platform, access to research through RE:ONLINE and by continuing to campaign for recruitment and retention of well-qualified teachers of RE.

To view The National Content Standard for RE please click here.

Dr Kathryn Wright, Chief Executive
Dr Linda Whitworth, Chair of the Trust

For further information on our strategy: https://www.cstg.org.uk/about-us/strategy/
About our e-learning courses: https://courses.cstg.org.uk/
Accessible research: https://www.reonline.org.uk/research/

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.

Hello! My name is Taylor Hatch, and I am delighted to have recently joined the team at Culham St Gabriel’s where I will be working as the new Communications Officer. Having worked in the public sector for the last few years I am very well versed in the world of communications – I am passionate about connecting with others and building relationships that create meaningful impact. I also graduated from The University of Manchester with an undergraduate degree in Religions and Theology, and I am always eager to integrate this knowledge and understanding when interacting with others.

I was always conscious that a degree in theology and career in comms may never perfectly align – no doubt the skills I gained in both fields have been of utmost use to me – however, I realised that the chances of finding a role which directly linked the two together would be scarce. This soon changed when an opportunity to work for Culham St Gabriel’s arose, I couldn’t have been more wrong! It seemed as though the stars had aligned and created this job especially for me.

I am so excited to be taking up this role and to be a part of an organisation who is just as passionate about the Religion and Worldviews curriculum as I am. From first-hand experience I can confidently say that an education in Religion and Worldviews sparks imagination, curiosity, and exploration… and I want everyone to know about it! Not only within the immediate world of RE professionals but I am also eager to spread this message to the public, policy makers, and other influencers.

Working in comms provides me with a sense of purpose and motivates me to connect with other like-minded people. Ultimately, no one day is the same and we must dig deep to understand our audiences and to effectively make change. I accept this challenge with open arms.

I am particularly looking forward to creating a new comms strategy, as I can fully immerse myself in the needs, mission, and priorities of the Trust. Relationship building is also an integral part of my role, and I am eager to network with our trustees and stakeholders to help shape the impact of the Trust.

I hope this brief introduction has perfectly encapsulated my enthusiasm! If you would like to get to know me a little better or throw some ideas around, please do not hesitate to contact me: taylor@cstg.org.uk