Teach Secondary - Issue 13.2

Scared of the deep? One interesting criticism of the Ofsted report is that only 5% of subject ‘deep dives’ are focused on RE. Understanding the rationale for why REwas picked during those inspections might shed some light on why that proportion seems so low. Did the inspectors not see RE on the curriculum model?Was it absent from the school’s website? What many within the RE community have found is that inspectors often lack the confidence and expertise to fully investigate RE and understand its place within curriculum. Schools with a religious character moreover have their RE inspected separately, creating another potential complication with Ofsted’s dataset. Ofsted published its last REResearch Review inMay 2021 (see bit.ly/ts132-RE2 ), so as an organisation it evidently has a clear idea of what it believes makes for ‘good RE’. Some believed at the time that this review shouldn’t have been conducted, due to that aforementioned complexity – but it was, and as such, inspectors ought to be confident in completing ‘deep dives’ into the subject as part of their regular inspections. Ongoing concerns This was far from the only official document aimed at improving standards of RE provision. As far back as 2013, the Religious Education Council of England andWales published its ‘Review of Religious Education in England’ (see bit.ly/ ts132-RE3), making frequent use the phrase ‘religions and worldviews’, which has since been used in various forms in recognition of the growing number and influence of those with non-religious worldviews. It also came with a non-statutory National Curriculum framework attached (see bit.ly/ts132- RE4). 2015 then saw reforms to both GCSE and A Level, as well as the first version of the Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke and Professor Linda WoodheadMBE’s pamphlet, titled ‘A new settlement: religion and belief in schools’ (bit.ly/ts132-RE5 ), which called for a national RE curriculum. The RE Council, together with NATRE and RE Today Services, later published a ‘State of the nation’ report in 2017 (bit.ly/ ts132-RE6), which signalled then that the quality of RE provision was already highly variable and largely dependent on individual schools. People have known for a while that RE is in need of support. Where are the teachers? Yet one of the real problems lies in the shortage of teachers. In 2023, just 44% of the required number of RE teachers were recruited into ITT – down from 76% in 2022. This cuts to the very heart of the issue, in that too often, those delivering RE lessons aren’t specialists. At secondary, this canmean that RE will be regularly taught by anyone ‘under allocation’. At primary, it can result in RE being led across the school by someone with little understanding of the subject, or indeed little interest. Given that RE is an area of the curriculumwhere ‘Big Questions’ can come up – the meaning of life, issues of suffering, the possibility of life after death, ethical and moral dilemmas – it seems self-evident that a proficient level of training, knowledge and expertise will always deliver better outcomes. Changing theworld It’s indisputable that there are many amazing RE teachers and leaders out there achieving great things, as well as a lot of well- intentioned people who’d love to help deliver better RE, but lack the resources, space and time to do so. Yet it’s also impossible to deny that in some schools, the subject is perennially neglected and considered a low priority. If, as Ofsted’s Annual Report concludes, this means students will be, “Ill- equipped for some of the complexities of contemporary society” then it should concern us all. In just the last fewmonths we’ve seen huge rises in both antisemitism and Islamophobia, compounded by a news cycle fuelled by social media-driven sensationalism. REmight not have all the answers, but it does give young people a set of tools with which to navigate and make their own decisions about the world they live in. To change the world, you need to understand the world – and I know that good RE can play a big part in precisely that. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andy Lewis is director of RE at St Bonaventure’s, East London; follow him at @andylewis_re or visit mrlewisre.co.uk “The challenge of simply clarifyingwhat shouldbe taught inREhas created complexity” 69 teachwire.net/secondary H UM A N I T I E S