RE curriculum consultation

Just had the following in the Inbox, relating to a government consultation on RE teaching:


Please respond to the Simple Tick Box Questionnaire - Curriculum Reform Consultation (Updated guidance on the teaching of Religious Education Questionnaire) for the curriculum in England.

CCFON and CLC have responded to the Department for Children, Schools and Families’ questionnaire on the Updated guidance on the teaching of Religious Education, which forms part of their curriculum reform Consultation. Please click here to see our response.
To see the current guidance circular 1/94 ‘Religious Education and Collective Worship’ click here.

The proposed replacement to this guidance is called Religious Education and does not include the notion of ‘collective worship’ (click here to view).

Hidden deep in the new proposed guidance on the further reference section on page 46 is the proposal that the circular 1/94 is still “extant”, in other words “in existence” regarding guidance on collective worship.

The proposed guidance states on pages 6 and 7 that Education legislation specifically states the following on Religious Education:
“Every agreed syllabus shall reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain”. (Section 375(3) Education Act 1996).

However, the rest of the guidance on RE fails to follow this by reference to religions “and beliefs”, “diversity of religion” “community cohesion”, being “inclusive”.

In our opinion the current guidance 1/94 meets the Education legislation requirements on RE and collective worship but the new proposed guidance on RE does not and should be rejected.
Please use our response to the consultation adding ideas of your own. The deadline for submitting responses is Friday 24th July at 5pm. The questionnaire comprises 9 voting boxes with two spaces for additional comments. A response that simply places crosses in the boxes that we recommend will still be helpful and create pressure.

Responses can be submitted by post or e-mail. If you wish to download the questionnaire in Word format, please click here. For PDF format, click here.

Finally, if you wish to access the background documents, click here.