Latest News from
RE Today Services

RE Today’s latest email newsletter year will be available next week! Each newsletter contains news of new resources, publications, courses, conferences, competitions, updates on national issues and initiatives and much more. 

The newsletters are free - all you need do to receive them is sign up on the home page of the RE Today website. There is a primary and a secondary newsletter - so just let us know which you want when you sign up.

W: www.retoday.org.uk
E: courses@retoday.org.uk
T: 0121 472 4242

read more...

The Future of Religious Education: Prospects and Problems for Religious Education (Revisited) is a one day conference for teachers, head teachers, SACRE members, parents/carers and RE advisers - anyone interested in the future shape of Religious Education.

Speakers include:
Dr Mark Chater, Culham St. Gabriel’s Trust
Dr Rob Freathy, University of Exeter
Professor Michael Hand, University of Birmingham
Professor Robert Jackson, University of Warwick
Dr Stephen Parker, University of Worcester
Dr Lynn Revell, Canterbury Christ Church University

Full details are in the Conference flyer below:
The_Future_of_Religious_Education_Conference.pdf

Venue: The University of Worcester Conference Centre
Date: 19th June 2013, 9:00am -3:30pm
Cost: £50 (£10 unwaged)
To book a place: email Dr Stephen Parker

read more...

Several high ranking Universities are publishing information on their websites to clarify the media speculation about the value of the EBacc for admission to the courses they offer

Oxford University states:
‘The English Baccalaureate is not expected to impact on a candidate’s ability to make a competitive application.  It is more important that a potential Oxford applicant has a GCSE profile which is strong overall (i.e. contains a large majority of A and A* grades).

‘Reports in the media or speculation that Oxford has indicated a preference or requirements for candidates to have the English Baccalaureate are not accurate.

‘Oxford will keep the development of the English Baccalaureate under review, assessing to see if it is a helpful predictor for success at Oxford, but will not, under any circumstances, require it of students who have chosen their GCSE mix before Oxford indicates any compulsory use in the admissions process.
ABacc.’

See here for full details of Oxford admissions information.

In addition, a FOI request to Oxford admissions showed that schools that are pushing all their potential Russell Group students to favour EBacc subjects for A levels might actually be putting them at a disadvantage because choosing non-EBacc subjects like RS and Economics gave you a statistically higher chance of getting on to some courses than the EBacc. The example quoted was PPE; RS came higher in the ranking than several EBacc subjects, including an EBacc Humanities subject.

read more...

NATRE, the subject teacher association for Religious Education (RE), welcomes the report RE: the truth unmasked, published today by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on RE, which highlights the lack of support for, and provision of, qualified RE teachers.

There is no more important resource required to achieve this end than the supply of well- qualified good teachers. This insightful and detailed report from the APPG on RE sends a wake-up call to the DfE and all schools about worrying deficiencies in the supply, training and support for RE teachers in primary and secondary schools.

Parents will be shocked to learn that over 50% of those teaching RE in secondary schools did not train to teach the subject and have no post-A level qualification in RE.  NATRE believes that secondary RE should be taught by specialists in the subject, not by teachers with other specialisms who have a few spare lessons on their timetables. Furthermore, in a quarter of primary schools responding to the survey, RE is taught by teaching assistants who are not qualified teachers. Many teaching assistants provide a valuable service in our schools, but NATRE believes teaching should be led by teachers.

Our children deserve a better service than the one described by this report and NATRE calls on the government to respond urgently to address this appalling situation. The coalition government claims to stand for rigour in education and yet this report shows that even the…

read more...

Zoe Keens takes up her role as RE Today’s Chief Executive today! Since her appointment in November, staff have had many opportunities to meet with her and are all looking forward to working with her over the coming months and years.

Zoe’s previous post was as Director of Development and Co-Chief Executive working for the Birmingham and Black Country Community Foundation.

read more...