The MiShorts film library includes a wide range of free content, commissioned from specialist providers or produced in-house. Explore the ‘Youth’ category, and look for ‘Breaking Down Barriers’ and ‘Keeping the Peace’ - how might these be used in the RE classroom to stimulate discussion, and perhaps prompt students to make their own film shorts?

MiShorts is far more than a film library. Other faciities are outlined in the pdf document below, and include: Podcasts (a recommended short film podcast); Vodcasts (a fortnightly Vodcast containing news, views and interviews); Toolbox (a wide variety of information and resources for indie filmmakers and fans); Film of the Month and Critics Choice; Reviews and Ratings; Filmmaker Directory; Filmmaker’s blog; Free downloads; Free streams; Channels.

MiShorts_2010.pdf

If you are at all interested in film shorts, the best thing is to log on and explore MiShorts!

Opening Up: Hinduism.This book provides practical and easy-to-use activities to develop good learning about and from Hinduism in a wide range of contexts. Edited by Fiona Moss, RE Adviser, RE Today.

Available from our webshop at £8.50

Questions: Hinduism. This book raises questions about Islam in compelling ways for any young person, and provides ready-to-use activities for 11 - 16s that will get your students thinking. Edited by Stephen Pett, RE Adviser, RE Today.
Available from our webshop at £9.50.

Drawing on the findings and recommendation of Materials used to Teach about World Religions in Schools in England, carried out by the University of Warwick, 2010, this guidance covers:

• books
• school produced materials
• websites
• digital resources
• artefacts & visual images
• visits & visitors

For each type of resource the guidance provides: a brief summary of the Warwick Report’s findings, key questions for teachers, stimulus materials to support discussion and decision-making for teachers working individually or with colleagues.

Do check it out on NATRE’s website! It’s an ideal stimulus to review the resources you currently use, and to guide the selection of new ones.

If you haven’t signed up to receive your copy you can do so today from the home page of this website - and the next issue will be delivered direct to your mailbox.

With your knowledge of Religious Studies and teaching skills you could become an examiner for Edexcel and help shape the future of thousands of students.

We provide comprehensive training and support you throughout the assessment process, whether this involves scripts marked traditionally or online. An average allocation of scripts normally takes 45 hours to mark over a 4 week period (the marking period runs from May-July).

As well as being paid for marking and attending training, schools will receive a teacher-release payment when staff need to attend training on a normal working day.

There are also development opportunities for examiners to progress to Team Leaders, Writers or Senior examiners, once experience has been gained in an assessment role.

For more information about the role, fees, benefits and how to apply see EDEXCEL’s website.

The exemplification of standards files for foundation subjects support effective assessment by demonstrating national standards across key stage 3 at National Curriculum levels 3 to 8. They are a resource and reference point for teachers:

• when assessing pupils’ work in relation to national standards
• for training and professional development purposes
• when thinking about next steps for students.

Each exemplification of standards file includes:

• examples of students’ classroom work assessed against national standards
• other supporting evidence
• a detailed commentary
• an overall assessment judgement on the students’ work.

The materials can be found on the National Curriculum website.

Building on the success of the joint conferences run for new RE Teachers in their PGCE year, Hockerill and NATRE have developed this prize to recognise innovation in this very important subject area.  They are also aware that the school ethos must provide the teacher with the right environment for innovation to occur.

The prize will recognise both these elements and as a result will be in two parts:

• a monetary prize for the school to enable it to purchase new RE materials.
• educational bursary for the teacher to part fund attendance at a specialist educational course

The prize will also recognise that the needs and requirements of the Primary and Secondary sectors are different and will therefore be given separately in each sector.

The First Prize will be £700 to the School and a bursary of £400 to the teacher.

How to apply
Download and complete the application form below. Guidance notes are included, and infromation canalso be found on the Hockerill Foundation’s website.

2011_application_form.doc

Time Line
The closing date for the receipt of entries is 31 January 2011. 
Judging will take place in the following two months, with the successful prize winners being notified by Easter. 
The prizes will be presented at one of the Hockerill / NATRE RE PGCE conferences in the late spring / early summer of that year.

Judging panel
There is a judging panel of six people, drawn from practising teachers, academia, the Trustees of Hockerill and from NATRE.
If you have any questions or queries then please contact : The Secretary, Hockerill Education Foundation.

Divided clearly into sections, the material can be split for each year group to have their own set of material. The pack contains stimulus and worksheets which may be photocopied for use within the purchasing school.

The publication comes in an A4 ring binder, and has 171 pages. ISBN 978 1 904024 85 9.

If you are working with a number of schools and are interested in buying multiple copies, do contact Diane in our Birmingham office to discuss a special price for bulk purchase.

To purchase a copy log on to our webshop  or:
Email Pete Johnson in our Sales Office
Phone: 0121 472 4242

Why not log on and check out what’s there? Choose ‘download login’ from the top right of the home page, select the series you are interested in, and then the individual publications within that series.  All you need is your subscriber number and password. If you’ve forgotten your subscriber number, then phone or email us for a reminder.

If you aren’t a subscriber yet, do look at our website where the benefits of membership and the annual cost of the various membership options are outlined. Subscribing is the most cost-effective way of receiving a termly package of RE resources, ideas and news.

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

Check out Roop’s amazing experience at www.roopsingh.com.