SACRE Newsletter for RE and Collective Worship
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RELIGIOUS EDUCATION NEWSLETTER SPRING 2013 Issue No: 14 Contact: James Mitchell-Cassell Date: January 2013 Tel: 01823 355759 Email: [email protected] In this Issue: • RE Celebration Week: Marvellous Performances • CPD Support in RE for Somerset Schools • The RE Review 2013 • New RE:ONLINE – Coming Later this Month! • Barbara Agutter Award 2013 • Holocaust Memorial Day 2013: Communities Together • James Hemming Essay Prize • Farmington Fellowships • Eridge Trust – Grants For School Trips • REC 40th Anniversary Sponsored Walk • Young Ambassadors for RE • Support For Training To Teach RE In 2013 • NUT And NAHT Launch Joint Campaign • REC Website • RE-FLECT – Free Workshop • Small Grants to Support Teaching of Christianity • Young Atheist’s Handbook • 2013 Hockerill/NATRE Award for Innovation in RE Teaching • Science & Belief – Essay Competition • Climate Week 4-10 March 2013 • Ready Reference Update • Support for Teaching About World Religions SACRE Newsletter - Spring 2013 1 RE CELEBRATION WEEK: MARVELLOUS PERFORMANCES Somerset’s first RE Celebration Week was a huge success for all involved in the presentations at Heathfield Community School on 22 October 2012. There were marvellous performances from five primary schools as well as the host school itself. A delighted audience of teachers, parents and governors from Bishop’s Hull, West Monkton, Cheddon Fitzpaine, St John and St Francis and Combe St Nicholas Primary Schools and Heathfield Community Secondary School viewed examples of RE work in a display and lively and inventive performances relating to themes on RE on stage. Children from Combe St Nicholas School Ralph Bullock and Mike Strange get into the RE Celebration swing. present Celebration certificates. All the participating schools received the congratulations and certificates from organiser and Head of Bishop’s Hull Primary School, Ralph Bullock and SACRE Chair, Mike Strange. SACRE would like to thank all those involved in the RE celebration Week, especially the children of the schools who took part and their teachers. CPD SUPPORT IN RE FOR SOMERSET SCHOOLS Following last February’s highly praised afternoon training event for Primary RE Coordinators, another conference will be held with ALL NEW MATERIAL being demonstrated, on Thursday 7 February 2013, from 1.15 – 4.45pm at The Canalside Conference Centre (Just off Junction 24 of the M5). Schools have already been sent booking forms for this event, but please contact Dave Francis if you have not received one: [email protected]. Just a few places remaining! More bespoke training is also available for subject leaders and all staff involved in teaching RE. Contact Dave for further information. SACRE Newsletter - Spring 2013 2 THE RE REVIEW 2013 Dr Janet Orchard, manager of the RE Council’s ongoing project to review religious education, would like to say a big thank you to everyone who submitted feedback on the draft report for Phase One. The results are now being analysed and a final report will be published later this month. Phase Two of the Review will begin in February, when members of a Task Group have been appointed. The group will be asked to write a working paper(s) which: • provide a clear and cogent statement of aims for RE, applicable across the range of school settings, and propose ways in which these aims might be communicated to different stakeholders • re-evaluate and produce clear accounts of core knowledge, understanding in RE, as well as subject specific skills, appropriate to pupils in particular age groups and stages • create new instruments for describing achievement in RE that teachers can use working alongside the DfE’s new descriptions of achievement in subjects like English, mathematics and science The paper(s) will be published for consultation in April 2013. As RE is a subject that continues to be locally determined, any proposals that this group makes will be offered as part of national non-statutory guidance for the subject. Proposals will seek to set out at the level of principle an entitlement to RE for pupils and students in schools and FE colleges up to the age of eighteen. NEW RE:ONLINE – COMING LATER THIS MONTH! Culham St Gabriel’s has announced that a major redevelopment of the RE:ONLINE website has been taking place over the last year, involving a rebranding and complete restructuring of the site. The site will be divided into five main sections with features including fully searchable links and resources; a teachers’ toolkit for assessing pupils’ progress; an RE Café; TV and radio listings; and a news service. All your old favourite parts of the site will still be there and more easily found via the much improved search engine or the more user-friendly RE categories. For a sneak preview see http://bit.ly/TYxs7c The new site will be supported by a series of roadshows to be held across the country in conjunction with the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE), details of which will be published soon; meanwhile, the current site can still be accessed at: http://www.reonline.org.uk SACRE Newsletter - Spring 2013 3 BARBARA AGUTTER AWARD 2013 This is an annual award for Years 1-8 in all Somerset schools, set up in memory of former SACRE member and excellent RE teacher, Barbara Agutter, to celebrate good practice in RE by a class or year group (rather than an individual). The work will be linked to some aspect of the Agreed Syllabus – Awareness, Mystery and Value. Entries could be in a variety of presentations, eg artwork, display boards, drama (filmed on DVD?), poetry, PowerPoints, record of work, sculpture etc. The judges will be looking for evidence of innovation, inspiration, imagination, creativity and originality; also that through the school’s involvement, the work has had a real impression on the children, just as Barbara herself inspired young people in her care. All schools who wish to apply for the award must send the pro-forma found at: https://slp.somerset.gov.uk/pages/newsdetail.aspx?newsid=281 with their entry by 14 June 2013. HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 27 JANUARY 2013: COMMUNITIES TOGETHER The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2013 – 27 January – is 'Communities Together: Build a Bridge'. The theme encourages us to remember those who were betrayed by their neighbours during the Holocaust, under Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides. It also helps us recall those who risked everything to assist their neighbours, and inspires us to consider the different communities we belong to. We can create connections with others, and together we can build a better future. Many refugees have made Britain their home, rebuilding their lives, and we can all work together to ensure our workplaces, schools and neighbourhoods are inclusive and safe environments. On HMD 2013, people are being asked to build a bridge to the past to remember those who suffered and those who survived, and build a bridge to your communities and know, respect and support everyone within them. The South West Regional Champion for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is Colette Bennett. Collette is offering her support in helping you to organise and deliver any type of activity and or event in your school or group. She can help you find the resources that might be the most appropriate for you as well as acting as a sounding board for ideas. By clicking on this link for example, you can find information on how to approach HMDT in an age appropriate way through a number of resources including lesson plans and assembly ideas suitable for use in schools and colleges. HMDT has a vision that activities will be held in every local authority area in the UK, and in all secondary schools and the Regional Champions will hopefully raise the profile of this important day and help bring communities together. If you would like Collette to sign you up for a campaign pack, full of useful resources and ideas, please let her know: e: [email protected]. Tel: 01823 240 260. SACRE Newsletter - Spring 2013 4 JAMES HEMMING ESSAY PRIZE Students in UK schools and colleges are invited to submit entries for the James Hemming Essay Prize 2013, discussing Bertrand Russell’s words: “A good world needs knowledge, kindliness and courage. It does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.” Entries of no more than 1,500 words will be accepted from any student at a UK school or college studying for AS or A2 levels or qualifications at the same level who is 19 or under and the competition closing date is Monday 1 April 2013. More information at http://hemmingprize.org.uk/ FARMINGTON FELLOWSHIPS The closing date for applications for Farmington Fellowships for the school year 2013-14 is 28 January 2013. Farmington will pay costs and salary of a replacement teacher for one term and enable you to study aspects of RE with support from one of a number of universities, including Bath Spa. Application forms and details can be downloaded from the Farmington website: http://www.farmington.ac.uk/fellowships_and_awards/fellowships.html. ERIDGE TRUST – GRANTS FOR SCHOOL TRIPS For many years the Eridge Trust has been making grants for school trips to museums, galleries and centres of art at home and abroad. The purpose of the Trust is to encourage young people to look at works of art, especially painting, and to enjoy and appreciate them. So that must be one of the objects of every trip they support. But it need not be the only object. Nor need pupils be studying art and design. Indeed, the Trust is keen to encourage the enjoyment of art by pupils not studying the subject academically and hopes that the trips it supports will not be narrowly focussed on the requirements of a particular exam.