PLEASE PASS ON TO YOUR RE SUBJECT LEADER

Welcome to the new SACRE newsletter for City of York schools.  This termly newsletter will keep you up to date on what SACRE is doing and the support it offers to York schools alongside national and regional updates and news on RE resources and training.

City of York SACRE

What is SACRE?

The acronym SACRE stands for: Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education
Why is there a SACRE?
Every local authority (LA) has to have a SACRE by law.  The Children’s Services division of the LA that takes responsibility for making sure SACRE works well and SACRE’s work is related to schools and their curriculum.  
What does a SACRE do?

The law says that RE must be taught in all schools and a SACRE’s role is to advise its local authority on what needs to be done to improve religious education (RE) and collective worship for schools in its area.  This is because RE is not part of the National Curriculum; it is a local responsibility. Through the SACRE, local communities and teachers have the opportunity to influence and support what pupils learn in RE. 

The SACRE’s main function is to advise the local authority on matters related to the religious education, which follows the locally agreed syllabus, and on collective worship in schools.   

You can find out more about City of York SACRE and its members here: https://www.york.gov.uk/SACRE

If you would like to contact us email sacre@york.gov.uk

World Religion Day 2023

World Religion Day 2023 takes place on Sunday, 15 January.

 BBC Teach has put together collection of classroom resources for primary and secondary schools to support teaching around World Religion Day.

World Religion Day takes place each January, aiming to promote understanding and peace between all religions as well as mutual understanding and tolerance between peoples from different backgrounds. You can find the resources here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/world-religion-day-teaching-resources/zs6fsk7

Festival Calendar

Search for religious festivals by religion and/or month here: https://www.reonline.org.uk/festival-calendar/

News from Culham St Gabriels

2023 competition for Children and Young People.  Calling all budding film makers!

Theme: A View on the World

Closing Date: Friday 31st March at 5pm

How have religious and non-religious worldviews changed over time where you live?
How would you describe the mix of worldviews in your community today?
What might it look like in 50 years’ time?

The winning entry will have their film professionally made!

We are inviting children and young people to create a 90 second film script, storyboard or recorded film. Celebrating 50 Years of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales in partnership with Culham St Gabriel’s Trust.

The competition is open to all children and young people aged 5-18 whether educated at school or at home. Entries from children and young people with special educational needs or from pupil referral units are welcome. Please use the following links to find out more including suggested resources, judging criteria and how to submit entries.

For further details go to https://www.reonline.org.uk/information-for-teachers/

Culham St Gabriel’s Trust new Primary Course – Introduction for Primary Beginner Teachers

Calling all Primary mentors, Beginner Teachers, ITE providers or trainers! We are delighted to announce the launch of our new, free, courses.

THREE courses introduce Beginner Teachers in the Primary phase to Religion and Worldviews, teaching and learning and subject knowledge. Use as self-study, with others or as part of a wider programme.

For further details go to https://courses.cstg.org.uk/

The value of an education in Religion and Worldviews – promotional Films

Take a look at these wonderful films featuring a wide range of people and professions celebrating the value of an education in Religion and Worldviews. Use them for a staff meetings, with pupils, at an open evening or to raise awareness. 

You can find the collection here: https://www.cstg.org.uk/campaigns/promoting-an-education-in-rwv/promotional-film-collection/

News from NATRE

Membership offers

In response to schools’ current needs, NATRE have re-vamped their membership offer, allowing budgets to stretch further. Now schools and teachers can choose the membership that suits them best. Benefits include:

· Whole staff teams now have unlimited multi-login to the members area with NATRE if they are a School or School Enhanced membership at no additional cost.

· For those who just want a taster of NATRE, a Basic level membership has been introduced for only £15 a year!  https://www.natre.org.uk/membership

Curriculum Symposium content: videos & resources

The curriculum symposium was a face to face-to-face event to develop curriculum planning and thinking skills, enabling teachers to be more confident in their understanding and development of high quality cur ricula and to enhance the understanding of processes involved in constructing high quality curricula. The symposium contributed to the start of a process for teachers considering curriculum design in terms of an education in religion and worldviews.

This section of the NATRE website is open to all to use and provides access to recordings of symposium presentations and PowerPoints as well as a ‘How to guide’ to allow others to recreate their own curriculum symposium over a series a sessions across a term or a year or over a day spent together.

Spotlight on symposium resources:

During the Curriculum Symposium teachers heard from a range of speakers; Christian Counsell, Matthew Lane, Stephen Pett, Kathryn Wright – you can watch recordings of the talks and access the associate resources here.

Richard Kueh HMI also presented but due to his Ofsted role NATRE were unable to record his talk or share resources.

Christine Counsell The Principles of curriculum design

Matthew Lane Change Management Hand-out and Notes

Matthew Lane Change management

Stephen Pett How to go about designing a curriculum

Kathryn Wright A multidisciplinary approach to curriculum design

2021 Census Data

The results of the religion questions from the 2021 Census were released at the end of November and you can find a summary of all of the results in this news article by NATRE.

If you want to find out even more about the census data you could also listen to this RE podcast https://www.therepodcast.co.uk/post/s7-e14-the-one-about-the-2021-census

or read more and watch this religion and media centre briefing here: https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/rmc-briefings/briefing-impact-of-census-results-on-religion-and-belief-2/

Jewish Museum London: Inclusive Judaism Image Library

The Inclusive Judaism Image Library allows you to download photos from Britain’s vibrantly diverse Jewish community directly to your classrooms. By downloading images for FREE, you can feel confident that you are teaching a representative, inclusive and authentic Judaism in your classrooms. All images have curriculum links to Jewish festivals, Life cycle events and Synagogue worship for Primary and Secondary schools, representing the UK’s vibrantly diverse Jewish community. 

https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/schools/in-the-classroom/inclusive-judaism/imagelibrary/

A visit to a Mosque

This resource by BBC Bitesize is full of interesting facts about a visit to a Mosque including also engaging animated videos for KS1 pupils.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zj3d7ty/articles/zfwphcw

If you watch one thing this week….

World’s Apart by Emily Downe

How different are science and religion? Is it a matter of how we see the world?

Theos Think Tank have released a new short animation by Emily Downe, that travels through a whirlwind of questions surrounding the science and religion debate. The film invites the viewer into the details of the conversations, where there is less conflict than it seems from far off.

For any teacher exploring science and religion or different worldviews and interpretations, this video will spark conversation.

You can watch it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXXj_YB--_g