National updates – Religious Education
A national Plan for RE
Major report in to Hinduism in Religious Education in UK Schools (full report attached)
Some key areas of the report to bring to the attention of SACRE members:
In
2020, INSIGHT UK conducted a project with a team comprised of
highly
experienced
members of the Hindu community, amongst which are well known
academics, including professors and teachers. The project goal was
to
assess the current
state of Hinduism in RE in UK schools and
recommend
changes to improve
it.
This project was
supported by Hindu Council UK, Hindu Forum of
Britain,
Hindu Swayamsevak
Sangh (UK), National Council of Hindu Temples UK
and
Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (UK). We are thankful to everyone who has
contributed
to this
project.
Key
Findings
The main findings
from this survey concluded:
•
97% of survey
respondents say it is important and paramount for their
child
to learn about
Hinduism.
•
98% of survey
respondents say the study of Hinduism in RE is low
quality
and
deficient.
•
75% of
respondents feel that Hinduism is not taught in a positive
light.
•
86% of the
respondents are either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with
the
teaching of
Hinduism in schools within the United Kingdom.
•
76% of primary
school parents are unhappy about RE teachers’
knowledge
of
Hinduism.
•
81% of Key Stage
3 and 87% of Key Stage 4 parents are discontented
about
RE teachers’
knowledge of Hinduism.
•
There is growing
evidence of inaccurate resources used by
classroom
teachers for
teaching Hinduism.
•
Hindu parents and
pupils feel they do not have a choice to study
Hinduism
at GCSE
level.
It
found that the lack of awareness and an incorrect portrayal of
Hinduism
in RE results
in:
1. Depriving
students of a world view and understanding of the
nature,
diversity and
impact of religion and belief in the contemporary
world.
2. Depriving the
knowledge of the world’s third-largest religion which
is
followed by one of
the most contributing minority communities in
the
UK.
3. Insensitivity
towards Hindu people and their beliefs resulting in
bullying
and hate
crimes.
Recommendations
The data is clear
and unequivocal in highlighting that both the quality and
availability of Hinduism in RE in the UK is poor. As a result,
various
recommendations have been drafted for different target groups as
listed
below.
SACRE
●
Collaboration with
the National Association of Standing Advisory
Councils on Religious Education (NASACRE) to ensure involvement
with
the newly formed Hindu board.
●
Ensuring Hindu
representation on each local SACRE with the
involvement of Hindu temples.
●
Building a pool of
SACRE Hindu representatives that would help form a
standardised syllabus, including training and annual
conferences.
●
Pushing for a
syllabus that promotes a diverse portfolio of Hindu culture
including Yoga, Meditation, Ayurveda and vegetarianism with a
focus
on teaching, not preaching.
●
Ensuring Hinduism
education resources are factual, credible and
available in all UK schools
Schools
●
Providing training
for RE teachers to learn about Hinduism.
●
Provide
standardised resources for ease of
teaching.
●
Ensuring Hindu
representation on school governing boards.
●
Donation schemes
for books and resources, for example, Hindu
symbols, chanting beads, bells and other items to help
teach.
●
Encouraging
cross-curricular activities like Yoga, Meditation, Vedic
Maths, Sanskrit etc.
●
Creation of a
National Conference of Hindu Teachers.
Context of York SACRE:
In January 2021 York SACRE through its partnership with LTLRE offered an online Hinduism subject knowledge workshop led by Iskcon services. 35 teachers from York and the surrounding areas attended.
There is currently a vacancy for a Hinduism representative on York SACRE. SACRE may wish to pursue finding a Hindu representative.
Regional training for Schools through LTLRE and NATRE Regional Ambassador role
Due to the on-going challenges of predicting when larger gatherings can take place the LTLRE/NATRE regional conference will now be a Curriculum conversations series with a series of twilights between March and December 2021.
The curriculum conversations series is launching with Richard Kueh HMI and subject lead for RE leading a session on Ofsted and the curriculum for teachers in our region on Thursday 11th March
Kathryn Wright, CEO Culham St Gabriels, will follow in June with a session - Being ambitious: A religion and worldviews curriculum for all
Following these first two sessions there will be an online ‘conversation’ for teachers to reflect on their learning from the sessions and network regionally.
In the Autumn term there will be a primary stream and secondary stream of curriculum conversations.
|
Primary |
Secondary |
|
|
Designing an Effective RE Curriculum Gillian Georgiou |
From conversation to implementation: constructing an RE curriculum Ben Wood |
|
|
Engaging in research in the primary RE classroom Emma Salter |
Engaging in research in the secondary RE classroom Kathryn Wright |
|
|
EYFS and the RE curriculum – Catriona Card |
A-level – Rachel Jackson-Royal |
|
|
Anti-racist RE – Saima Saleh |
Anti-racist RE – Ashish Kundi |
|
|
Text and story – Fiona Moss |
Diversity in Islam Zameer Hussain |
|
|
The RE curriculum in special schools – Anne Krisman |
There will also be a second regional conversation for the primary and secondary streams to reflect on their learning.
For further information do contact Olivia Seymour regional ambassador for RE olivia@natre.org.uk