YORK SACRE NEWSLETTER – Summer Term 2023
News from NATRE
Children’s Commissioner shares her views on RE
A member of the NATRE executive, Shammi Rahman, recently interviewed The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza. Dame Rachel is a previous RE teacher and headteacher and Shammi, is an ex secondary teacher and now a Race Equality Adviser. Dame Rachel used to be her RE teacher!
Dame Rachel says, ‘a former RE teacher myself, I believe RE teachers have a crucial opportunity to teach children about the wider world and principals of fairness and equality. It was great to talk about how different faiths can teach us different things, for example treating others as we would like to be treated ourselves; having compassion for others; and celebrating the beauty of life in our environment.’
Listen to their conversation here
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 curricula 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.
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.
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
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
News
from Culham St Gabriel’s
Culham St Gabriel’s Trust new short course – Introduction to Subject Knowledge
Need subject knowledge? Not sure where to start? CSTG are pleased to announce the launch of a NEW free, short online self-study course.
The course is for teachers of all age ranges and in all contexts. See what enhanced subject knowledge can do for you, sign up for our courses now!
Take the course: https://courses.cstg.org.uk/enrol/index.php?id=27
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/
Discovering
Sacred Texts in the RE Classroom
Bring sacred texts to the classroom with these fascinating resources from the British Library.
The resource covers Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhi, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Find out more here: https://www.bl.uk/sacred-texts/activities/key-stage-2-teaching-resources
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
Festival Calendar
Search
for religious festivals by religion and/or month here:
https://www.reonline.org.uk/festival-calendar/
If
you watch one thing this week….
Dr Richard Kueh, the His Majesty's Inspector of Schools and National Subject lead for Religious Education, has produced two videos:
Factors the influence the quality of Religious Education in schools.
What pupils learn in the Religious Education curriculum.
You can find them here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiaKdZkTaMU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJmJC_RhRNk
Collective Worship Resources
Life Savers Collective Worship
Resources
The Just Finance Foundation works directly with schools to improve financial education through the LifeSavers programme. Engaging your students with values-based money lessons is important and develops key life skills.
Through their LifeSavers Programme, you can access flexible lesson plans, beautiful storybooks, assembly resources and much more! JFF’s financial education experts will also provide convenient CPD training and help connect you with other teachers. All of their programmes, training and resources are delivered at no cost to your school. Find out more and get involved: https://bit.ly/3S3pECH
Picture News
Collective Worship Resources
