Welcome to RE KS2

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Welcome toRE _at_ KS2 KS3

• Celebrating Ethnicity and Faith Diversity

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Setting the Scene

• By the end of this training you should be
• able to
• Understand the context of religious belief in
  Stoke-on-Trent North Staffordshire
• Identify current issues in RE through an
  exploration of the latest Ofsted Report
• Apply learning to the design and facilitation of
  RE lessons

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Overview

• What is the context in which we work?
• What does our syllabus require?
• Diversity in Stoke-on-Trent
• A recent challenge from Ofsted
• Teaching about challenging issues in
  Stoke-on-Trent
• The future

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1.Our Context

• In pairs discuss the following
• Which faiths are represented amongst our pupils
  and their parents?
• What do we know about these religious
  communities?
• Name two issues which are important to these
  religious communities.
• 5 minutes

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Feedback

• Religions in Stoke
• Issues they face

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• 2. Stoke-on-Trent Programme of Study for Key
  Stage 2
• Element 1 Community Life Special Occasions
• Pupils are to be taught
• 2.1 What religions are represented in our
  neighbourhood? Pupils learn about the variety of
  religious communities found in Stoke-on-Trent,
  their places of worship and symbols so they can
  describe some of the beliefs and practices
  involved with local places of worship and suggest
  meanings in religious symbols, language and
  stories.
• 2.3 What does it mean to belong to a faith
  community?

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3. Celebrating Ethnicity Faith Diversity
in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire
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Strength in Unity Stoke-on-Trent motto
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Today sixteen distinct ethnic categories of
people from all over the world live and work in
Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire
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A Sense of BelongingThe 45 home languages of
Stoke-on-Trent

• Albanian Amharic Arabic Bengali Mandrike
  Mongolian Russian Panjabi Shona Georgian
  Greek Kurdish Sorani Farsi Fijian
  French Tagalog Turkish Bahdeeni Bemba
  Cantonese Chesky Azerbijan Malay Kirundi
  Hungarian Portuguese

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Racial Ignorance
I arrived in Stoke-on-Trent, from Tanzania, in
1976. At first I experienced racial ignorance.
Contrary to popular belief the needs of black
people are not all the same. One of the main
issues we are facing in our community is
unemployment. Another concern is to provide basic
English literacy classes, since our communities
speak many different languages. - Thurayya Cahill
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Having a Voice
I came to England in 1961 with my parents from
Ghana, Africa. I find Stoke-on-Trent a very
friendly place, however, I also feel invisible.
For example, when you open the local paper black
issues are rarely mentioned. - Mina Blankson
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Questions about Identity
Before the mosque had control over the
youngsters, but not so much now. Society has
changed. In the past there used to be a fear of
parents which made young people behave. However,
the more young Pakistanis mix with other
youngsters the more they are influenced. There is
a tension between trying to be faithful
to Islam and our everyday life when we meet
with other influences. - Kasam, 16
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Employment
In 1999 I fled the war in Kosovo, and the UK
government sent me here to Stoke-on-Trent. There
are many good things about living here the
people are friendly, it is a quiet City and has
many beautiful places like Hanley Park. The main
difficulty is in gaining jobs. Back in Kosovo I
had a degree and was an electrician.- Refugee
from Kosovo
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Awareness
The Bangladeshi Community has only recently been
recognised as an important minority group which
is contributing to society. For example, when you
go to schools and hospitals you still find Urdu
and Panjabi is recognised but Bengali is rarely
taught. Mr. Iqbal Choudhary
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• 4. Making sense of Religion
• A report on religious education in schools and
  the
• impact of locally agreed syllabuses
• June 2007

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School report on RE

• The past few years have seen an overall
  improvement in RE. Much greater consensus exists
  about the nature and purpose of the subject.
  Fewer schools fail to meet the statutory
  requirement to teach RE and in many schools the
  profile of RE is positive. Although there is some
  very good practice, including high quality
  teaching, standards overall are not high enough
  and there are wide variations in the quality of
  provision. Achievement by pupils in RE has
  improved over the past five years but remains
  very inconsistent.

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Key findings

• Pupils achievement in RE in primary schools
  improved over the period between 2001/02 and
  2005/06. Inadequate achievement in RE in primary
  schools is rare.
• Pupils achievement at Key Stage 3 is very
  inconsistent.
• Too much teaching at Key Stage 3 is
  unchallenging.
• The impact of the National Strategies on RE in
  primary schools has been largely positive.
  However, whole-school development rarely focuses
  on RE.
• The curriculum and teaching in RE do not place
  sufficient emphasis on exploring the changing
  political and social significance of religion in
  the modern world. As a result, the subjects
  potential to contribute to community cohesion,
  education for diversity and citizenship is not
  being fully realised.

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RE _at_ KS2

• Where provision for RE is effective throughout
  the whole school, pupils standards in Years 5
  and 6 are often higher than those in Years 7 or 8
  in many secondary schools.
• In an outstanding Year 6 lesson, pupils
  prepared questions to ask the local vicar about
  the impact of her faith on her life. They
  classified the questions according to whether
  they were about her beliefs or their impact on
  her way of life. In ability groups, they selected
  questions and answers to prepare for a final
  discussion. Lower attaining pupils worked with a
  teaching assistant and made very good progress in
  consolidating their understanding. Higher
  attainers had extension questions asking them to
  consider whether there were any surprises in the
  vicars answers. A large proportion of the pupils
  reached level 5, demonstrating understanding at
  least as good as that seen in many Year 8
  classes.

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RE _at_ KS3

• Frequently, work that is related to learning
  about religion is not challenging enough. There
  is a tendency to limit extended writing to
  open-ended personal responses rather than high
  quality argument or analysis. A recent inspection
  illustrates this
• Achievement at Key Stage 3 is very uneven. In
  Year 8 work is rarely above level 3 to 4 because
  written tasks lack challenge. Some pupils make
  better progress orally but, because their
  responses are not translated effectively into
  more structured written work, their progress is
  not consolidated sufficiently. Progress is uneven
  because of problems with continuity and
  progression in the curriculum and weak
  assessment. Pupils do not synthesise the various
  strands of their work so that they make even
  progress across the key stage. Their grasp of the
  meaning and significance of religion and their
  ability to explain and interpret religion
  improves very slowly.

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5. Teaching about challenging issues in
Stoke-on-Trent

• A particular issue emerges about schools
  contribution to promoting community cohesion.
• create more resources, including web based
  resources, for teaching and learning about issues
  related to inter faith relations and also
  resources about different faiths understandings
  of citizenship. There are many existing resources
  dealing with individual religious traditions but
  few examples of good resources which help in
  teaching about the faith and inter faith
  dimensions of citizenship or about issues of
  belonging, coping with difference and respecting
  other peoples beliefs and values.
• This is a key area for further development.
  Active consideration should be given to providing
  further opportunities, with citizenship, for
  pupils to explore issues of identity, diversity
  and community cohesion in RE.

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• Recent world events have raised the profile of
  religious education significantly and schools
  have new responsibilities to promote community
  cohesion. Those with responsibility for RE
  therefore have the task of ensuring that children
  and young people are able to make sense of
  religion in the modern world and issues of
  identity and diversity.

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• RE teachers face this challenge constantly. It
  is often simpler for them to fall back on the
  mechanics of religion instead of tackling the
  reality of being religious. Textbooks tend to
  concentrate on ceremonies rather than what it is
  like to live as a Catholic, a Muslim or a Hindu
  in the community and to discuss where values and
  codes for living come from for pupils who do not
  have religious belief. It is an area which needs
  considerable work if we are to meet our
  objectives of developing active, articulate,
  critical learners who understand the value of
  difference and unity and have the ability to
  participate and engage in current debates.

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Task

• Paired Activity
• Using pages 29, 30-31, 42-46 in the workbook
  consider how you would design an activity which
  promotes community cohesion
• 10 minutes

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6. The Future
As Sikhs we are very hopeful about the way
Stoke-on-Trent can become a city of excellence in
which people of all religions and people who do
not celebrate a religion can live together in
harmony and peace with each other. This goes to
the heart of what we stand for a respect for
the equality of each person. - Gurmeet Singh
Kallar
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I am hopeful about the future. The Jewish
community is never going to be a big community
but I hope that we can continue as a community in
Stoke-on-Trent. I have great hope in the Forum of
Faiths which was launched in 2005, bringing
together representatives of each faith present in
the area. If we can build on that we can live in
harmony and respect with each other. - Sydney
Morris MBE
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To be true to your faith while being a blessing
to others, regardless of their faith, is the best
formula I know for a multifaith environment. -
Dr. Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi
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Society is not a hotel. It is the home we build
together. It is the place to which we bring our
distinctive contributions to the common good. The
Jewish plea to Britain is, dont forget who you
are, for that is who we aspire to be. - Dr.
Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi
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In 2014 Stoke-on-Trent will be a thriving diverse
city. This means a City that positively values
the diversity of peoples backgrounds and
circumstances, ensuring everyone has similar life
opportunities and where strong relationships are
developed between people of different
backgrounds. - Dr. Ita ODonovan Mr. Mark
Meredith
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Reflection

• Take 5 minutes for personal reflection.
• Record briefly your key learning points and
  action points as a result of this training.
• Now share what you intend to do with one other
  colleague.