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First School in Northern Ireland to Achieve a Quality Mark for Religious Education

Banbridge Academy have become the first school in Northern Ireland to achieve a Quality Mark in Religious Education! Many congratulations are due to Warren Brown (HoD) and Sarah Hassard who richly deserve recognition for their excellent work.
Raymond Pollock (Principal), Warren Brown (Head of RE), Sarah Hassard (Teacher of RE)

Speaking of why they applied for the award, Warren stated: "We decided to take part in the process as our school is one which recognises the value of self evaluation – it allowed our department to identify what we are doing well. Our focus in school recently has been the development of a Teaching and Learning Policy – so it related very well to this."

The REQM is an established award, developed by the RE Council, which recognises high performing RE departments.  It is designed to assist those who wish to engage in a formal self-improvement process but, importantly, it also provides an opportunity to showcase high quality teaching and learning and to celebrate the success RE departments make to whole school outcomes.

To qualify for the award the team from Banbridge had to demonstrate their quality across four categories: learners and learning; teachers and teaching; curriculum; subject leadership; and continuing professional development.

Warren commented: "It has allowed us to raise the profile of RE in school and to celebrate our good practice – in particular how we contribute to whole school issues like Literacy, and ICT. We are proud of the strategies and the varied resources we use to engage students, from an emphasis on Thinking Skills, educational visits and speakers to opportunities to encourage spiritual and moral development. Not forgetting, our consistently excellent results at GCSE and A Level!"

"I thoroughly enjoyed our educational visits such as to the Crumlin Road Gaol, and our trip to Poland…RE focuses on topics that are relevant to issues today, it helps us to have an open mind and respect other people’s opinions." (Banbridge Academy Pupil)
It is fourteen years since any guidance on what counts as quality RE has been given by the inspecting authority in Northern Ireland (The ETI). In addition, the subject is exempt from formal inspection by the ETI. Given these facts, the introduction of the REQM to Northern Ireland could provide a much needed tool whereby RE departments can employ a structured framework to reflect upon and measure their performance against a set of agreed quality criteria and, where there is good practice, it can be acknowledged, celebrated and shared. Certainly, the department from Banbridge feel that others could benefit from being involved in the REQM: "We would recommend the process – a useful way to audit practice in the Department, encourage team building, raise the profile of the subject and stimulate pupil interest and involvement."