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Teachers Pilot New Key Stage 4 Qualification

The Open College Network, Northern Ireland ( OCN NI ) quietly launched a new Key Stage 4 qualification in Religious Education during the summer of 2016 and already it has generated quite a bit of interest among RE teachers. Around a dozen schools from the Maintained, Controlled and Integrated sectors are piloting the qualification which is designed to provide an alternative for those pupils who are unlikely to access the top range of grades at GCSE level. The specification of the Level 2 qualification includes units in 'Exploring Personal Identity and Faith', 'Prejudice and Reconciliation' and 'Exploring Religious Traditions within Own Community'. These and other units contain content broadly similar to what teachers are already familiar with as part of the NI Core Syllabus. What is particularly innovative is the style of assessment. Rather than examinations, teachers can choose the assessment method they feel is best suited to their students from: a portfoli

What sort of Religious Education is appropriate for Northern Ireland? A response to the CCEA GCSE RE Review.

One of the positives of my job as a teacher educator is that I regularly get to talk with student teachers  of RE  about their ideals and vision for their profession and the subject as a whole. While there is variety in what they see as the ultimate goal of religious education, the most persistent aspiration is that the subject will contribute to a more cohesive society. This is often articulated with reference to both sectarianism and the many examples of hate-crimes  in Northern Ireland  against those of minority faith traditions in the region. What young teachers of the subject seem to hold instinctively is the conviction that the type of religious education appropriate for Northern Ireland is one which recognises the reality of religious difference; acknowledges that negative and harmful expressions of religion exist; understands the importance of using education as a vehicle to explore those differences and address negative stereotypes as well as providing accurate knowledge of re