RE Northern Ireland

Development planning and target setting have, by now, become firmly established aspects of school management processes. And with the development planning process comes the recognition that, to plan effectively for where you're going, you must first know where you are starting from. The importance of 'baselining' is well-known and involves recognising existing strengths and identifying areas for improvement. Doing so means that plans are likely to be more achievable and, because they emerge out of a detailed understanding of current practice, they are realistic and more effective. In terms of our understanding of practice in religious education in Northern Ireland, however, the baseline evidence remains limited and fragmentary. Perhaps the most obvious example being that the subject remains formally exempt from the ETI inspection process. Where churches exercise their right to inspect, no reports are put in the public domain. Where schools request ETI inspectors to obse...

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...

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 accur...

New Phase? Are we entering a new phase in the study of religion in education? A UK report on religion and belief in public life, Living with Difference , has recommended that change in religious education is needed on a number of fronts, from a reform of the law on collective worship to improved inspection procedures. In addition it states: "In Northern Ireland the present subject of RE should be renamed and broadened to include more religions and non-religious worldviews on the same basis as religions. It should be given an explicitly educational rather than confessional focus, and applied to all state-funded schools." Some of our close neighbours , including the Republic of Ireland and England,  have already made a  start in debating these issues. Education about Religions, Beliefs and Ethics - Ireland The focus of innovation in the Republic of Ireland is the introduction of a new curricular area in Primary Schools: Education about Religions, Beliefs and Eth...

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 learnin...

Those who have been teaching for any length of time will know that curriculum reform is a regular feature of the educational world and it will be of little surprise for most RE teachers in Northern Ireland to learn that the content and assessment arrangements for GCSE and A level are currently under review, with new qualifications expected to be in place for 2016.  But as well as top-down reform, teachers in RE have a reasonable degree of flexibility to make adjustments in their provision of the subject from year to year. Indeed, from talking to RE teachers in different schools across Northern Ireland in recent years, I have had a sense that quite a few departments have been altering their provision for Key Stage 4 pupils - some changing exam boards and others changing their module choices - and so I was interested to investigate further in order to discover the extent of the changes over the last four years. Figures published by the  Joint Council for Qualifications  (...

Among a number of infamous comments that Belfast-based Pastor, James McConnell, made about Muslims in a sermon at his Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle last month, was the statement: 'People say there may be some good Muslims in Britain - that may be so - but I don't trust them!' Subsequently, the Pastor was given support by the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson, who said he wouldn't trust Muslims who fully supported Sharia law; neither would he trust them for spiritual guidance, but he would 'trust them to go down to the shops' for him. Following wide-spread condemnation of his comments as inflammatory and irresponsible, the First Minister has apologised to local Muslim representatives, but across social media a good deal of others have sprung to the defence of Peter Robinson and Pastor McConnell trumpeting their right of free speech and the right of individuals to make religious truth-claims in public fora. Certainly, there is a need to main...

**Please note that the original article has been amended with new information about legislation governing the timetabling of Religious Education** During the last year, a number of RE teachers have asked me about the legal position of RE in the curriculum in Northern Ireland in relation to the amount of time allocated to the subject at Key Stages 3 and 4 - is there a minimum time requirement? Inevitably, the reason for the question is that their RE department is losing out in the battle over curriculum time. One of the teachers I spoke with was facing a fifty percent reduction in time at Key Stage 3 to a single 30 minute period per week. There is a legal obligation on schools to deliver RE (see the Education (NI) Order 1986 ) but, until recently, I was not aware of any clear directive on the issue of timetabling. Thankfully, however, in response t o an earlier version of this post,  Bill Latimer (RE Adviser with the Belfast Board) has made the situation somewhat clearer...

'Catholic Schools opening Their Doors to Teachers of Any Faith'* was the front page headline in The Irish News earlier this month. The paper was reporting on a change of policy by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) to relax the requirement for teachers in Catholic primary schools in Northern Ireland to undertake the Catholic Education Certificate in Religious Education.  On first reading, the headline seemed to suggest a radical change from the current policy, where applicants to Catholic primary and nursery schools are required to undertake the RE certificate.  If the requirement were removed then this would surely be a new era for Catholic education for it would change the religious nurture role of the teacher in a Catholic primary classroom and the principle that faith-development is fully intertwined with all other aspects of the education of children in the school. The exact situation can be understood more clearly, however, by...

Following extensive consultation and investigation an All Party Parliamentary Group at Westminster has produced a report on the current status of Religious Education in England. The group, chaired by Stephen Lloyd (a Lib-Dem MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon), were particularly interested in uncovering the nature and extent of recent changes in the staffing of RE in schools, the opportunities for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for RE teachers and the provision of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in RE. They discovered: about half of primary teachers and trainee teachers lack confidence in teaching RE around half of class teachers in Primary schools hand over the teaching of RE to others - in a quarter of cases to teaching assistants at secondary level, over 50% of teachers of RE have no qualification or expertise in the subject RE teachers have inadequate access to CPD In trying to understand the reasons for this situation Stephen Lloyd noted, 'our group we...

Photography by Marketing & Creative Services, Queen's University RE teachers from across Northern Ireland gathered with representatives from the Department of Education, the Education and Training Inspectorate and Teacher Education providers on Wed 13th February to discuss the theme of sharing Religious Education.  The conference was organised by the Sharing Education Programme  (SEP) which has been working with schools in Northern Ireland for six years to facilitate multiple forms of sharing in education across school boundaries.  Contributors included Prof Jim Conroy (University of Glasgow , Dr Jones Irwin (St Patrick's College, Drumcondra), Mr John Keast (The RE Council of England and Wales) and Ms Jo Malone (The Tony Blair Faith Foundation) as well as local contributors Dr Norman Richardson (Stranmillis University College), Mrs Francine Magill (Malone College), Mr David Thompson (Forge Integrated  Primary School), Prof Tony Gallag...

Stranmillis University College was delighted to play host to teachers and student teachers over two days for training in the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) Face to Faith programme. Student teachers from all teacher education providers of RE were present for the student teacher event: St Mary's University College, University of Ulster, Queen's University Belfast and Stranmillis University College.  This in itself was a tremendous opportunity for students to meet and network with other RE specialists as well as a chance to feel part of the wider Religious Education community in Northern Ireland.  The TBFF trainers, Helen Harrison and Jo Malone, illustrated the work of the Face to Faith programme and gave participants the chance to engage in inter-faith dialogue techniques and to see the potential of video-conferencing in the RE classroom. From left: Marian Curran (St Mary's University College),  Victoria Harrison (Saintfield HS), Nathan McCon...

Religious Education students from Queen's University, University of Ulster and Stranmillis University College were inspired by creative and thoughtful approaches to teaching RE at a one-day conference in Stranmillis led by Lat Blaylock and Stephen Pett of RE Today Services . The day involved a number of active workshops which challenged the students to think about their own values and opinions as well as how they might create a reflective and challenging environment in their own classrooms.  This event was also a unique opportunity for students from these different institutions to work together, to learn from each other and to connect with the local and national Religious Education community.  One Stranmillis student commented: 'Really enjoyed it! Lots of ideas and great resources.' Lat stated that the value of the event was to bring students together and to inspire them to take creative and thoughtful RE into classrooms. You can hear Lat in conversation with James Nelson...

Some of the participants at the Spirituality and Education conference On 17th September, three university colleges from the island of Ireland held a one-day conference for teachers on Spirituality in Education at Stranmillis University College as part of a new research project investigating the opportunities and challenges for spiritual education in Primary and Post-Primary schools, North and South. The conference was led by Aostre Johnson, Professor of Education at St Michael's, Vermont who has published widely in the field of children's spirituality.  The day involved a range of work-shop based sessions on experiential learning as well as some presentations on theoretical perspectives.  James, Aostre and Aiveen The event was part of a research project funded by the North-South teacher education agency SCOTENS. Over the next six months the teachers will attempt to implement some of Aostre's ideas into their own classrooms and will record their progress in a learn...

According to the authors of a recent study the answer to the question, 'Does Religious Education Work?', is 'A heavily qualified yes.' They go on to say: 'In general religious education offers students a positive experience and a pedagogy that focuses on developing their discursive abilities and makes a contribution to multicultural awareness.'  The report is the result of a three-year investigation carried out by the University of Glasgow, King's College London and Queen's University Belfast (where a one-day seminar on the report was held recently).  Using qualitative and quantitative methods, researchers investigated the practices and outcomes of religious education in 24 schools across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. While the report regards religious education generally positively it also makes clear that, in the schools it investigated, the subject 'did not, in the main, make students religiously literate' and that it suffered from...

Teachers from eight schools across Northern Ireland had the rare opportunity to chat with Tony Blair during a video conference at Stranmillis University College. The teachers were participating in a one-day training event for the ‘Face to Faith’ programme run by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) which aims to facilitate inter-faith dialogue through video conferencing and online collaboration. During the session Mr Blair told the teachers: ‘Young people have an enormous appetite to learn about others who are different from them’ and he emphasised the positive value of enabling pupils to dialogue about faith issues and beliefs. Jo Malone, UK Coordinator of TBFF, introduced teachers to the basics of video-conferencing as well as the learning materials and cooperative learning techniques at the heart of the programme. During the day there were also international contributions from experienced inter-faith facilitators in India and Lebanon who stressed the benefits of Face to Faith ...

Is support for RE in schools in Northern Ireland on the wane?  It is possible to think that results of a recent survey commissioned by the Integrated Education Fund suggest so. Only a small minority of those surveyed (20%) said they want to see schools or the state as having the main responsibility for religious education and fewer than half (47%) believe the state should fund religious education. But what do these figures mean? A closer look shows that the language used in the survey is somewhat ambiguous, and the reporting potentially confusing. On the issue of funding religious education, for example, the question states:  In your opinion should schools providing one type of religious education and one type of religious observance be funded by ...?  In other words, the focus of the question is about non-inclusive faith-based education rather than broadly-based curriculum RE.  In the section in the report titled 'Main responsibility for religious education', th...

As one of her final actions as Minister of Education, Caitriona Ruane has attempted to clarify the situation on opting out of Religious Education in schools in Northern Ireland. In response to a written question from Green Party MLA Brian Wilson, Ms Ruane stated: 'My Department has informed schools of their requirements and responsibilities to publish information in their schools prospectuses, including the teaching of Religious Education and parents’ right to withdraw their children. Additionally, new guidance provided recently for school governors in the on-line guide ‘Every School a Good School – The Governors’ Role’ includes a specific focus on the provision of religious education and highlights specifically parents’ right to withdraw their children along with governors’ responsibilities in relation to the promotion of equality, good relations and diversity. In line with this guidance, I expect schools to ensure that parents are notified of the facility to opt out of religious ...