RE Professionals

School Improvement Adviser (RE) Solihull MBC. My interest in Religious Education developed during my university days at St David's University College, Lampeter, which culminated in a MTh in Liberation Theology. Following a fascinating secondary PGCE course in Birmingham, I began teaching in Solihull and within a year was promoted to Head of Department. This gave me a great opportunity to develop a curriculum which was innovative, experiential, rigorous and challenging. When the GCSE short courses became available, I quickly seized upon it as a way of promoting RE for all and became one of the best performing departments in the school. I then moved to Head of Department post in a Wolverhampton School which was inner city and multi faith. From there I became Advisory Teacher of RE and Citizenship in Coventry LA and then three years ago moved back to Solihull as School Improvement Adviser with responsibility for RE. I have also served as Vice-Chair of AREIAC, this is the professional association for RE Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants. It is an exciting time to be involved in Religious Education. There are significant developments nationally which are aiming to strengthen RE's position and promote teachers' professional development. Crucially, it is important that all the interested parties work together for the good of RE and lobby effectively.

Professor Liam Gearon is Professor of Education at Oxford University. He taught religious education in schools in the northwest and southwest of England before, in 1996, leading the PGCE Religious Education at Roehampton, until 2003. Vice-Chair of the Association of University Lecturers in Religion and Education, a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Religious Education, and peer-reviewer for many journals, Professor Gearon is guest editor of the International Journal of Children's Spirituality for a special 2006 issue on human rights. The author and editor of numerous books in literature and religion as well as education, some of his recent publications include Teaching Citizenship in the Secondary School (2002), Religion and Human Rights (2003), Citizenship through Secondary Religious Education (2004), and Freedom of Expression and Human Rights (2005). He is former Director of the Centre for Research in Human Rights.

I began my RE career as the only RE teacher in a large comprehensive school, straight out of my PGCE year. Having built up the subject to A level, and moved on to a head of department post in a large department, I eventually became LEA adviser for RE in Cornwall. The next move was to the QCA in 1996 to be manager of RE, Citizenship and PSHE. After retirement from that, I took on my current role as part-time RE consultant to the DfES. The DfES does not directly get involved in the school curriculum or its assessment (leaving that to the QCA) but it is responsible for making and implementing government policy on education. RE has historically been problematic for the DfES as legally RE is controlled by Local Authorities or faith communities, depending on the nature of the school. Nevertheless, since the advent of the National Curriculum the DfES has become more involved with RE, which it regards as important for pupils' own development as well as for community cohesion in a multi-faith society. For this reason, it commissioned the publication of the non-statutory National Framework for RE in 2004. I am sure we shall see further involvement with RE in the near future.

Each Local Authority (LA) has a SACRE that brings together elected Members, teachers and representatives of faith communities and the Local Authority. SACRE's role is to advise the LA about the local provision and quality of religious education and of collective worship as well as promoting community cohesion and social inclusion. The National Association of Standing Advisory Councils on religious education (NASACRE) was established in 1993 as a non profit-making organisation that represents the interests of SACREs. As well as producing a termly newsletter and organising national conferences, NASACRE Executive work with national bodies to provide support to SACREs across the country. The Chair of NASACRE, Denise Chaplin, started teaching in 1973 after completing a degree in English &Theology at Southampton University and a PGCE. She taught in Junior, Middle and Secondary schools and since 1994 works in Lewisham as School Improvement Officer for RE & Collective Worship with responsibility for the South London Multifaith & Multicultural Resources Centre. Denise supports SACREs in five London LAs. She is a member of the Association for RE Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (AREIAC) and the Executive of the RE Council of England and Wales, of which NASACRE is a member.

As the only RE specialist in my first post, I soon learned the importance of networking with others teachers of RE and of keeping up to date with current developments in pedagogy and politics. More than 20 years later, I still love the excitement and challenge of the classroom but more than ever appreciate all the support and new ideas I get from NATRE members and the RE world in general. Currently, we are working on extending the reach of the curriculum focused materials that are distributed to teachers and schools in our termly mailing. We are doing this by developing our own website and by promoting teacher networking through local NATRE groups and through links with locally based advisers, consultants, ASTs, Humanities Colleges, Leading Edge and Training schools and others who have a mission to share good practice in and through Religious Education

'Target practice', 'playground', 'oasis', 'life laboratory' and 'cosmic enquiry' are all words which Brian Gates uses to characterise RE. He is Chair of the RE Council of England & Wales and sees its National Strategy for RE as an opportunity for government to demonstrate that rhetoric about beliefs and values is matched in the curriculum experience of every learner 3-19 years. Brian is also Professor of Religious & Moral Education at St Martin's College/University of Cumbria, which has a special interest in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics in its academic and professional degree programmes.

In my role as Ofsted's subject specialist adviser for RE, it is my responsibility to monitor and report on what is happening to the subject in schools. The hope is that as a result of our work we gain a clear understanding of what is working well and what we need to do to improve the quality of pupils experience of RE.What better time to be lucky enough to play a role in developing RE! Religion is back on the map. As Peter Berger said recently ‘The world today…..is as furiously religious as it ever was'. We do not reminding how important it is to enhance young peoples' critical understanding of, and insight into, the realm of beliefs and values.