NATRE Projects
Website Links
16-19 for all - dare2engage
Community Cohesion - resources for RE
Curriculum Bursaries
Developing Good Assessment Practice
Developing RE Through Music
Listening to Children & Young People Talking
Spirited Arts
Current Activity
Hockerill / NATRE Prize for Innovation in RE teaching
NATRE's has worked with Hockerill Educational to launch a Prize for innovation in RE teaching. The deadline for entries is 31 January 2011. Details of the winning entries will be available on NATRE's website in due course. NATRE is grateful to the Hockerill Educational Foundation for its ongoing support of NATRE's work, and the value it places on the importance of RE in the curriculum.
Challenging RE Conference
NATRE's North of England residential conference for 100 RE teachers is taking place on 7th and 8th May 2011 at Burn Hall Conference Centre in York. Generous funding by the St Gabriel's Programme enables NATRE to offer an excellent programme in a pleasant setting, and at a greatly subsidised fee for teachers. NATRE values greatly St Gabriel's ongoing support of its work for teachers.
Curriculum Bursaries supporting Celebrating RE month
With generous funding from BFSS and All Saints Educational Trust NATRE is working with eight NATRE Local Groups on curriculum projects designed to culminate in a local event in March 2011 as part of the Celebrating RE initiative. Each local group has applied for and been awarded a bursary of £1,000 - £2,000, and in addition advisory support to help plan and deliver the event along with provision of CPD opportunities to meet the specific needs of each group. NATRE is grateful for the ongoing support of BFSS and All Saints for their work with and for RE teachers.
Training for ITE RE PGCE students
NATRE continues to work with the Hockerill Educational Foundation, which supports four RE PGCE conferences each year, bringing together over half of the new entrants to secondary RE teaching, from about 20 of the universities and providers of RE training. The conferences provides dynamic experience of RE to new teachers, and show them what support and professional guidance NATRE can offer. The 2010/11 conferences take place in Manchester, Leeds, warwick and London.
Listening to children and young people talking
NATRE's online database of pupils' religious and spiritual thinking continues to be widely used. NATRE is working with RE Today to develop the resource through the addition of two new questions, short film clips of individual pupil responses and comments to the database questions by groups currently under-represented. See: www.natre.org.uk/db.
Westhill Endowment Seminars
During 2011/12 NATRE will be providing three 24-hour residential seminars, each for 25 participants, linking RE research and practice. Details will be available during the Spring term. The seminar programme is made possible through generous funding by the Westhill Endowment.
Best of British Islam
During the autumn term 2010 NATRE was pleased to work with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to distribute the 7-DVD set 'The Best of British Islam' to teachers in its secondary local groups. Response to the resource has been excellent; feedback will continue to be received through the spring term 2011.
NATRE Local groups
NATRE continues to support 155+ local groups for teachers of RE all over the country, providing links to more than 2000 teachers. During 2011 NATRE will continue to provide its termly newsletter to group leaders, provide face-to-face CPD opportunities for more than 40 groups and support by email, phone and mail for other groups, and individuals who contact the association.
Membership
NATRE provides a range of subscription options to meet the needs of members who work in a variety of contexts. The student subscription has been revised to include the curriculum publications. Details of membership fees are on: www.natre.org.uk. Additional downloads of resources linked to the curriculum publications and REtoday magazine are available for members on http://www.retoday.org.uk/.
REsource
NATRE's 24-page termly journal provides professional reflection on the theory and practice of RE. It is edited by Dr Bill Gent, former School Improvement Adviser, London Borough of Redbridge Advisory Service.
Bursaries for Special Schools
NATRE and RE Today have invited applications from Special Schools who are linked to NATRE local groups to apply for two bursaries to develop curriculum resources which focus on spiritual development.
Spirited Arts Competition 2011
Details of the 2011 Spirited Arts competition are available on: www.natre.org.uk/spiritedarts.
Council for Subject Associations (CfSA)
NATRE is a founder member of the Council for Subject Associations. NATRE's Executive Officer is a Director of the CfSA. http://www.subjectassociation.org.uk/.
RE Council of England & Wales
NATRE is a member of the REC, which has some 50 member bodies concerned with RE nationally, including major faith and belief community groups. See: www.religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk.
Recent Activity
Guidance on RE Resources
In July 2010 NATRE launched an online resource to support schools in reviewing the range and quality of resources they use when teaching world religions. This project was led by Dr Bill Gent, editor of NATRE's professional journal (REsource) and was generously funded by the DfE. It was in response to the outcomes of an extensive research project on the subject by the University of Warwick. For the resource see: www.natre.org.uk/rg.
Spirited Arts Competition 2010
2010's Spirited Arts competition had five inspirational themes and generated the largest number of entries in the life of the competition. For details of the winners see: www.natre.org.uk/spiritedarts. Details of the 2011 competition are also available from the the site.
Ambassadors of Religion & Belief Conference
On 20 July 2010 at Mulberry School, Tower Hamlets, NATRE held a Conference for Ambassadors of Religion & Belief. The event was for up to 100 students and 50 teachers and aimed to give young people an opportunity to explore religions and belief. The conference was made possible by a generous grant from the St Gabriel's Foundation.
Developing RE through music
Developing RE through music was launched in April 2010 as an online database providing links to songs/lyrics for more than 65 themes typically found in the RE curriculum. Users are invited to submit their own links which can be added to the database. The resource was made possible by a generous grant from the St Peter's Saltley Trust. See: www.natre.org.uk/music.
Westhill Endowment Seminars
During 2009/10 NATRE provided three 24-hour residential seminars, each for 25 participants, linking RE research and practice. The seminars were on Pedagogy (April 2009 in York), Glasgow (November 2009. teachers' lives, pupils' lives) and Oxford (April 2010, Creativity and RE). The seminar programme was made possible through generous funding by the Westhill Endowment.
Project funding to develop RE
During 2008/9 NATRE made available twenty funded opportunities for local groups to develop curriculum materials and resources for RE. Each grant was worth up to £1,500, due to generous funding by the St Gabriels' Programme and the DCSF. The outcomes of these bursaries are available on www.natre.org.uk.
Project funding to develop promotional films
During 2008/9 NATRE developed four promotional films about RE, thanks to generous funding from the DCSF. The films were launched in April 2009 and are available for free download from www.natre.org.uk.
Council for Subject Associations (CfSA)
NATRE is a founder member of the Council for Subject Associations. http://www.subjectassociation.org.uk/.
Secondary Teacher Network Project
NATRE, working alongside AREIAC and ‘Advisers in Education', won a tender from the TDA to pilot the delivery of CPD through secondary teacher network groups. This project involved the 9 North and East London Local authorities, 6 advisers and 18 teachers. The focus aimed to develop teachers' understanding and skills in assessment with a focus on Education Outside the Classroom. The outcomes of this project are available on www.natre.org.uk.
Exemplification of standards at key stage 3
NATRE won the tender to lead the RE element of a QCA exemplification of standards project. The project lasted for 18 months and involved 8 schools and 16 teachers. The project aimed to assist teachers in their planning for the introduction of the changes to the new secondary curriculum, by developing electronic ‘portfolios' of individual pupils' work, with annotations and commentaries, to robustly exemplify standards at levels 4 to 8.
Training for ITE RE PGCE students
NATRE continues to work with the Hockerill Educational Foundation, which supports four RE PGCE conferences each year, bringing together over half of the new entrants to secondary RE teaching, from about 20 of the universities and providers of RE training. The conferences provides dynamic experience of RE to new teachers, and show them what support and professional guidance NATRE can offer.
Conferences for NATRE local group leaders
In the spring and summer terms 2008 and 2009 NATRE provided six one-day conferences for NATRE local group leaders. Each conference provided a range of professional development opportunities for teachers. The conferences were free, due to generous grant funding by the St Gabriels' Programme.
RE and the new secondary curriculum
NATRE and RE Today worked with CfBT during 2007/10 to deliver the roll out of the new secondary curriculum for RE on behalf of the DCSF. The resources from this project are available on www.natre.org.uk.
Newsletters to support NATRE local groups
NATRE provides support for NATRE-affiliated local groups via a termly email newsletter sent to group leaders.
Support for RE and ICT
During 2007/9 NATRE and RE Today worked with Becta on a range of initiatives to support the use of ICT in RE. Work involved provision of ITT opportunities for secondary ITT students and ITT tutors, development of a resource to support the use of ICT in GCSE Religious Studies and entitlement documents for primary and secondary RE.
Local groups
NATRE supported 155+ local groups for teachers of RE all over the country, providing links to more than 1500 teachers. During 2009/10 NATRE provided face-to-face support for local groups through its local groups officer. These opportunities were made possible through generous funding from the DCSF, and the support of RE Today.
REsource
NATRE's 24-page termly journal provides professional reflection on the theory and practice of RE. It is edited by Dr Bill Gent, former School Improvement Adviser, London Borough of Redbridge Advisory Service.
Spirited Arts Competition 2009
2009's Spirited Arts competition had five inspirational themes. For details of the winners see: www.natre.org.uk/spiritedarts.
Listening to children and young people talking
NATRE's online database of pupils' religious and spiritual thinking continued to provide a significant classroom resource. It is interactive, multi-religious, and fully moderated. See: www.natre.org.uk/db.
Downloads
The members' section of the NATRE website includes access to a wide range of downloadable materials, accessible by a simple search mechanism. Some documents are freely available to all who access the site. See: www.natre.org.uk/db (choose 'NATRE free resources').
National RE news
NATRE supports a national RE news service through the NATRE news pages of 'REtoday' termly subscription magazine, and the news pages on RE Today's website. See: http://www.retoday.org.uk/.
RE Council of England & Wales
NATRE maintains links with the RE Council, and its membership of some 50 bodies concerned with RE nationally, including major faith and belief community groups. See: www.religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk.
Dare to Engage
Our involvement with this collaborative project to assist and work with Christian teachers and church workers in developing the offer of spiritual education to the 16-19 age group continues. Supported by the generosity of the Jerusalem Trust. See: dare2engage.org.
