Draft Handbook for Religion and Worldviews in the Classroom
The RE Council has published its Draft Handbook for the Religion and Worldviews in the Classroom: developing a Worldviews Approach project.
The Draft Handbook sets out a rationale for a religion and worldviews approach, building on the developments since the 2018 Commission report. It incorporates a revised National Statement of Entitlement (NSE), which gives a clear description of an education in religion and worldviews, and sets a benchmark for high-quality teaching and learning. The Handbook then offers practical guidance, including how to use the NSE to develop a syllabus or curriculum, applying ways of knowing, developing pupils’ personal worldviews, and what progress looks like in a worldviews approach.
Stephen Pett, REToday Adviser contributed to developing the handbook for syllabus writers and curriculum developers to support them on translating the REC’s vision of an excellent education for all in Religion and Worldviews into practical resources for teachers.
Sections include:
- What do people mean by ‘religion’?
- What do people mean by ‘worldview’?
- The value of worldviews
- Purposes for RE in a religion and worldviews approach
- Revised National Statement of Entitlement
- Developing pupils’ personal worldviews
- Making good progress
- Applying disciplinary methods
- How to use the NSE to develop a syllabus
- How to use the NSE to develop questions and construct units of work
- Making good progress: three models
The Draft Handbook is primarily written to inform three Framework Development Teams, who will work over the next 18 months to apply the NSE and the Handbook guidance to their own contexts. During this process, the Draft Handbook will be tested and revised as necessary, before the publication of a final Handbook, three example frameworks, sample units of work and pupil responses, in 2024.
You can download copies of the Draft Handbook here
