An interview with Kathryn Wright, RE Advisory Teacher for Newham LEA
My name is Kathryn Wright. I’m the RE Advisory Teacher for Newham LEA. I’ve been in that post for just over a year. It was created for two reasons: firstly to revise the Newham agreed syllabus for Religious Education and secondly to support teachers and schools.
My role as an advisor encompasses a number of areas. Mainly I’m part of the curriculum support and professional development service which means that I’m providing support for teachers who are teaching RE, and also providing courses for them. We have a centre in Newham where we can help them develop the curriculum: to run projects in their schools, to look at schemes of work and how they might deliver lessons, to look at development planning and preparing them for Ofsted. So, it’s a number of different areas all of which are designed to offer support and advice.
In regard to Carpenters School, Sheryll the Head Teacher called me in and together we prepared the school for Ofsted by reviewing policies and rewriting their curriculum map for RE. As a result of that I went in to work with teachers, in classroom situations, to help them come to a firmer understanding of what constitutes good teaching of RE. I also helped Sheryll deal with some issues to do with sensitivity with regard to some parents and children who felt there were conflicts with what was being taught in classrooms and their own feelings and beliefs on religious matters. More recently we’ve been doing some project work, particularly looking at philosophy.
For some teachers RE is an uncomfortable subject.
It can be. I think one of the key issues is that some teachers associate RE with what they were taught and how they were taught it when they were at school. Obviously there is a huge range of ages amongst teachers and some actually have quite good recollections of the RE they were taught, particularly those who are younger and experienced RE which was more creative and interactive and that tends to make them a little bit more confident. But even so, there can still be some anxiety about subject knowledge, and some feel worried that they don’t know enough because they are having to teach in much more multi-faith environments now. So they tend to back-off and think they can’t do it.
Some teachers may have had very bad experiences of RE if they were at school some time ago when RE wasn’t quite what it is today, so there can be hang-ups and negative attitudes. Generally, in Newham, teachers tend to be quite positive. They know that this borough is very multi-cultural and multi-faith and teachers are quite open to learning about different religions because even if it doesn’t come up in RE it comes up in other subjects and in the general life of the school and the community.
So, overall, I would say that if teachers are uncomfortable about teaching RE it usually means there’s an issue concerning subject knowledge. They are concerned about getting the facts right when it comes to religions they are not completely familiar with.
Having said that, I should also say that many teachers are not comfortable about teaching Christianity either. Curiously, I sometimes find that a teacher is quite open to being very creative with the other religions but not with Christianity. There is a bit of a tendency to stick with traditional ways of teaching Christianity. Sometimes Christianity can get forgotten, probably because it has always been done and people assume they’re doing it well when, in fact, they are not. I want to encourage people to think more proactively about making their Christianity lessons as creatively exciting as some of the other religions they are looking at – to make sure that Christianity is as much fun to learn about as any other subject.
What constitutes good RE?
We’re promoting a model of RE which is called The Three Rs, which stands for Reflect, Relate, and Respond. Each lesson or scheme of work should start with an opportunity for the children to reflect on their own experiences. So, for example, if we are thinking about going to look at a church then we might start by discussing places which the children feel are ‘special’ and which they like going to visit, so that it’s linked to their own experience. This particularly helps children to develop an understanding of Attainment Target 2 in RE which is learning from Religion and Experience in our LEA.
This leads on to what we call Relate. This is about relating that experience to religious content. So this is where you are really looking at the knowledge and understanding of the actual religious tradition you are learning about. So, again if we take the example of visiting a church, it would mean actually visiting the church and finding out what goes on there. This focuses on Attainment Target 1 which in our LEA is about learning about religion.
Then, finally, we give the children an opportunity to Respond to what they’ve learned and link it back to their experience. This draws both the Attainment Targets together again and might involve a piece of creative writing or recounting and discussing their feelings about the visit when they come back.
This model can be seen as circular in the sense that it leads the children from Responding right back into Reflection and then Relating and Responding again.
Can you tell us more about the actual requirements when it comes to teaching RE?
RE is part of the basic curriculum and all schools are required to teach it. Although there isn’t a National Curriculum for RE, each LEA has it’s own agreed syllabus for RE which should be revised every five years. There is, however, a general consensus across the country about what RE actually is. Generally-speaking a curriculum tends to focus on two Attainment Targets. One of those is Learning About Religion and the other is Learning From Religion. Quite a lot of LEAs will name it as Learning From Religion And Experience, or something along those lines. A lot of work has been done recently on progression and assessment, for which there is also general consensus.
By law, schools are required to teach Christianity and then focus on the other principal religions as well. The number of religions may vary from LEA to LEA. In Newham, at Key Stage 1 we focus on Christianity and then two religions from the Hindu, Sihk and Muslim traditions. At Key Stage 2 it changes to include all three of those traditions. At Key Stage 3 and 4 there is an element of choice which adds Buddhism and Judaism to those available options. This varies slightly in different LEAs but the general consensus is that children should learn about different religions but that Christianity is there as a main focus, if you like.
Can you talk about approaches to teaching RE and what teaching methods you promote to the teachers you work with?
In order to make RE interesting and creative we need to give teachers some training in the use of different methods. I promote the idea of using artefacts and that implies the need to train teachers in the use of artefacts in the classroom: what are these artefacts and how are they used in places of worship and so on, plus how to handle such artefacts in the classroom. Once they have this information the teachers are confident about using these aids in their teaching.
There is huge mileage in using the internet, both for teacher’s own subject knowledge and also using it within the class. Lots of schools now have interactive whiteboards so that pictures can be taken directly from the internet and CD Roms and so on which are useful visuals for children to gain deeper understandings in the classroom.
It’s very important to encourage children to use their imagination and give them lots of opportunities to reflect on what they are learning and experiencing and becoming involved with. Where possible I like to see the use of things which are relevant to the local community, including bringing people in from local faith communities and taking children out to visit places of special interest to the children.
It’s often a good idea to use information which is up-to-date and of the present day. Older children can be stimulated by using articles from newspapers and magazines. Also using up-to-date versions of the bible, for instance, which children can understand and are easy to read.
With regard to activities which children might be involved in, I sometimes find that a teacher might tell a story and then discuss it with the children - but that’s it. Why stop there when there are many follow-up activities which would consolidate the understanding and the children would have some record of their ideas as well? It could be anything from games, thinking activities, sequencing and so on. There is a wide range of activities that would be appropriate to develop learning and retention as well as making RE fun and interesting. Giving the teachers confidence to go one step further is one of the reasons I’m available.
Could you tell us more about your views on the value of visits to places of worship.
Going to a place of worship is absolutely crucial, I believe, because it brings the religion alive. Sometimes it’s possible to go when people are actually worshipping there, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. But, certainly, going to a place of worship shows the children that the building is an important part of a local community. Even if there aren’t people worshipping there are usually photographs which can demonstrate that the building actually used and how it is used. It’s good if they can get to talk to someone who actually belongs to the particular faith and find out about from them their own experiences, their own beliefs and their own practice. But there should also be an opportunity for the children to learn about themselves so that they aren’t simply learning ‘about’ religion but also learning ‘from’ religion. You can ask the children about their feelings when they are in the place of worship and compare those feelings with how they feel when they visit one of their ‘special’ places.
Also, as well as the RE aspects there is a lot of spiritual development going on when the children go to a place of worship because they are becoming aware of issues to do with sensitivity for example. By allowing them time to be silent and reflect while they are there, this can encourage elements of self-awareness and reflective awareness.
And also, there are elements of understanding the beauty of places of worship. Often when they walk in their jaws drop in surprise at the beauty of the space. And they are often surprised and very curious about what they are going to find as they enter further into the space, and that interest and curiosity is well worth encouraging.
You express your views that feelings are important. Can you explain that further?
When children go to a place of worship, allowing them to respond to that environment is very important. That’s obviously going to include their feelings. Some of them may have negative feelings in which case that needs to be affirmed and talked through. Some will have positive feelings and they need to be affirmed and talked through too. I think it’s important that feelings are highlighted because it encourages them to become aware of what their feelings are, particularly with younger children, they need to learn how to identify what they like and what they don’t like and why they feel that particular way. Then, as they get older, they will be able to respond to other people’s likes and dislikes and feelings and know how to be sensitive to those feelings.
In Newham, on the level descriptors that we use on the Learning From Religion and Experience side, Level 1 is actually them being able to identify different feelings and responses that they have themselves. Level 2 is being able to respond to other people’s feelings. This would then link, as they go through, to being able to respond to other people’s beliefs. So, dealing with feelings starts out as a rather simple thing but it develops and encourages the ideas of showing respect to other people and being aware of and being sensitive to other people’s experiences and feelings as well as other people’s views and beliefs.
You’ve encourage the introduction of a stuffed cuddly-toy turtle into the classroom and that turtle was actually taken on the visit to the church along with the children. Why is that important?
There are two reasons why we are using the turtle. The first reason is that some children find it very hard to talk about their own feelings. By using something like a turtle or a bear or something like that, and tracking that toy’s feelings as they go on the journey, children who find it difficult to talk about their feelings will find it easier to talk about feelings through something else – in this case the turtle. They can express what they are feeling by expressing what the turtle is or may be experiencing.
Another reason is that activities in the classroom can be enhanced by referring to the turtle. It can encourage their thinking and reasoning skills. For example: when they talk to each other about Turtle’s feelings they have to justify their opinions and reason with each other. This encourages skills which are really important in all sorts of area, not just RE.
You’ve also asked teachers to introduce the notion of ‘special places’ with the children. Can you tell us more about that?
The reason is simply that we want to start with the children’s present experience. Many children might not have any notion of what a place of worship is or that people consider them special. So we start off by exploring the idea of a special place and most children can come up with some place that is special to them. For some children their special place might be McDonalds – it’s a place they tend to enjoy. Some children might have special memories of going to Spain or some other place like that if they’ve been lucky enough to have a pleasant and memorable holiday in a place which is special. So, when we come to talk about places of worship being special places, they already understand and can relate to the notion of ‘special places’. It’s good for Reflecting and Relating skills.