Deep and meaningful? The religious education subject report – NASACRE Statement

NASACRE welcomes the Ofsted subject report Deep and meaningful RE? (published Wednesday 17April 2024).  We are interested to note that the report highlights issues that NASACRE, along with other RE bodies, have raised for some time with government.  The report contains many helpful messages & recommendations for NASACRE to use in its work with SACREs.

For example, the report will support SACREs to:

• be able to provide relevant and effective advice to their LA around the provision and quality of teaching of RE in local settings
• engage with those who can endeavour to ensure there is sufficient funding available to support RE locally
• work with senior leaders and governors in schools to support high quality RE
• work alongside schools to improve professional development for practitioners, so they can improve their subject knowledge, pedagogical practice and confidence in teaching RE
• support schools in being able to plan an ambitious, broad and balanced curriculum for RE, focusing on depth of understanding rather than broad superficial knowledge.

We agree with Ofsted that the government should ‘urgently’ update guidance for RE and we will continue to work with the DfE to raise NASACRE’s concerns around this.  We also look forward to furthering our work with Ofsted, to ensure that schools provide high quality ‘deep and meaningful RE’ for all pupils.

We will also work with our RE partners to ensure that this report has a positive impact in schools.  We agree with NATRE’s hope, that from this report,“OFSTED will take responsibility for its role and there will be considerably more deep dives into RE during the ordinary inspection process.”

As a national association, we will be looking to work with SACREs through our webinar programme over the next twelve months to explore how this report can be used effectively in the local context.

You can download this statement here.