Agenda item

The Officer to the SACRE presented the response to the key issues highlighted in the Ofsted report into RE ("Realising the potential") building on the discussion at the last meeting of the QSS.  It was reported that the key findings and recommendations of the Ofsted report had been based on evidence drawn from a national sample of 185 schools visited and that members of the QSS had expressed the opinion that the report did not reflect the position of RE in Lancashire but that the areas of concern listed should be used to help evaluate the situation in Lancashire.

Members considered and commented on the areas of concern highlighted in the report as follows:

·  Low standards and weak teaching – It was felt that there was no particular problem in Lancashire, and that there were many examples of excellent teaching and high standards. It was suggested that monitoring and managing this was a key issue.  The current SACRE Development Plan identified strategies to support teaching and learning through the provision of support networks, sharing good practice and training opportunities.  The 2011 Lancashire Agreed Syllabus had a rich resources section to support high challenge teaching and learning.  It was suggested that the development of assessment in RE was a key area for development. 

It was reported that the current system of ‘levels’ used to report children’s attainment and progress was likely to be removed with the introduction of the new curriculum in 2014.  Schools would be able to introduce their own approaches to assessment and Ofsted inspections would be informed by whatever pupil tracking data schools chose to keep.  This, it was suggested, could lead to a lack of standardisation.

·  Problems in developing a curriculum for RE and confusion about the purpose of RE – it was noted that the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus had been praised for the focus placed on enquiry based learning and providing exemplification materials to support teachers and schools in developing the curriculum to meet their school's needs. The Ofsted report stated that the way to deal with the issues found was to base RE on enquiry learning.  As the principle aim of the Lancashire syllabus was "to support pupils' personal quest for meaning by engaging enquiry into the question 'what is it to be human?' exploring answers offered by religion and beliefs" it was noted that Lancashire had already adopted this model.  It was also noted that a neighbouring local authority had asked about purchasing the Lancashire syllabus.

·  Concerns about the leadership and management of RE - it was reported that the professional development of teachers in RE was a key area of concern for SACRE and was highlighted in the Development Plan.  The value of networks, good practice schools and the use of self evaluation frameworks such as the RE Quality Mark to support subject leaders was recognised.  The development of effective assessment was again highlighted as a key issue for development.

·  Weaknesses in examination provision at Key Stage 4 – Sharing good practice amongst secondary schools provided an opportunity to further strengthen the quality of teaching in Key Stage 4 but remained a difficult issue to resolve – the pressures on the secondary curriculum were enormous, sometimes leaving little time to develop children's understanding.

It was noted that the Church of England had recently commissioned Alan Brine HMI to produce a similar report for C of E schools.

Resolved:  That the response to the Ofsted Report into RE be noted.