RELIGIOUS EDUCATION LATEST NEWS

For further information on the items below, please contact Mary Parry, the Religious Education Associate Adviser at the Griffith Jones Centre, on:mparry@carmarthenshire.gov.uk or telephone 01994 231866

New Carmarthenshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education 

The new Carmarthenshire Agreed Syllabus was distributed to schools last term, and should be implemented from September 2009 onwards. This is a statutory document for all maintained schools in the county. It follows the same format as the Foundation Phase document and the National Curriculum subject orders for KS2 and KS3. It is based on the National exemplar framework for religious education for 3 to 19-year-olds in Wales, published by the Welsh Assembly Government. Click here for the Carmarthenshire RE Agreed Syllabus Click here for implementation dates

Materials to support the Agreed Syllabus for Primary Schools

  To help teachers to effectively implement the new Agreed Syllabus, I have drawn up some support materials. 

1. Exemplar policy statement for RE in the primary school. 

I have revised this document to reflect the changes to the Agreed Syllabus. 

Click here for Exemplar Policy Statement for RE.

2. Exemplar planning grid for Religious Education KS2 

This gives an example of how you may wish to plan for RE. The grid refers to:

• the four cross-curricular skills of Developing Thinking, Communication, ICT and Number;
• the Curriculum Cymreig and PSE;
• Religious Education skills and range;
• Assessment for Learning tools. 

Click here for:

The Religious Education planning grid without lines

The Religious Education planning grid with lines

Religious Education Conference - Sharing Good Practice in RE in the Foundation Phase

“It has been an invaluable day – I can't wait to use the ideas and resources in the classroom.”

“An excellent conference, which was so comprehensive.  It was wonderful to see so much good practice in one day.”

These are two of the comments made by teachers who attended the above conference held at the end of last term and funded by GTCW.  The aim of the conference was to celebrate and share current good practice in RE in reception, year 1 and year 2 classes and to inspire teachers to provide good quality RE for their children.  The conference also disseminated information and guidance on RE in the Foundation Phase curriculum to be introduced in September 2008. 

Following an introductory session by Mary Parry, the county’s RE associate adviser, on the place and nature of RE in the Foundation Phase, conference delegates spent the rest of the day attending four workshop sessions of their choice.  Nine teachers in Carmarthenshire schools provided these workshops, sharing their good practice and experiences.  They described or modelled a series of activities which they had provided in the classroom and showed examples of children’s work, photographs, artefacts and resources.  They talked about the pupils’ responses and how the activities helped to increase pupils’ interest, enthusiasm and understanding, and enhance their skills and attitudes.  Pupils contributed to two workshops.  Conference delegates also had the opportunity to share their own ideas and experiences.

For a conference report, together with practical classroom ideas and resources, click here.

Carmarthenshire Religious Education website

Have you visited the Carmarthenshire Religious Education website? It contains three sections at present:

i. virtual tours of places of worship in Wales with background information

• the Swansea Synagogue,
• the Cardiff mosque and Yemini Centre
• the Cardiff Bhata Gurdwara
• an Independent Welsh chapel in Synod Inn, Ceredigion (this will appear in December 2006)

ii. Religious artefacts Coloured photographs and background information. Note: it is possible for Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion schools to borrow these artefacts - from the Griffith Jones Centre and the Felinfach Educational Centre.

iii. Christian Aid - what Christian Aid is, how it works and examples of its projects to help the poorest people in the world, including an environmental project.

The website address is: http://credo.ysgolccc.org.uk This can be accessed via the 'Resources' sub folder in the Religious Education folder.

Religious Education Heads of Department Networking meeting

The next meeting will be held on 10 March 2010 in the Griffith Jones Centre in St Clears. There will be an update on the latest developments in RE. The main agenda item will be to consider the DCELLS/WJEC pilot for Teacher Assessment of RE at KS3, and creating RE portfolios based on the level descriptions in the Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion Agreed Syllabuses.

Social Evening for Religious Education Teachers in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion

Friday Evening, 6th November 2009 in the Tanerdy in Carmarthen. All welcome.