Religious education given Ofsted boost

Campaigners for better RE say the new school inspection framework will put more pressure on schools to prioritise the subject.

It’s understood two-day long inspections will now put greater emphasis on the broad curriculum while a small number of subjects will also be chosen as a focus for examination. These subjects could include religious education.

Ben Wood from the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) told Premier this is a good change of direction.

He said: “Ofsted are really pushing the sense that they want a curriculum to be broad.

“I think there is a sense for people, both in education and the wider public of what’s gone on in schools has been narrowed recently and there’s a number of reasons for that.

“But what Ofsted are doing here is a saying that school curriculum has to be broad.

“And that means that while English, maths and science are important so is RE, and history, and geography, and art, and music, and PE, they’re all important, they all have a role to play.

“It’s very heartening to hear Ofsted saying that within that curriculum, RE has a crucial role to play.”

Guidelines for inspections now require schools to ensure pupils can reflect their own religious beliefs as well as having knowledge and respect for others.

Schools will also have to prove that teachers have expert knowledge of the subjects that they teach.

Ben Wood, who…