As students across the country received their A-level results this week, new figures reveal a drop of 5.1 percent in 2019 and 22.8 percent in 2018, a combined decline of 28.9 percent in two years of students choosing to study RE at A-level.

Reports claim that a number of schools are failing to meet legal requirements on religious education to pupils until the age of 16, which is impacting students choosing the subject to study at a higher level.

The figures are an indication that religious education remains vulnerable and teachers are calling the Government to engage further with the recent recommendations for change from the Commission on Religious Education.

It is a legal requirement for children up until 16 to be taught RE. Former RE teacher and education officer for the Diocese of Exeter, Ed Pawson told Premier how some schools are getting away with not teaching the subject: “Data shows a third of schools are not teaching RE properly, it’s a key stage for that GCSE level.

Pawson thinks it’s “partly about academisation of schools”, but says “we are hopeful that a new Ofsted framework in September will start to show the schools up more, we really want to put more pressure on Ofsted to take more notice when they inspect schools as to whether schools are teaching good RE or not and whether all people are getting their entitlements, to religious…

The Grace 1 supertanker, which is carrying 2.1m barrels of oil, was detained on 4^th  July on suspicion of illegally transporting oil to Syria.

A last-minute legal attempt by the US to keep the tanker detained was rejected by Gibraltar on Thursday.

Iran previously called the detention of Grace 1 an “illegal interception”.

Christian seafarers’ charity, Stella Maris hopes the decision by a judge in Gibraltar yesterday to release the supertanker Grace 1 may lead to the release of the Stena Impero crew, detained in Iran for 27 days.

Whilst Iran has claimed the detention of the Grace 1 was not connected to the seizure of the Stena Impero, this has been widely questioned. 

A spokesperson for Stella Maris said: “We have been concerned that the crew of the Stena Impero, who had been going about their professional duties, have been detained against their will with little evidence against them.”

“Shipping and seafaring is a tight knit community and the worry of these events are an added anxiety for seafarers and something that Stella Maris port chaplains have been hearing.”

Two weeks after Grace 1 was detained, on 19^th July, Iran seized the British flagged tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz.

Although Iran claimed the ship had violated “international maritime rules”, the seizure of Stena Impero was widely believed to be an act of retaliation.

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