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RE Council Newsletter December 2010
CELEBRATING RE
Thirty seven events
for the month long Celebration of RE across England and Wales in March 2011 are
already listed on the online calendar and other plans are described in the
monthly newsletter, for which anyone can sign up via the website at www.celebratingre.org
. There are new website articles this month on Celebrating RE 16 - 19, Celebrating RE with initial teacher trainees,
Celebrating RE with other schools, and
Fundraising for your Celebrating RE events. Celebrating RE gives a major
opportunity for all involved in schools, SACREs, local authorities, dioceses
and faith, belief and professional organisations to help to raise public
awareness and understanding about the value of RE - the website gives a wealth
of ideas on how to plan for this.
RE-SILIENCE
The REsilience project, designed to build
secondary teachers' confidence to handle contentious issues in RE, is now been given rolled out to schools across
England and Wales. Feedback from schools which took part in the pilot scheme
has been very positive. Schools are
invited to register interest in taking part by signing up on the website at www.re-silience.org.uk
Those interested in following the development of the project can also
sign up for the newsletter via the website.
INTER FAITH WEEK
REPORTING
Inter Faith Week in England has just
drawn to a close. The Week was a big success, with a large number of events
taking place throughout the country. If you know of any schools that chose to
mark the Week in some way, whether through special focus RE classes or in some
other way, we would be very grateful if you would encourage them to get in
touch through the website at http://www.interfaithweek.org/index.php/events/your-school-event
JAINPEDIA
In November, JAINpedia celebrated Diwali at the
Victoria and Albert Museum with a range of events and activities attracting
almost 5000 visitors between the different activities. Thereafter, at the
official launch of the exhibition and website, His Royal Highness Prince
Charles visited the display and website. The JAINpedia exhibition at the Nehru
Gallery, in the Victoria and Albert Museum is on-going until December 2012 and
a display at the John Ritblat Gallery in the British Library has also just
opened until April 2011. For further information on the project please see www.jainpedia.org or contact us at
CONFERENCE
ANNOUNCEMENT
A conference on ‘Education in a Post-Secular
Society' will take place at Canterbury Christ Church University on Saturday
January 29th. See http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/conferences-events/home.aspx.
TRANSFORMING LIVES
PROJECT
The Transforming Lives Project has recently
published a report in partnership with the Christian Think Tank Theos called ‘Doing God in Education'.
Written by REC Treasurer Professor Trevor Cooling, this provocative pamphlet
argues for the positive contribution that people of religious faith can make to
public education. Copies are available from The Stapleford Centre (
).
HINDU ACADEMY
In the last couple of weeks the Hindu
Academy has been actively promoting the idea of reconciling science with
religion at many venues including: Clarendon Laboratory Oxford
University; King's college London; Shire Hall Cambridge; University of East
Anglia. Some of these sessions were arranged by science societies, some by
faith groups. The last session at Cambridge was arranged by East of England
Faith Forum. The presentations were received warmly by most of the
participants.
CITIZENSHIP, IDENTITY
AND DIFFERENCE
An interactive CD-Rom with Teachers' Pack including
supporting worksheets for Key Stage 2-3. This flexible new resource
explores different strands of religious and non-religious traditions in British
society today, and has been produced in response to requests from RE teachers
for materials enabling discussion of citizenship and identity. Regional
workshops to introduce the materials are being planned; contact Fiona Hulbert
at the Council of Christians and Jews for details:
CHALLENGING RE
CONFERENCE
Challenging RE is an exciting conference
opportunity from NATRE for all teachers of RE - primary, secondary and special.
It takes place in York on 7 and 8 May 2011, and costs £100. Further details are
available from www.retoday.org.uk/courses.
CLIMATE WEEK
Climate Week, on 21-27 March 2011, is a
national occasion that offers an annual renewal of our ambition and confidence
to combat climate change. It is for everyone wanting to do their bit to protect
our planet and create a secure future. Thousands
of organisations will run events and activities highlighting solutions. They will use the
power of real, practical examples to encourage thousands more to act during the
rest of the year. The REC will be
supporting Climate Week by making links through Celebrating RE Month. For further information on all aspects of
Climate Week, see the website at www.climateweek.com
THE BEST OF BRITISH
ISLAM: SISTERS IN FAITH
A screening of this film followed by discussion
will take place at the Rio Cinema, Kingsland High Road, Dalston on 7th December from 10.30 - 12 midday (free of charge). The key message of the documentary
is to celebrate the positive relationship between Islam and Britain, looking at
some of the 800,000 Muslim women living in Britain today and showing the
diversity in their lives and experiences and the ways they interpret their
beliefs. The film covers a number of themes relevant to KS 3 and 4 RE,
including ideas about integration, identities, diversity within Islam, hijab
wearing and living as a Muslim in the UK.
Secondary age classes and their teachers welcome; please fill in the
attached Booking Form and email to
INSTED CONSULTANCY
Insted has recently updated ITS website to include
a wide selection of resources on equalities in education that you may find
useful. They are available free of
charge to download and include, for example, a model policy on Equalities, ways
of dealing with prejudice related bullying and many other topics. See the website http://www.insted.co.uk/equalities.html for further information.
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