Welcome to this issue of the REC newsletter.  If you have information about projects, conferences, reports or developments you'd like included in the next one please email it to me by 21^st March.  It should be in the format of a heading, two or three sentences giving the basics and a website or email address where readers can obtain fuller details. 

Best wishes,

Sarah Smalley, Executive Support Officer, RE Council of England and Wales

CELEBRATING RE MONTH

Celebrating RE Month is almost here.  The website (www.celebratingre.org) has a wealth of resource articles in English and Welsh, materials to download such as Wordles and the words and music of the specially composed ‘Celebrating RE' song.  By mid-February there will also be a compilation of statements of support for RE generally and Celebrating RE Month in particular - these can be downloaded from the website.  Free Celebrating RE bookmarks and flyers can be ordered from

RE-SILIENCE PROJECT

The RE-silience project - ‘Building confidence to handle contentious issues in RE' - is in full swing across England and Wales and schools which have taken part have responded very positively to the experience.  For further details and to register interest in taking part, please go to the website at www.re-silience.org.uk  

BIBLICAL LITERACY AND THE CURRICULUM

As part of the celebrations of the 400^th anniversary of the King James Version, the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield is hosting a conference from 25 - 28 May on the role of the bible in the wider curriculum and how we can address the perceived lack of biblical literacy in students.  This is an issue with relevance to colleagues in a variety of academic disciplines and to those concerned with religious education at a number of levels.  We have a number of exceptional speakers lined up including Gordon Campbell, Yvonne Sherwood and Liam Gearon and will be exploring various practical ways forward to address the educational issues.  For further information, please see the website at www.shef.ac.uk/kjv/conference .

THE LORD'S PRAYER PROJECT

The Lord's Prayer Project is the result of work with primary schools and teachers in Ipswich and Tanzania. More than 200 children recorded 10 sung versions of the Lord's Prayer, including one in Swahili.  The CD offers more than the chance to sing; it includes dozens of possibilities for a whole school RE themed day with artwork, a reflective story, interactive stations, sign language and spoken recordings of the Lord's Prayer in 18 languages.  This is a wonderful new resource for teaching about Christianity in schools and costs only £15, which includes a donation to a school in Tanzania. For further details please contact

THREE FAITHS FORUM JOB OPPORTUNITY: EDUCATION PROJECTS OFFICER

The Three Faiths Forum is looking for an experienced individual to join our growing team to:

• Develop and deliver our educational programmes, which run in schools, colleges, universities and with youth organisations
• Support schools/teachers (both primary and secondary) on our faith school linking programme

More information: http://www.threefaithsforum.org.uk/jobs/education-projects-officer/index.html

NASACRE CONFERENCE : WHOSE RE IS IT, ANYWAY?

This conference, on Thursday 31 March at Carrs Lane Church Centre, Birmingham, will be a vital exploration of the creative tensions that exist within and between the different interest groups/stakeholders in their views of and reasons for RE in schools: what RE is all about, why we should be bothered about it and what pupils should get out of it. These tensions affect us all, but especially those who serve on agreed syllabus conferences (ASCs). The purpose of the day is to engage people in these issues, to enable us all to listen and respond to different perspectives and to work out what is best for children and young people in schools and ultimately for the development of society.

For further details and to register, contact: Yvonne Cameron, email:

RE TODAY RESOURCES

RE Today's Resources catalogue for 2011 is available for download (pdf) from http://tinyurl.com/4lcl9dx.  Publications can be purchased online, by phone or by post; these include: Opening Up RE: Easter (primary), and Questions: Expressing Meaning (secondary). 

Information about new courses is available at www.retoday.org.uk/courses ; these include a conference on ‘Challenging RE' and courses entitled ‘Help! I'm the RE Co-ordinator', ‘Assessing Primary RE: Beyond the Tick Box' and ‘New to RE'.  NATRE and RE Today are now on Facebook and Twitter - why not ‘like' us or ‘comment' on FB, and ‘follow' @RE_Today and NATRE on Twitter!

HINDU ACADEMY

The Hindu Academy has launched a series of talks on Hinduism at various temples &venues. These have included a session on 8 January at Maidenbower Community Centre and another on 16 January at Sindhi Mandir, Cricklewood, attracting audiences of 100 and 200 respectively. Forthcoming events in February are: 5^th - a talk on Raj Yoga at the Ganpathy temple, Wimbledon; 19^th - Hinduism for Youth session at Crawley Hindu temple; 22^nd - Hinduism for youngsters at the University of the West of England; 25^th - evening with Hindu students at Cambridge University.

HINDU COUNCIL UK
The work of the Hindu Council UK has recently included the following:

• On 12th January a two hour session on Hinduism was conducted for candidates on a course in inter faith relations at the London Interfaith Centre
• On 15th January a session was conducted exploring Spiritual Humanism, organised by the Watford Interfaith Association.
• On 24th January a session at St Alice's Hospice Esher explored the Hindu theme of reincarnation which views death as a comma and not a full stop. 

STAPLEFORD CENTRE

The Stapleford Centre has launched a new subscription resources website with a wealth of ideas and resources for teaching about Christianity in RE. The subscription costs £40 per year with reductions for groups of schools www.staplefordresources.co.uk

COUNCIL FOR CHRISTIANS AND JEWS: CITIZENSHIP, IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE

This is an interactive pack with a CD-Rom and Teachers' notes for RE and Citizenship Education at Key Stage 2-3.  This flexible resource from the Council of Christians and Jews explores the outlook of young people of different religious traditions in Britain today.  It is available from CCJ and also to download from their website at www.ccj.org.uk/citizenship.  Regional workshops to introduce the materials are being planned; contact Fiona Hulbert at the Council of Christians and Jews for details:

WATERAID

The charity WaterAid currently has some new resources for schools and teachers to use over Lent and Easter including lesson plans, visual presentations and posters. These resources are a great way to teach children about environmental issues, citizenship and geography.  For further information please contact Sarah McVeagh

LASAR (Teaching and Learning of Science and Religion)

LASAR is holding a one-day conference "Science and religious education in schools: new possibilities" on Saturday 25th June 2011 at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge - for all those with an interest in this area. It is very reasonably priced at £20 (£10 for trainee teachers or students in HE).  For more information email Dr Berry Billingsley (LASAR project leader) at or to Dr Keith Taber (LASAR project consultant) at , or see the website at   

http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/Conference.php

INSTITUTE OF JAINOLOGY (IoJ)

The IoJ has just published another book, "Jain Tales" adding to its first book, "Discover Jainism". Jain Tales has been aesthetically produced targeting young readers, giving them an insight into the Jain religion through eight traditional stories illustrating the Jain teachings. You can find the book on www.amazon.co.uk or email us on

JAINPEDIA

JAINpedia still has a display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and a larger one at the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library but only until April 2011. Please contact us at  or on 020 8236 1001 to book guided tours of the displays. Look out for more JAINpedia events on www.jainpedia.org in the near future.