The ISRSA is pleased to publish the attached response to the recent Curriculum and Assessment Review.
This document sets out our considered analysis of the review’s recommendations for Religious Education, including the proposal to make RE a national curriculum subject: a move we strongly welcome for its potential to strengthen the subject’s status and enable Ofsted to inspect content rather than just provision. We highlight key opportunities and challenges including the need to retain RE in the basic curriculum or legislate for academies to follow national curriculum RE; the importance of sector-led development to ensure coherence without uniformity; and the urgent issue of teacher supply and higher education capacity, which must be addressed for reform to succeed. We also comment on the review’s positive rejection of “religion and worldviews” terminology in favour of disciplinary clarity, and its commitment to collaborative curriculum development.
ISRSA stands ready to contribute to shaping a rigorous, inclusive framework aligned with the academic disciplines of Theology, Philosophy and Religion, and believe that our previously published ‘Proposed Statutory Guidance for RE’ can form a valuable part of this conversation.
