Introducing our RE curriculum partners

Adam Robertson is our RE subject lead. He was a primary teacher for 14 years and then worked as an adviser for RE Today, which sponsors NATRE - the subject association for teachers of RE. He served on the NATRE exec and has been a hub leader in Bristol as part of the Learn, Teach, Lead RE project.

Developing our new RE curriculum

Our focus is on lowering workload and supporting teachers to increase their expertise. Over the coming year we’ll be creating a new primary and secondary RE curriculum with teaching resources designed to better support your planning, in-class teaching and to help you develop your own curriculum.

Our fantastic partners reflect the diverse range of educational providers and expertise across the country. We are one of many teaching resource and curriculum suppliers, and I am delighted that we can improve this offer so that teachers have an even better choice of foundation materials to build upon in their classroom.

Curriculum partner

I am very pleased to announce that we will be developing our primary resources with Pennine Learning. They work with schools, pupils, teachers and local authorities to support religious education, SMSC, equality and diversity in the north of England. Pennine Learning deliver training, offer consultancy and write high-quality resources to support schools and teachers in West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Their team are all current or former specialist RE teachers and senior leaders who together have many years of educational experience at primary and secondary level.

Pennine Learning aims to inspire pupils’ interest, learning and enthusiasm and at the same time provide teachers with accessible, informative materials that nurture confidence and knowledge. Their vision is to broaden horizons, stretch minds and build bridges.

At secondary, we are collaborating with Ormiston Academies Trust to develop our secondary religious education curriculum. Ormiston is one of the oldest school trusts in England, having started sponsoring schools in 2009. Since then, they have grown to educate over 35,000 pupils in 42 schools, making it one of the largest not-for-profit multi-academy trusts in England. In recent years, Ormiston has been investing heavily in high- quality curriculum development across several different subjects.
Ormiston Academies Trust was founded in memory of Fiona Ormiston Murray, who died in a tragedy whilst on honeymoon in 1968.

Our RE curriculum principles

Our guiding principles are a rigorous guide to guarantee that our new curriculum is grown from a strong foundation of core values and key ingredients, ensuring that our curriculum is cohesive and enriching. In primary and secondary RE, these are:

Focuses on the knowledge and skills specific to religious education, including:

• The diversity and complexity of religious or non-religious worldviews,
  nationally and globally;
• Opportunities for pupils to build an awareness of their own
  presuppositions and values; draw on their own experience; and interpret the significance and meaning of what they have been taught.
• Developing knowledge of scholarly approaches and methods within R.E. (and the wide range of related disciplines including theology, philosophy and social sciences from which the subject draws).

One of our curriculum principles is diversity, and this will be a focus for subject expert groups.

Our overall curriculum approach

These RE-specific principles dovetail with our overall approach to curriculum design, and how we hope teachers can use Oak, as explained by Emma McCrea, our Head of Curriculum Design. You can also find out more about the new partners and subject experts we’re excited to be working with.

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