Agenda item

In his report ‘Successsful Futures – Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales’ Professor Donaldson had made the recommendation that Religious Education should form part of the Humanities Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE).

As discussed in previous SACRE meetings the recommendation of the Humanities working group was to follow the ‘big ideas’/what matters approach as exemplified within Wynne Harlen et als ‘Working with Big Ideas in Science’.

In the latest newsletter from Manon Jones it was confirmed that the curriculum team at Welsh Government had focussed on developing an AoLE design model to clarify the various components that will form part of the six Areas of Learning & Curriculum within the new curriculum.   M Jones had requested feedback to Pauline Smith by 1st July on the latest proposals from the Humanities AoLE group.

V Thomas confirmed that she had noticed differences from the draft she had seen in March.

VT went through the ‘What Matters statements and their accompanying rationales’ and also the progression steps for each statement and outlined the main changes and her observations. These included

Statement 1 – Whilst there was an RE ‘hook’ in the statement it was not evident in the progression steps.

Statement 2 – Whilst the progression steps referred to ‘impact and influence’ it was not referred to in the statement.

Statement 3 – This appeared to be a re-ordering of the March version and SACRE were happy with it.

Statement 4 – This statement was very weak on religious terms and concepts.  In the March draft there was reference to ‘contemporary and historical interpretations’.  The statement now failed to mention contemporary interpretations, which is very important in RE.

Members were also concerned about the level 3 progression statement about learners acknowledging the individual disciples such as geography, history and RE which seemed to go against the Donaldson principle of the interconnectivity of the disciplines.

Statement 5 – Although this statement had changed from the March draft as it did not refer to awareness of self and the views of others to deepen understanding this though had now been included in statement 6 and SACRE were happy to see it included.

Statement 6 – SACRE were pleased that reference to awareness of self and the views of others to deepen understanding was now included in statement 6.  There were good RE hooks in this statement and progression steps to pick up RE.

As RE is locally determined Members felt it important that there was specificity of the RE content which would signpost to teachers what they are going to teach.

There were still questions regarding how the translation from a more thematic Humanities approach at KS3 to a more discrete subject curriculum at KS4 and KS5 is managed.

WG had consulted with WASACRE on RE issues throughout this review and were keen to have SACREs onboard and it was important that each SACRE relayed their comments/concerns to WG before the review was finalised.  WG would be holding a conference in September and a limited number of SACRE members would be invited to attend.  VT suggested that the Chair and possibly 3 others (SACRE could decide if they wished to ensure representation form all 3 groups - a faith, teacher and LEA rep) attend. VT asked that members be vigilant for the date of the Conference and ensure appropriate representation as this was a very important time for RE.

Agreed

VT to respond to WG on behalf of SACRE by July 1^st with the comments above