As a former RE teacher — having spent many years in East London classrooms — the subject has been one of my life’s great privileges. Through my work with the RE Policy Unit, it has been heartening to witness how deeply valued RE lessons are, not just by teachers and pupils, but by parents, employers, and religious and non religious leaders across the country.
Yet we face a dual crisis.
There is a crisis of provision: too many young people are receiving no specialist RE at all, or lessons delivered by teachers whose main subject lies elsewhere.
And there is a crisis of perception: too many people remain unaware of what modern, high quality religious education looks like in the classroom. It brings together young people from different backgrounds, challenges them to think about the different ways people encounter the world and equips them with the intellectual and social skills to flourish in life and work.
The Curriculum and Assessment Review’s recommendation to place RE in the National Curriculum is one of the most important opportunities for this subject in decades. This campaign exists to make sure that opportunity is not wasted.
Deborah Weston, OBE
Chair of the RE Policy Unit / Rethink RE