As we all head back to school after Easter there’s been a lot in the news which I think RE teachers will want to talk about. Top of that list will be the attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. By chance I am just about teach Year 9 about ChristianContinue reading “Resource: Sri Lanka Attacks”
The Radical Case for ‘Trad’ Education
The fundamental question I have found myself asking as an early-career teacher is this: is my pedagogy compatible with my politics? At first I was really worried the answer was no when the advocates for “trad” pedagogy seem to be die-hard Conservatives and defenders of Roger Scruton. I have since come to believe that theContinue reading “The Radical Case for ‘Trad’ Education”
Reduce, reuse, recycle: PowerPoint, Word and cognitive load
What is Cognitive Load Theory and how does it apply to our resources? This article from Impact presents two main ways in which Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) can be applied to the classroom: intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load. The design of our information and resources is absolutely key to tackling cognitive load so let’s lookContinue reading “Reduce, reuse, recycle: PowerPoint, Word and cognitive load”
Resources: Retrieval Roulette for AQA A Religious Studies Christianity and Buddhism
Adam Boxer’s Retrieval Roulette idea has been doing the rounds on Twitter for a while now and I’ve been meaning to give it a go as I’ve been trying to incorporate more recall into my day-to-day teaching practice. The idea is that Adam has created a spreadsheet into which you enter simple recall questions onContinue reading “Resources: Retrieval Roulette for AQA A Religious Studies Christianity and Buddhism”
De-stressing testing: low stakes, modelled and purposeful
Observing education from outside, and especially the narratives around SATs and GCSEs can lead new and early-career teachers to want to reject and reduce the amount of testing students have to endure. This was my first reaction upon entering teaching, I wanted to scrap assessment altogether and teach students in a holistic way where theyContinue reading “De-stressing testing: low stakes, modelled and purposeful”
Resources: KS3 Non-Religious Worldviews scheme of work
With the publication of the CORE report into religious education and the new Ofsted framework it seems to be a time when many schools are looking to refresh or reorganise their curricula. I joined my current school last September and arrived at the tail end of a multi-year process to do this, introducing a rigorousContinue reading “Resources: KS3 Non-Religious Worldviews scheme of work”
Folding-in: concepts and efficiency in the RE curriculum
In Making Every Lesson Count Shaun Allison and Andy Tharby introduce the idea of ‘folding-in’ concepts to the curriculum as a more organic way to allow students time and space to practice and a way of making teaching more efficient in the age of the content-heavy GCSE. They pose two questions to think about when planning aContinue reading “Folding-in: concepts and efficiency in the RE curriculum”
Resources: AQA Religious Studies Knowledge Organisers
Over the past few weeks I’ve been in the process of making knowledge organisers for AQA Religious Studies A GCSE. You can find below the result, KOs for Buddhism, Christianity and Themes A-F from a Christian perspective. The idea is to fit an entire topic onto an A4 sheet so these are mere overviews withContinue reading “Resources: AQA Religious Studies Knowledge Organisers”
Resources: Four direct instruction techniques for RE you can use tomorrow
For a while I’ve wanted to write something about implementing direct or explicit instruction methods in the RE classroom and I’ve found it difficult to find the time to sit down and type out a cerebral post on the reasoning and challenges of DI in RE. Rather than wait for that to escape from myContinue reading “Resources: Four direct instruction techniques for RE you can use tomorrow”
Making Data Work: not as boring as it sounds
Making Data Work, perhaps not the title of a report you would run to the photocopier to pick up to read whilst on duty. That said this report, published by the Workload Advisory Group and accepted in full by the Department for Education, is a searing indictment of current practice around data in schools and shouldContinue reading “Making Data Work: not as boring as it sounds”
A. J. Smith 