Diocese of Nottingham Education Services Website

May I take this opportunity on behalf of us all to thank Paula Bailey for the work she did as the Diocesan Secondary Religious Education Advisor over the last couple of years and wish her well as Core Curriculum Leader for Religious Education at St John Houghton School.  There have been a number of new Heads of Department taking up their positions since September. We wish them all the very best in their new posts.

I have been teaching Religious Education in this Diocese for over 35 years of which 22 have been as Head of Department. I have also been involved nationally in some of the development at KS3 and Post 16. For this academic year, I have been employed for one day a week as the Secondary Religious Education Advisor focusing on Curriculum Religious Education. During the year I would like to visit as many of our schools as is possible, to meet Religious Education staff informally, and to gain a sense of Religious Education in each school.

The next Heads of Religious Education Meeting will take place on Tuesday 8th February. At the request of the Heads of Department, it will focus on Key Stage 3 with inset on Levels of Achievement, which from September 2010 are included in Section 48 Inspection.

Cafod have recently released a fourth unit of study for Y12 and Y13 General Religious Education on Human Rights. The other three are – 1) Poverty, 2) Creation and Stewardship, and 3) Peace, conflict and Community Cohesion.   Cafod are currently looking for specific stories of how young people in our schools have significantly contributed to the work of Cafod. If you have a story or pictures to share, Cafod would love to hear from you. Please contact Cafod through their website.

£8.25 million was raised for the Haiti and Pakistan appeals of which £588,368 was raised by schools – a big thank you from Cafod.

Notification from NOCN states that, as from September 2011, the entry fee for the accredited General Religious Education course will be £12.50 per student (reduced from £28). A reminder for those schools delivering this course, that the standardisation meeting will take place on 27th June, followed by national standardisation on 11th July.