Supporting and developing leadership in RE and collective worship
Conference
Downloads from previous conferences
(members only)
SAVE THE DATE!
Thursday June 26th - Friday June 27th, 2025
The 2025 conference will again be a joint conference with AULRE. Details about venue and other possibilities will be shared in the Autumn term but pencil / pixel the date into your diaries.
RE FUTURES?
Thursday June 20th - Friday June 21st, 2024
The focus was asking the question about the future of the subject.
Reflections on Conference
The conference opened with a Keynote from Janet Orchard on, Where have all the RE teachers gone? Long Time Passing. When will we ever learn. Where Janet shared her reflections on the 'state of the nation' for RE and how this might be developed.
The afternoon launched into a series of sessions and papers from colleagues and a wide range of topics were offered for deliberation and reflection.
This was followed by some time for show and tell where a range of resource for RE were shared. A drinks reception and conference dinner followed.
Friday started with the two separate organisations meeting followed by an introduction to the National Content Standard by Ed Pawson offering some thoughts on this REC initiative and how this could form the framework for curriculum development in RE - linked to some of the wider initiatives that are going on in terms of curriculum development including those from a SACRE and a MAT perspective. The NCS will be "content free" but will offer guidelines for curriculum development.
Then there was time for more papers and explorations., The seminar on Religion and Film: future possibilities for teacher education in religion and worldviews challenged RE to continue to deal with the complexity of race issues that are prevalent in our society. Other paper offered thoughts for reflection and insights into the wide range of research being undertaken in the RE world.
A journey into the near future by Paul Hopkins in the session 'Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe' gave both ideas and a frame working for exploring the place of G-AI and also some of the ethical questions that this raises. Other sessions explored wider research and activities.
In the Future of RE plenary, chaired by Kathryn Wright, questions were raised and ideas explored by Janet Orchard, Bob Bowie, Katie Gooch and Stephen McKinney.
More activities and papers after lunch and the conference concluded with the final keynotes by Bob Bowie, 'Seeking a Unity of Knowledge in an age of Truth convulsion: the roles RE might play'
