Supporting and developing leadership in RE and collective worship
Young Ambassadors for RE Project
AREIAC is delighted to be partnering with Culham St Gabriels Trust (CStG) in a new project to develop the next generation of Young Ambassadors for RE. CStG has the vision for broad-based, critical and reflective education in religion and worldviews, contributing to a well-informed, respectful and open society. The new project runs until 2025 and the first Hubs to take on the challenge are the South-West (Ed Pawson) and the North-West (Jane Yates and Sue Holmes) it may subsequently be replicated in other regions if further funding becomes available.
The project aims to have far-reaching impact:
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To empower young people to have a voice in advocating for Religious Education
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To empower young people and teachers to understand the relationship between high quality Religious Education and the promotion and protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB).
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To enhance the reach of Pupil Voice, so that policy makers may be directly influenced
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To embed a network of Young RE Ambassadors across the country, working within the RE Hubs structure
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To facilitate the training and mentoring of YAs and their teachers, as future leaders of pupil voice, through working with AREIAC members and partners
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To engage, where appropriate, with other programmes like the Rights Respecting Schools agenda.
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Through the Parliamentary Outreach programme, to enable Young Ambassadors to debate matters of religion and belief with policy makers at Westminster
Freedom of Religion and Belief is a Human Right. It is part of the United Declaration of Human Rights, Article 18. It is also protected by other international instruments (e.g. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)). The heart of FoRB is the freedom to have, choose, change or leave a religion or belief, and the freedom to practice or manifest a religion or belief.
The relationship between high quality RE and FoRB principles is clear: high quality RE can only be taught in an environment where FoRB principles flourish; if FoRB is to be promoted and protected, children must have access to high quality RE.
“Prioritising inclusive curricula and teaching, matched to all students’ needs, regardless of their background… provides foundational skills for all. In addition, curricula should provide positive and accurate information about different faith and belief communities and combat negative stereotypes.”
(2022 FoRB Ministerial on FoRB and Education)
UK Parliament Week – November 2024
All four RE Ambassadors groups came together for an online interfaith discussion panel for UK Parliament Week 2024.
Each school took turns to ask a schedule of questions on themes ranging from growing up in a fair society and enabling students to have voice, to reviewing the curriculum and religious literacy. Another theme for questions was representation, under the overarching remit Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) to the individual. You can see all the questions asked here.
The panel included: Daniel Greenberg, who is the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Josh Cass who is the Lead Consultant for Advocacy for Culham St Gabriel’s Trust and Jan McGuire who is the AREIAC EXEC joint chair. Also in attendance were: Ed Pawson (SW Lead), Jane Yates (NW Lead) and Karen O’Donoghue (Chair of Cumbrian SACRE) and RE teachers from all four schools.
“This was an excellent opportunity for our RE Ambassadors to engage with a high-profile government representative around a wide range of issues relevant to RE. The responses from our panel also provoked much follow-up discussion for the pupils at The Queen Katherine School.”
Katherine France (RS department head, Queen Katherine school)
“Religion is a spectrum and a constantly changing spectrum so I think you are absolutely right, the curriculum should be changing all the time and we should be asking ourselves ‘what does religion look like today and what will it look like tomorrow?”
"I think events like this afternoon are terribly important because education can be a bit one way – us telling you. What is actually much more important is for us to hear, the older you get, how much you feel we need to understand about what concerns you. That is obviously as important in Religious Education as it is in scientific education and ecological education. I don’t want you to feel that any kind of education is preparing you in a passive way, I hope it is partnering with you so that we tell you what we do, and you tell us what you do. We tell you what we think, and you tell us what you think, and together we prepare for your being part in society – which you already are.”
Daniel Greenberg (Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards)
Thanks to Sue Holmes (AREIAC) and the UK Parliament Education Team for setting up this event.
