Faith Schools

House of Lords written question – answered at on 2 December 2014.

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Photo of Lord Storey Lord Storey Liberal Democrat

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to encourage local authorities to assess the teaching of religion in faith schools.

Photo of Lord Nash Lord Nash The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education

Local authorities and their Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) are responsible for drawing up locally agreed syllabuses which all non-faith-based maintained schools, and some voluntary controlled and faith designated foundation schools, must follow. These syllabuses should be broadly Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain.

Faith schools may develop their own syllabuses according to their trust deeds and/or the tenets of their faith.

SACREs should monitor the provision and quality of RE taught according to the agreed syllabus, and provide advice and support on the effective teaching of RE in those schools.

SACREs can draw on resources produced by experts when carrying out their work. For example, the Religious Education Council produced a curriculum framework for religious education in 2013.

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Annotations

David Pollock
Posted on 3 Dec 2014 11:45 am (Report this annotation)

The reference to the Religious Education Council's curriculum framework for religious education produced in 2013 is welcome - but the Minister should explain why its inclusion of non-religious worldviews, in particular Humanism, throughout the framework is not being followed in the proposals for the syllabuses for GCSE, AS and A level exams currently the subject of consultation.

Or, come to that, why the DfE's guidelines on 'British values' just issued refer to the need to respect people of all faiths but ignore those without religion.