Haters Gonna Hate (New RS Specs)

Here are some lists. What have I missed?

Some reasons people don't like the new GCSE RS specs:

• Perceived 'dullness'
• Too much religion
• Not philosophy and ethics focussed
• Too hard
• Not relevant to my students
• Just don't like it 
• Painful
• "It's killing RE"

Some reasons why people were never going to be happy regardless:

• People don't like change (and teachers especially don't like change)
• Old lessons need to be binned and replanned from scratch - costing time (something no one has in abundance)
• Experts in exam questions and mark schemes are no longer experts
• The vast array of resources available via TES, YouTube etc are no longer relevant

Some reasons teachers need to get on with it:

• They are not going to change, probably for around 10 years
• It is a primary responsibility of the teacher to make content interesting, engaging and relevant 
• We are not alone - other subjects are not happy either - but every teacher will have a different view and there is probably little consensus anyway
• Resources will come
• Familiarity with the spec, questions and mark schemes will also come
• If it is an option choice, your potential future cohorts depend on it 
• Students are not stupid, they pick up on a teacher's attitude to a topic. It's even worse when teachers vocalise it... 

Reasons the old specs had to go:

• Not enough actual content of religion and belief
• Too much value placed on unjustified opinion
• Agendas such Community Cohesion given too higher priority
• It could be taught in half the time of other GCSEs

Reasons previous exam reforms didn't have as much negativity:

• No social media

Some things I really like:

• 12 mark evaluation questions
• A body of 'core knowledge' for KS4 (DfE Annexe)
• More indepth theology
• Greater use of scholars and text

Somethings that could have been better:

• More time at every stage of the process

Some things we as an RE community could do:

• Stay positive - if we don't fight our corner who else will
• Share and collaborate - add to Google Drive, upload to TES, write for publishers, host planning meetings...

Image courtesy of Pixabay