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

The TES Awards 2016

Photo by Hannah

The TES Awards 2016 took place on Friday 24th June at the The Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London. It is the first time I have been invited, and I was surprised by the sheer scale of it - over 1000 guests fitted into a huge function suite under the hotel. It was a glitzy affair with a champagne reception, "grab as many glasses as you can" I told my wife - how often is there free booze for teachers? 

It was nice to be seated with Natalie and Paul who I met for the first time, plus Heather who I have met on numerous occasions at blogger curry meet ups. Sadly Zoe couldn't make it and there were two empty seats at our table - they were in touch via Twitter though! (And we ate their food, as the waiting staff insisted on leaving it...)

TES provided plenty of wine yet the six bottles on the table seemed to evaporate in no time - huge thanks to Rachel and Sarah from the TES team (and Lara who passed on our dilemma!), who kept us topped up when we ran dry! This did compensate for a tasty but slightly small dinner... After paying £90 for my 'plus one' ticket, the wine was sadly out of price range for most teachers.

As much as it was a night to celebrate all schools, teachers and their achievements, I was there as a representative of the blogger community. These are teachers who are able to share, reflect and question some of the important ideas of the education world. Blogging, alongside social media more widely, has brought about change, allowed different voices to be heard and promoted engagement and great thinking with some of the toughest challenges education has to pose. 

I know my blogs are not the most well written prose out there, they are often thrown together during a stolen 5 minutes at break time, or drafted at midnight as I lie in bed - I'm a full time teacher with more than enough going on in school... plus a 8 month old son! I am glad that someone somewhere thinks I have something worth sharing and it was nice that some of the judges came to find me to say they found my writing interesting and of value. Thank you. 

A final huge thank Andrew for encouraging the blogger community to nominate blogs such as mine (see <here>). Bloggers should be promoting one another, and encouraging others to blog and respond; Andrew does an impressive job with his various Echo Chambers. I know there were reservations about the shortlisting (see <here>), and then some compromise (see <here>), but I do think it is an important award, but one that could perhaps be developed further by TES, perhaps by better engaging with the blogger community.

I haven't see a list of the bloggers linked anywhere else so here they are:

WINNER: Natalie Scott - Blog 

Zoe Brown - Blog

Heather Fearn - Blog

Jane Mazone - Blog

Toby French - Blog

James Theobold - Blog

Paul Woodward - Blog

You're on my blog, so you don't need a link...

Thanks again for the shortlisting TES. For next year, remember teachers on a Friday will drink more booze than you imagine, and hopefully a plus one can be included too...

Who knows if or when I'll be back again...

RE – Am I Bothered? 18/6/16

I will be leading a session at the St Alban's RE conference looking at how RE teachers can help themselves. The two key areas that I will focus on are:

• Organising a TeachMeet (particularly for RE teachers)
• Using Social Media positively for CPD

The mantra 'doing it for ourselves' is going to be ever more true as department budgets are slashed and schools simply do not let staff out. Equally the best resources that exist can be those in local community - even in your (often small) department do you share good practice? NATRE can support through their local group network, but maybe you could expand to a humanities TeachMeet in your local area? Could you film and leave a legacy of CPD? (See this from 2013)

Social media has also afforded us previously untapped resources. Could you use to speak to an expert? A faith believer? Colleagues nationally? Can you share via DropBox / GoogleDrive? Work collaboratively? Twitter chats such #rechatuk? Save RE Facebook groups?

My session will look at all of this and much more.

More info <here>

Save RE - From Itself? Again?

Yet again, disagreement features on Save RE. Previous arguments such those of 'the crucifixion jelly hand', 'teaching the Illuminati' and 'memes' were recalled as Rebecca Sefton blogged about why she was leaving Save RE (see <here>)

Save RE is a closed Facebook group with nearly 3000 members. It includes a wide variety of members including RE teachers, as well as advisers, faith reps, examiner etc. It was originally set up as a response to RE being left out of the EBacc. However it has grown as a place to share resources and discuss the subject. Neil McKain recently wrote about Save RE for RE Today (see <here>).

Here are some of my reasons why sometimes Save RE 'kicks off':

1. It is part of the internet. As long as there has been an internet, there has been arguing. It's kind of just what people do.  Misunderstandings, lack of humor, misinterpretation of tone - all part of the internet, and particularly social media. Just because we are RE teachers, does not make us immune.
2. RE teachers are defensive. People criticise our subject, we are having to defend it's worth to students, parents, SLT, the public, humanist trolls on Twitter (or is that just me?). We bring that 'trench mentality' to Save RE; helmet on, grenades at the ready.
3. In our request for relevance and engagement (linked to 2), we do 'shock jock', gimmicky, sexy RE. When we share it online, there is great division on this type of teaching. The 'progressive' vs 'neo-traditional' sides can be evident, and are often irreconcilable. 
4. People often share for praise and affirmation, not critical reflection. This is linked to 2 and 3. If you have spent time on a resource, or have what you consider a great idea, it is important to ask the question, "Do I want constructive criticism? Or do I just want people to say it's great?"
5. RE teachers work bloody hard. Often in one person departments, supporting non specialists. There is no sounding board, where eyebrows would be raised. You use that idea, teach that idea, perhaps over and over, then share on Save RE. People criticise and it, and perhaps quite legitimately, it feels like a punch in the stomach.
6. RE varies probably more than any other subject. For example, faith schools very different to community schools often. Budgets, staffing, school perception, approach, aims... Are we even talking about the same subject? Can we have meaningful conversations about what is good and what is not?
7. Bias plays a BIG part in RE. We have an open forum to discuss religion, politics etc. Whether we realise it or not, whether we care or not, it is quite hard to not project a personal agenda. Catholic schools have no issue with confessionalism, but some posts on Save RE indicate much confessionalism in community schools. 

Perhaps this is also useful from Dawn:

Scepticism belongs to all subjects and all classrooms but it needs to be taught. Teachers need to be pleased to be challenged over an issue with students not defensive. As clichéd as it is, I genuinely think is one of the things we can do for students that will equip them for life. [see <here>]

Just perhaps with colleagues and strangers on the internet too!

Image courtesy of Weird Life