Key Contact
Gillian Georgiou
NASBTT Associate Consultant
Secondary Religious Education
Email: info@nasbtt.org.uk
This term has provided the potential for seismic changes in RE. The publication of the final report of the National Curriculum and Assessment Review has offered a way forward for the subject. Having sought evidence from a wide range of stakeholders, the review panel has recommended that RE should become part of the National Curriculum. The timeframe for meeting the recommendations of this report is 2028. However, it is clear from the report itself that whether RE becomes part of the National Curriculum or not is reliant on sector consensus. This consensus has already been achieved for other key documentation, including the National Content Standard (2023), which is highlighted as a possible basis for a National Curriculum in RE. In order to achieve this sector consensus, the report recommends a phased process of dialogue and decision-making.
NATRE has provided a very useful summary of the National Curriculum and Assessment Review insofar as it relates to RE. This can be downloaded here. It includes the recommendations relating to assessment and accountability at KS4, including the recommended removal of the EBacc suite of subjects and the amendments to Progress 8 and Attainment 8 measures. You can also watch an In Conversation with Katie Freeman, Paul Smalley, Kathryn Wright and Ben Wood, hosted by Fiona Moss, in which the panel discuss the implications of this review for the future of RE.
At NASBTT, we realise that many secondary mentors are one of very few – or the only – subject specialist in the department; we are here to support you by offering advice and signposting resources that may help you. As ever, if there is anything in particular you need, please don’t hesitate to contact me at secondaryre@nasbtt.org.uk.
NATRE is the subject association of RE teachers.
- Main website: National Association of Teachers of Religious Education
- Click here for Membership information. With membership you receive a termly curriculum book full of stimulating and creative teaching ideas, as well as the magazine RE Today and the journal Professional Reflection. You also receive money-off conferences and training.
- NATRE support FREE local groups and hubs. Find your region here and follow the links to join local networks and meet local teachers.
The Culham St Gabriel’s Trust (CSTG)
offers many excellent opportunities for teachers’ CPD:
- Resources Website: RE Online contains resources and supportive subject knowledge, blogs and lots of guidance and good ideas.
- The Research Tab: keep up to date with current research around religion and worldviews, education and schooling.
- Leadership Tab: the ‘leading’ tab of RE: Online brings together current ideas and concerns to help you develop in confidence as a leader of religion and worldviews. Theme this term is ‘curriculum’.
- In Conversation events: these termly, online events are free and open to all. Keep up to date with research, thinking and discussions in the world of religion and worldviews in a friendly and welcoming environment.
- Sign up to the newsletter or follow on X (@culhamstgabriel)
- for notification of opportunities, such as a funded Masters programme and the leadership programme.
Religious studies project
An incredible array of podcasts devoted to the study of religion.
The RE podcast
A podcast created for teachers and students of religion and worldviews.
Religion Media Centre (RMC)
Focuses on reporting about religion in the media. Sign up for their daily briefing for current and cutting-edge information about religion in society. The RMC factsheets are excellent for subject knowledge.
Reforming RE
This blogsite contains a wide range of current thinking about religion and worldviews in the classroom. The blogs make interesting reading, and welcome new authors if you have an idea to share.
Professional Development Funding
Culham St Gabriel’s provides a range of funding opportunities for training and qualified teachers of RE. This includes their range of scholarship programmes (doctoral, masters and leadership), as well as a discretionary Chair’s Fund, which provides funding to support those in financial hardship or where a small amount of emergency funding is needed to support an individual. You can find out more about this here or email enquiries@cstg.org.uk.
Professional Development and Training
AREIAC will be hosting an online mini-conference in March 2026 to discuss the potential movement of RE onto the National Curriculum. Titled Towards Consensus: Ensuring Space for Diverse Voices in a National Curriculum for RE, AREIAC are calling for potential contributors to get in touch. You can find out more about this conference here.
The third joint conference between ARIEAC and AULRE will take place between 13th and 15th June 2026 at Birmingham City University South Campus. More information can be found here.
- Louise Hutton and Dawn Cox, Making Every RE Lesson Count (Crown House Publishing, 2021)
- Adam Dinham, Religion and Belief Literacy: Reconnecting a Chain of Learning (Bristol University Press, 2021)
- Kevin O’Grady, Conceptualising Religion and Worldviews for the School (Routledge, 2022)
- Commission on religion and worldviews.
- Trevor Cooling worldviews report
- Chater, M (ed) Reforming RE: Power and Knowledge in a Worldviews Curriculum, 2020
- National Curriculum and Assessment Review (2025)
- Ofsted (2024), Deep and Meaningful? The RE Subject Report - This report was published in April 2024. It contains a review of the quality of RE in 50 schools and academies located across England. It includes examples of good practice in primary and secondary schools, but also raises significant concerns about the quality of RE across the country.
- The Religion and Worldviews Approach to RE Toolkit - This toolkit, launched in May 2024, is the culmination of a three-year project launched by the RE Council of England and Wales. It consists of a handbook aimed at curriculum writers and three exemplar curriculum frameworks designed using the handbook.
- Campaign Policy Briefings
These policy briefings highlight relevant research and how it relates to a high-quality education in religion and worldviews. The authors hope that the religion and worldviews community will use them to support in advocacy and lobbying work at local, regional and national levels. Recent policy briefings include:
Addressing the Shortage of Secondary Religious Education Teachers in England and Wales
Tackling Social Injustice through Developing Epistemic Literacy in Religious Education
Building Community Relations through Research-Informed Educational Practice in Schools
- Theos, Why RE Matters
The Theos team (who were behind the Nobody Stands Nowhere and Worlds Apart animations) have recently produced a short case for why RE matters in our modern world. It outlines six key arguments and clearly articulates some of the key challenges facing the subject today.
Supporting Teachers to Develop Disciplinary Knowledge in RE
Session Overview
The Ofsted RE research review (2021) states that the RE curriculum should support students to develop three distinctive types of knowledge: substantive knowledge, ways of knowing (also known as disciplinary knowledge) and personal knowledge. This session will explore ways in which we can support training and early careers teachers to build explicit teaching of disciplinary knowledge into the RE curriculum. It will provide some examples and suggested resources to support this in practice.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Clarity on the ways in which disciplinary knowledge is distinct from substantive and personal knowledge in RE
- Understanding of ways to support mentees with professional learning and development, and learning and teaching in RE
Facilitator Info
Gillian Georgiou has a background in teaching secondary Religious Studies and Philosophy up to KS5. She currently works as the RE Adviser for the Lincoln Diocesan Board of Education. In this capacity, she supports primary, secondary and special schools and academies across greater Lincolnshire to deliver high quality RE. She currently leads one of three project teams involved in the Worldviews Project, as well as carrying out action research on assessment in primary and secondary RE. She delivers training and support on RE to four initial teacher education providers, as well as working as the Secondary RE consultant for NASBTT.
Watch the recording here
Supporting Resources
Ofsted (2024), Deep and Meaningful? The RE Subject Report
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