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Increasing the number of Religious Education (RE) specialists in schools is the aim of new teacher training initiatives from Catholic dioceses.  

The national teacher shortage includes those teaching RE, and a new Postgraduate Certificate in RE for secondary schools is being offered as a potential diocesan solution to this. It’s a collaboration between the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and St Mary’s University, in Twickenham, one of four Catholic universities in England.

The first session is in person at the St Philip Howard Centre, in Crawley, West Sussex, with the rest of the course delivered as online twilight sessions. Registered candidates are set to gain 60 credits which can be used towards a Master’s qualification.    

This part-time course focuses on the RE Directory and is aimed at anyone teaching RE, or who would like to teach RE, but is trained in another subject and wishes to develop their knowledge, and is open to teachers from any diocese.  

Julie Oldroyd, Education Service Director of the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, said: “RE is a varied and fascinating subject which secures confidence in our own faith as well as ensuring understanding of and respect for others. Amid the national shortfall in teacher numbers we’ve collaborated with St Mary’s University to play our part in increasing the RE teacher workforce.”  

A similar initiative to train Catholic teachers of other subjects was also recently set up by the North East Catholic Dioceses network with Leeds Trinity University.  

By law Catholic schools teach a Catholic RE curriculum, which is statutory and part of the basic curriculum, for 10% of curriculum time. Catholic RE includes the study of other religions such as Judaism, Islam and Sikhism and world views for therefore much longer than in most secular schools, contributing to community cohesion. Partly as a result, Catholic schools are significantly more ethnically diverse than other state-funded schools.  

All students in Catholic schools study GCSE RE, with approximately a quarter of entrants to the exam coming from the Catholic sector.

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Source: Catholic Education Service