This story is one of a collection of stories from RE Today. Each story is available as a one-page pdf downloadable at the point of sale, free of charge. Each story is accompanied by Key Questions for pupils, or Activities for working with the story in the classroom; main themes covered by each story are identified THEMES: feeling ashamed; saying sorry; being forgiven; changed character

This story is one of a collection of stories from RE Today. Each story is available as a one-page pdf downloadable at the point of sale, free of charge. Each story is accompanied by Key Questions for pupils, or Activities for working with the story in the classroom; main themes covered by each story are identified. THEMES: revelation; commitment; experiencing God; friendship

This story is one of a collection of stories from RE Today. Each story is available as a one-page pdf downloadable at the point of sale, free of charge. Each story is accompanied by Key Questions for pupils, or Activities for working with the story in the classroom; main themes covered by each story are identified. THEMES: generosity; helping those in need

This story is one of a collection of stories from RE Today. Each story is available as a one-page pdf downloadable at the point of sale, free of charge. Each story is accompanied by Key Questions for pupils, or Activities for working with the story in the classroom; main themes covered by each story are identified. THEMES: everyone matters; everyone is of equal value and worth

This story is one of a collection of stories from RE Today. Each story is available as a one-page pdf downloadable at the point of sale, free of charge. Each story is accompanied by Key Questions for pupils, or Activities for working with the story in the classroom; main themes covered by each story are identified. THEMES: change; God; service; Sewa; Simran

This story is one of a collection of stories from RE Today. Each story is available as a one-page pdf downloadable at the point of sale, free of charge. Each story is accompanied by Key Questions for pupils, or Activities for working with the story in the classroom; main themes covered by each story are identified. THEMES: God; Muhammad; respect; ritual

This compilation of over 40 vibrant, real-life examples of pupils’ achievement in RE is designed to give teachers and leaders of RE confidence in describing the impacts of their teaching and enable them to reflect on and refine their own practice. The examples are by pupils of vastly different ability, and we have taken much care to include a variety of themes and religions in the examples we have chosen. While some emphasise the development of disciplinary knowledge in RE, others are based around pupils personal engagement and creative expression. What all examples have in common is that they show how teachers can give all pupils opportunities for authentic engagement, deep thinking and genuine development of knowledge and skills in RE.

For many years, assessment in RE was fairly settled. As with other foundation and core curriculum subjects, we used levels to assess pupils’ progress. We reflected the developments of these subjects within our agreed syllabuses and other resources, using the same terms from ‘assessment gurus’ such as Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam.1 We tried not to stand outside the crowd, so that we did not cause problems for teachers. When levels were removed by the government, RE held onto them longer than other subjects in some places and school types. Now, for most schools, the time to find alternatives to assessment using the eight-level scale is long overdue. Schools have spent the last few years trying out different systems for core and foundation subjects, a search for clarity that has been paralleled in RE. This book is designed to support head teachers, senior leaders, heads of RE, subject leaders and classroom teachers in reflecting on the different practices that are being used around the country in the search for assessment solutions in RE. It starts with a brief look at the general issues around assessment in RE before focusing on assessing RE in primary and then secondary schools. The book presents examples of legitimate and viable practice, written in the main by classroom practitioners, supplemented with a few chapters by those who work closely with schools or have trialled ideas in schools. It is not presenting one of these as the correct model. Instead, it offers you some different teacher experiences so you can consider whether aspects of these would work in your school, or perhaps provide some alternative options. Everyone who has contributed to this book has suggested their ideas or practices for perusal – without claiming they are perfect – in the hope that they might be helpful. Assessment in general, and certainly in RE, is not ‘settled’ yet. There will undoubtedly be more changes in both RE and assessment, but we think the examples represented here will offer much to the teacher now and in the future.

Religion – our field of study – is vast, rich, complex and contested. Here we have selected content to illustrate how we can study religion in different ways. We might see religious studies as a home discipline, which then draws on methods from many other disciplines. This contrasts with the theological approaches we often use, which tend to look for coherence and deal with orthodoxy. RS tends to look at (non)religion as a social fact in descriptive and analytic ways (see Chris Cotter’s investigator file, pp. 8–9) In this volume we analyse sociological data from the 2021 Pew Research data on religion in India, showing that the tidy boxes in which we often place religions in RE simply don’t reflect the reality of Indian religion (pp. 16–17). We apply methods of literary theory to the Ramayana, reading it from the goddess Sita’s perspective, offering a feminist viewpoint (pp. 18–19). Professor Linda Woodhead’s article (pp. 20–21) introduces her 2021 research, where mixed methods reveal the importance of values in the lives of Generation Z; she suggests that ‘values are the new religion’. We look through an anthropological lens at ‘material religion’, including the use of amulets in Islam (pp. 26–29), and astrology in Hindu ways of living (pp. 30–31). Anthropological methods help to illuminate the integration of Christian and indigenous practice in southern Africa (pp. 32–33). We use these case studies to open up wider questions about the reality of a spiritual dimension in the lives of the majority of humans, and how this plays out in the secular world of the majority of our students We also apply a critical lens to the nature of religion itself. In order to explore the relative importance of a range of features of religion, students undertake some research and compare it with data already collected (pp. 8–13). Building on this glimpse of the diversity of lived religion, students are then able to consider whether it is possible or desirable to pin religion down to a definition (pp. 14–15). Throughout, we offer opportunities for students to reflect on their own worldviews.

This is the third in our series applying different disciplines to the content of RE. It examines theology and natural sciences, focusing on the contributions of both of those disciplines to our thinking about the natural world. The resource offers clear accounts of those two disciplines, with Investigator Files written by our experts, Dr Alexander Hall (environmental science, pp. 22–23) and Dr Simeon Zahl (theology – Resource 4.1 online). It provides case studies from four environmental charities, including secular and Sikh examples (pp. 4–7). The book includes eight perspectives on the relationship between humans and nature – voices from atheist Humanist via Buddhist and Pagan to ethical vegan (pp. 8–11 and Resource 3.3 online) The creation account in Genesis has been influential in western thought and we examine it in some detail, offering perspectives from the first to the twenty-first centuries (pp. 16–19), and exploring concepts of dominion and stewardship (pp. 14–15). Practical scenarios on rising sea levels alert students to the work of environmental science (pp. 28–31 and Resource 9.3 online). Students bring their theological learning to bear as they consider the extent that science can guide on what choices to take, once the data is in. Students use nature documentaries to analyse the potentially prophetic role of popular science and scientists (pp. 32–33) The focus on the environment is important, not least because climate change is such a pressing existential crisis, of great concern to students. This resource supports students’ learning about religious attitudes towards and responses to the environment; it offers clarity on how theological and scientific knowledge differ and relate; and it encourages students to reflect on how their own personal worldviews affect their ways of seeing and responding to the natural world.

It is always both exciting and daunting when starting to plan one of these books. It gives us an opportunity to help teachers and students examine some fascinating content, but even with extensive online support resources one publication cannot cover everything. The RE community is beginning to respond to the idea that the subject should examine worldviews, but substantial reports from Theos and the RE Council have already pointed out the complexity of the concept (see p. 3 for details). As such, we recognise our limitations. We can only introduce some ways of thinking about worldviews, but we hope that these will prove practical and engaging in the classroom, increasing students’ knowledge and awareness of their own and others’ worldviews We spend some time on examining and applying James W. Sire’s model of worldview questions (pp. 4–11). This is a good starting point, as the questions are close to the kinds of things we often address in our subject. As always, we include voices from religious and non-religious perspectives (pp. 12–13), which indicate something of the complexity and fluidity of worldviews in people’s lives. As well as starting by asking people questions, we also start at the other end: we present case studies that look at people’s actions, and ask students to discern what these reveal about these activists’ worldviews (pp. 14–15) Our multidisciplinary approach introduces sociology and its questions and methods, with our disciplinary experts, Dr Rachael Shillitoe and Dr Chris Cotter. We have set it up so you can take students through different processes, including gathering data, analysing it and drawing conclusions. Having examined it though the sociological lens, there is an opportunity to apply a religious studies lens as well. There are opportunities to reflect on the potential of these disciplines for enriching an understanding of worldviews

We begin a new series as part of the Big Questions in Classrooms programme, funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The series is called ‘Challenging Knowledge in RE’, and the purpose is to support teachers and students in investigating how knowledge is created in different disciplines, and in helping students perceive the value of different kinds of questions, methods and explanations used to understand big questions. This new series explores some of the substantive knowledge often encountered in RE, in this case around the idea of God. It looks to provide creative, thoughtful and practical ideas to enrich students’ understanding. The new focus for the series is to increase students’ disciplinary knowledge too. As we encounter the world, we can explore it using different disciplines and methods. These disciplines then generate knowledge. The knowledge we encounter depends on what we are looking for and how we look. In this volume, we are focusing on the kinds of questions, methods and findings that are opened up by the disciplines of theology and psychology. Of course, both these disciplines are complex, containing within them many other subdisciplines, so we will only be able to do some preliminary study, exploring a limited range of questions and methods. Our intention is to outline the broad processes so that students have enough disciplinary knowledge to carry out their own (rudimentary) investigations. We introduce students to our resident experts, Dr Carissa Sharp and Dr Simeon Zahl, and invite students to become investigators themselves. In so doing, they are encouraged to evaluate the methods and answers, as well as reflect on their own position and the impact it has on their understanding and responses.

Welcome to the fourth book in our curriculum series Big Questions, Big Answers. This book focuses on worship, a central activity in most religious worldviews. The theme of worship is a basis for exploration of beliefs and values. Many children will not have encountered or engaged in worship within a religious community, however they will be aware of the idea of holding something in high honour or being devoted to something. This book offers clear substantive content about the practice of worship for Christians, Jews and Muslims, and focuses on celebrations and worship in new year festivals such as Diwali and Rosh Hashanah. The units and resources focus on Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim worldviews, and we concentrate on the nonreligious celebrations at new year. For younger children we explore worship through the eyes of Grace and Imran. We were really pleased to have the support of Ellie Olmer, Rabbi Alex Chapper and the Revd Jenny Ridge to provide contemporary images of worship in a church and a synagogue. Our multidisciplinary or, touse Ofsted language, ‘ways of knowing’ unit for 8–11s reintroduces religious studies and psychology with our disciplinary experts Dr Chris Cotter and Dr Carissa Sharp. In this unit, pupils study prayer in Christianity, Islam and the Hindu Dharma, find out some data on how many people pray regularly, learn what religious traditions teach, look at some prayers from three traditions, and compare the differences between more formal, public, community prayers and the practice of personal prayer. We look through the lens of psychology at whether there are common ways of describing the nature of personal prayer across religious traditions. We continue to expand the digital offerings for our books – do go to the website and look for the many extras. We would love to see examples of pupil work to share with others – do send us some examples

Welcome to the third book in our new curriculum series, Big Questions, Big Answers. This book focuses on the environment. The theme of the environment and sustainability is one that many young people are passionate about. This book provides clear, substantive content on what different religious people believe about how the environment should be treated, and uses key texts from several sources of authority. The units and resources focus on Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh worldviews, and for younger children we look at creation stories from indigenous cultures. There is one of our popular double-page pictures to support learning, as well as case studies and a variety of strategies to support pupils’ learning. Our multidisciplinary or, to use Ofsted language, ‘ways of working’ unit for 9–11s reintroduces theology and introduces natural science; more specifically, environmental science and its questions and methods, with our disciplinary experts Dr Simeon Zahl and Dr Alexander Hall. In this unit, pupils study what texts from Christianity, Islam and Sikhi say about the environment, make hypotheses, conduct experiments and apply their learning to a case study around the building of a dam. We continue to expand the digital offerings for our books – do go to the website and look for the many extras. We would love to see examples of pupil work to share with others – do send us some examples. The multidisciplinary section of the book comes with a pupil booklet, and we are keen to hear from teachers about whether this is useful and how we can improve it.

Welcome to the second book in our new curriculum series, Big Questions, Big Answers. This book focuses on worldviews. I first became aware of this term about five years ago and, a bit like when you buy a different car you suddenly see lots of people driving the same make, I now feel I hear the word more and more often. But what does this word mean and why might we use it with our pupils? The RE community is beginning to respond to the idea that the subject should examine worldviews, but already substantial reports from Theos and the RE Council point out the complexity of the concept. In this book we try to introduce some ways of thinking about worldviews as part of your RE or for some Religion and Worldviews lessons. We hope that the units and resources will prove practical and engaging in the classroom, increasing students’ knowledge and awareness of their own and others’ worldviews. Simple strategies have been used to increase pupil understanding of diversity within a worldview looking at celebration of Diwali, Eid-ulFitr and, later in the book, Christmas. We also look at how worldviews affect how you see things and, for many, how they choose to live their lives. Our two multidisciplinary units introduce sociology and religious studies, and relevant questions and methods, with our disciplinary experts Dr Rachael Shillitoe and Dr Chris Cotter. In these units pupils study the diversity of celebrations of Christmas and then what affects how people from different groups dress. We are really grateful to the teachers and pupils who trialled the disciplinary units in the book, and we have adapted these resources as a result of these classroom trials. We continue to expand the digital offerings for our books – do go to the website and look for the many extras.Finally, we would love to see examples of pupil work to share with others – do send us some examples

Welcome to our new curriculum series, Big Questions, Big Answers. It is our vision to provide high-quality, supportive, knowledge-rich, creative teaching and learning resources and strategies for use in the primary classroom. This six-book series will investigate the following subjects: God, worldviews, religion and the environment, worship, how people live and good and evil. As well as the type of material you would normally see in our books, this series has a multidisciplinary section. There are more details of this elsewhere on the page. This has been kindly funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The concept of God is an essential piece of substantive content to teach in RE. However, even the title of the book brings some ‘big questions’, as for some religious worldviews this is perhaps not appropriate language – as you can see from the title of our section on the Hindu religious tradition. This book aims to increase teacher and pupil subject knowledge, particularly focusing on four worldviews: nonreligious, Christian, Hindu and Muslim. The book provides a series of tried and tested strategies, high-quality images, key vocabulary and valuable information for teachers. This book also focuses on the concept of God through a psychological and a theological lens. We continue to expand the digital offerings for our books. For this series there will be a section of the website where you can download extra materials such as a digital copy of each unit, allowing you to save it in year-group or module files on your school’s system. There will also be short knowledge film clips, clips of our ‘lead investigators’ talking and samples of pupil work. Do let us know which sections of this series you use in your school, and we would love to see examples of pupil work to share with others.

It’s always a privilege to look a little more deeply into a tradition. As always, the more you look, the more you realise there is to know. Religious education is a multidisciplinary subject, with scope for looking at social, psychological, philosophical, theological, historical, ethical dimensions (just for starters). To begin to do that with the richness of ‘Sanatan Dharma’ is absorbing but also a huge challenge. To an extent, we are constrained in a brief publication like this: we have to ask what teachers are teaching and how we can help to support that with authentic, accurate, engaging sources and resources. Our emphasis on texts and philosophy, therefore, reflects the current syllabus and examination specification demands teachers face. We do approach these from the perspective of Hindu living and thinking, however. We hear from teenage Hindus from various traditions (pp. 4—7) and from young ISKCON devotees running a café in Cardiff (pp. 18—23). We outline key Hindu texts (pp. 8—9) before going more deeply into two that are important in the lives of many Hindus – the Ramayana (pp. 10—13) and chapter 2 of the Bhagavad Gita (pp. 14—15). We have included progressively detailed explorations of Hindu philosophy – examining ideas of rita (cosmic order), karma and samsara (pp. 18—23), before connecting these philosophies to two major schools of thought about the nature of God – Advaita and Dvaita Vedanta (pp. 24—29). We then dig a little deeper into this with case studies on Shankara and Ramanuja (pp. 30—31). As always, we look to engage students with a deeper encounter with Hindus and Hindu ideas, and to offer opportunities for them to use this encounter to reflect on their own ways of thinking and being

It is always a huge challenge to present a rich and diverse religious tradition in 33 pages. Inevitably much is omitted, and the selection has the potential to distort the reality. Here we have tried to present a broad and balanced picture of Jewish thinking and living, representative although not comprehensive, providing authentic, first-hand resources to use in the classroom. Our focus on Jews rather than Judaism seeks to avoid any essentialising of Jewish belief and practice. It enables us to show something of the diversity of voices within Jewish communities, e.g. the everyday lives of teenagers (pp. 10–13) and festival practice with representatives from Orthodox and Progressive communities (pp. 8–9 and 18–23). We deal with some essential knowledge on branches of Judaism (pp. 4–5), key texts (pp. 6–7) and prayer (pp. 8–9). It is important for students to have opportunities to consider the nuances around issues of controversy. Resources from the Jewish Museum London help teachers to identify how far students are susceptible to the myths and stereotypes around Jews and money (pp. 14–15). Students are helped to approach the political relationship between Israel and Palestine through the efforts by Jewish grandmothers to bring justice at the border wall (pp. 24–29). Our previous publication on Judaism was called Questions: Jewish people. We have considered the use of the term ‘Jew’ in the classroom context and recognise that for some it is a sensitive issue. We have decided to go with the title, Examining Religion and Belief: Jews as an attempt towards reclaiming the term for the classroom. Teachers will need to handle this with awareness and care. We hope that through encountering and engaging with Jewish voices, students can deepen their understanding of the world and reflect on how they make sense of their own place within it. This resource aims to enable personal reflection as well as to develop religious literacy

I once heard Zen Buddhist Master, Thich Nhat Hahn, talking at the Houses of Parliament. The talk was followed by a ‘walking meditation’ in a small garden behind. We followed Thich Nhat Hahn (addressed as ‘Thay’ by those in his community), a few slow steps at a time: breathing in (two steps: I have arrived in the here and now) and out (three steps: I am at home in this beautiful mother Earth, gaining nourishment and restoration). Assaulted as we were by the noise and fumes of traffic from Parliament Square, and watched with bemusement by tourists and armed police on duty, it was a memorable experience. It made me reflect on how Buddhists have applied their ancient teachings and practices to the busy contemporary world. For many people, the Dharma seems well suited to address the many stresses and obstacles to happiness that occupy our twenty-first-century lives. This book is called ‘Buddhists’ rather than ‘Buddhism’, offering snapshots of Buddhist thought and practice alongside some pages that offer some context, rather than trying to present a coherent overview of a religion. It deals in particular with the interface between the Dharma and today’s world, providing original source material and contemporary voices, recognising and identifying a diversity of views, controversies and complexity. We give some resources on the core teachings and texts (pp. 4–7) and an introduction to the spread and diversity of Buddhist traditions. We have tried to enrich the encounter your students have by including interviews with lay and ordained Buddhists (pp. 8–12, 18–25), looking at the contemporary art of Gonkar Gyatso (p. 3), exploring some statistics on Buddhists in the UK and the world (pp. 16–17), inviting some top academics to give their scholarly views (pp. 13–14, 32–33) and preparing your students for examination study on the complexities of the arhat and Bodhisattva paths (pp. 23–31). Thoughtful activities accompany these resources. They are intended to encourage you to make flexible use of them, helping your students deepen their understanding of the Buddha’s path and Buddhist practices, and to get them thinking for themselves about the relationship between suffering, happiness and the modern world

This book explores the beliefs, practices, traditions, values and identities of Sikhs. It is representative rather than comprehensive, exploring a selection of key aspects of a Sikh way of life (or Gurmat – ‘the teachings of the Guru’). We use the term Sikhism, as the term commonly used in RE, although one that is sometimes contested and seen by some as a Western imposition onto the tradition. We also refer at times to Sikhi, a term preferred by many Sikhs, to show that the faith is not just a system of belief but a path to follow. The term ‘Sikh’ comes from sikhna, ‘to learn’, so a Sikh is a learner. We have sought authentic resources to introduce students to Sikhi, including voices of Sikhs in the UK today (see, for example, pp. 5, 6, 15, 27–29) and explorations of the Guru Granth Sahib – seen as the living Guru, a living voice rather than a lifeless text (e.g. pp. 8–11, 30–31). The place and identity of Sikhs in the UK have specific contexts, of course. This is examined in the art of the Singh Twins, setting their own identities within the story of their father’s (see pp. 12–13). The account of Gurinder Chadha reflects a similar story (p. 15). The difference between online perceptions of Sikhs (as turban-wearing and amritdhari – initiated, Khalsa Sikhs) and the more diverse reality is considered in a number of places (e.g. pp. 14–15, 18–23 and in the infographic on pp. 16–17). So – we offer a snapshot of Sikhs and Sikh living, presented alongside a range of creative and engaging ways to explore Sikhi in the classroom, to get your students to think hard and learn lots