The government should urgently update guidance on its statutory expectations for teaching religious education, Ofsted said today.
The inspectorate said the Department for Education should ensure there is clarity for schools about what is taught in RE and when.
In its latest subject review, published today, Ofsted also warned that a “significant proportion” of schools are not meeting the statutory requirement to teach the subject at all stages of a pupil’s journey.
Here are six key findings from the report.
Ofsted subject review for RE: key findings
1. Updated government guidance is ‘urgently needed’
Ofsted has called on the government to urgently update its guidance for schools on its statutory expectations. It warned there is a lack of clarity on the curriculum and recommends the government provide better guidance about what should be taught and when.
It said this would help schools and, particularly, leaders and teachers of the subject.
The RE syllabus in schools is determined locally by agreed syllabus committees, but Ofsted warned that the system has become more complex with the growth of multi-academy trusts.
The watchdog said that, as a result, ”‘where teachers go’ for information on what to include in RE curriculums has become even more complicated”.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said Ofsted’s conclusion that there is a lack of clarity on the RE curriculum is “the most telling part” of the report.
Mr Di’lasio added that RE has been “squeezed to the margins by a combination of performance tables which prioritise other academic subjects and lack of space in timetables, which are bursting at the seams”.
2. Most schools’ curriculum ‘lacks depth’
Ofsted said students generally remember very little if a curriculum tries to cover many religions, and they learn more when depth of study is prioritised.
It said that the RE curriculum in schools also often lacks sufficient substance to prepare students to live in a complex world.
It added that the RE content selected by schools was “rarely...collectively enough to ensure that pupils were well prepared to engage in a multi-religious and multi-secular society”.
Last year Amanda Spielman’s last annual report as chief inspector warned that in “too many primary and secondary schools” the religious education that pupils receive is of a “poor quality and not fit for purpose”.
3. Secondary curriculum restricted by exam focus
Ofsted found that some secondary curricula were restricted by what teachers decided students needed to know for their GCSE exams.
It warned that sometimes students practise GCSE-style assessments “before they have mastered enough substantive knowledge”. Inspectors found that in “a significant number of cases, teachers taught examination skills too prematurely”.
The report adds that some curricula were designed to focus on key stage 3 content that mirrors the specifications of the religious studies GCSE.
Ofsted said: “This narrows the scope of the curriculum. Some exposure to curriculum content that is not set out in an exam specification can be helpful.”
4. Schools not meeting statutory requirement
Ofsted said that, with a handful of exceptions where RE was not taught at all, key stage 3 was the main or only place in the secondary school curriculum where all students studied RE content, despite it being a statutory subject for pupils throughout their schooling.
It said that fewer than one-fifth of schools visited by inspectors included any discernible RE content at key stages 4 and in sixth form for those students who had not chosen to study the subject at GCSE or A level.
It also found that most statutory, non-examined RE being delivered was “limited and of a poor quality”.
5. Long gaps between RE lessons hinder students
Long gaps between lessons hindered students’ recall, according to the inspectorate.
It said that when the timetable was organised so that students had regular RE lessons, they remembered more.
Its recommendations for schools include organising the timetable for RE so that gaps between teaching are minimised.
The report says that how RE appears on the timetabled curriculum may be an indication of the extent to which a school prioritises the subject.
“What limits the quality of RE can be a lack of scope: there is not enough time to teach a high-quality subject curriculum,” the report adds.
6. ‘Significant concern’ over lack of subject CPD
Ofsted said that although a few teachers in the schools it visited had received subject-based professional development in RE, the overwhelming majority had not.
It added: “Given the complexity of the subject and the kind of misconceptions that pupils were left with, this is a significant concern.”
Ofsted’s recommendations include a call to those involved in commissioning and organising professional development to increase access to a range of training available to all leaders and teachers, to improve their subject knowledge in RE.
It also said those involved in training teachers and early career professional development “should prioritise helping trainee teachers and those who are newer to the profession to gain the subject knowledge that they need”.
The Ofsted report draws on findings from 50 visits to schools in England between September 2021 and April 2023, which took place as part of scheduled school inspections or as specific research visits.
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: “A strong RE curriculum is not only important for pupils’ cultural development, it is a requirement of law, and too many schools are not meeting that obligation.
“I hope that the examples of good RE curriculum in our report help schools develop their own practice and support the development of a strong RE curriculum for all.”
Deborah Weston, chair of the Religious Education Policy Unit, said the Ofsted report ”rightly highlights that in far too many schools across the country, RE does not fulfil the subject’s potential”.
She added that “fortunately, many of the factors” raised - such as strong teacher subject knowledge, access to professional development, regular time for RE lessons and a well-organised curriculum - “can be easily addressed”.
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