Richard Coupe Talk at Westminster March 2024

INTRODUCTION I would like to start by expressing my enormous gratitude to Fiona Bruce for hosting tonight’s event, in the midst of so many parliamentary responsibilities; also to  Lucy Williams, who has managed all the details of the evening, and to Guy Hordern...

Philip Barnes Westminsted address

(This is the transcript of a talk delivered on Tuesday, 12th March in the Jubilee Room, Palace of Westminster, to a symposium on “What should high-quality religious education look like?) In this short presentation, I interact with some of the main proposals of the...

Autumn conference

The Religious Education Network’s next major event is the Autumn conference. Watch this space for more details!

REN at Westminster

Nearly 70 experts in Religious Education came together at Parliament on the 12th March for a gathering generously hosted by Fiona Bruce MP, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Religion and Belief. Its topic was ‘What does knowledge-rich, high quality religious...

Freedom of Religion and Belief

We congratulate the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor for Freedom of Religion and Belief, Fiona Bruce MP, on receiving a unanimous vote in the House of Commons at the second reading of her private member’s bill to ensure her current post becomes a statutory Government...

Religion in schools is too important to marginalise

Monsignor Michael Nazir-Ali published this article in the Times at the end of January, in which he urges stronger support for religion-based RE in schools, and rejects the subject’s morphing into a ‘worldviews’ approach as something which does an injustice to...

A Level Entries Report

A report on A Religious Studies examination entries in 2023 NATRE have recently published the following worrying statistics, with all data in part one is taken from tables published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (www.jcq.org.uk). The overall trend in A level...

Farmington Scholarships 2024-25

Hurry! Farmington Scholarships for 2024-2025 applications close on 28th January 2024! Check this webpage: https://farmington.ac.uk/re-teachers/ Open to headteachers and UK secondary and primary school RE teachers, teachers of RE to children with Special Educational...

Ofsted reports on RE in schools, November 2023

Ofsted reports on over 2,000 school inspections over the previous year, reaching some difficult conclusions for Religious Education. A general comment in too many primary and secondary schools, the religious education (RE) that pupils receive is of a poor quality and...

Response to the national content standard for RE

The REN explains its reasons for rejecting the National Content Standard proposed by the Religious Education Council Executitve Summary The Religious Education Network1 (REN: See Appendix A) issues this public statement regarding the newly released ‘National...