The Methodist Schools and Education Service has completed a two year
project that has produced what are intended to be accessible and
informative Religious Education resources.
The resources offer an insight into Christianity and Methodism for RE Key Stages 1-4.
The completion of the project follows the recent Ofsted report
Religious Education: Realising the Potential, published 06 October, that
criticised the levels of RE provision in schools, placing
responsibility for improvement with the government.
John Keast OBE, Chair of RE Council of England and Wales, said: “Good
religious education in all our schools is more important than ever
these days. Religion and belief have such a high profile in current
affairs, community and social matters, and personal development nowadays
that everybody needs to know, understand and be able to make sense of
it.”
The RE resources were commissioned by the Methodist Church to provide
some non-statutory exemplification of good teaching and learning in RE.
They were written by Lat Blaylock of RE Today and are intended to
enable teaching of Christianity from a Methodist perspective.
The
resources include an Introduction to Methodism by the Rev Dr Martin
Wellings and Sam Taylor, former Methodist Youth President, along with an
outline of the 'Distinctiveness of Methodism and Structure of the
Methodist Church'.
Lat Blaylock, Adviser for Religious Education Today, said: “It has
been a great privilege to work with such high quality staff from
Methodist Schools and the Education service to create new materials for
RE in Methodist schools. These materials give any teacher practically
inspiring planning to use in their own classroom, enabling pupils to
achieve more and learn about their Methodist and Christian heritage.”
The RE resources offer guidance in teaching Christianity through
planned units of work. The units include such topics as, ‘Warm hearts:
what does it feel like to experience God’s presence?’ This particular
unit is intended to make the life of John Wesley relevant to eight year
old, Year Four pupils. The resources have already been successfully
piloted at Methodist schools around the country.
Lat Blaylock said: “There’s a focus on pupils’ open-hearted and broad
minded spiritual development too. OFsted criticise schools for low
standards, but the Methodist RE project has done something practical to
help. RE in these schools will enable pupils to understand Christianity
for themselves, and respond freely.”