Run an RE Day

Most schools are required to teach Religious Education to students. For many this will normally involve a weekly RE lesson but some schools increasingly put on RE Days. These involve students stepping out of the normal timetable and spending a whole day on a particular RE theme. This guide will explain how RE Days are organised, how schoolsworkers can organise or contribute to them and where to find helpful resources.

Starting points

Religious Education in schools

RE has been a part of the basic curriculum for schools almost from the beginning of modern day education. What began as ‘scripture’ lessons 100 years ago has now evolved into a subject that explores spirituality and values in a range of world religions.

However, the legal requirements for schools to teach RE vary hugely depending on the way the school is managed and set up:

• Local Authority maintained schools (still the majority of primary and secondary schools) are required to teach RE up to the age of 16, although parents have the right to withdraw their child from these lessons. The school must follow the agreed syllabus set down by the Local Authority.
• Voluntary aided schools, most often Catholic or Anglican schools, must provide RE in accordance with the terms by which they were established.
• Private fee-paying schools are not under any requirements to provide RE, although many of them have a religious background and therefore do so.
• Academies, a new type of secondary school involving private sponsorship, are also not under any requirement to provide RE, although again almost all will do so.

In addition, school sixth forms, unlike sixth form colleges, are legally required to provide RE for students up to the age of 18.

How much time should schools give to RE in the curriculum?

There are no prescribed allocations of time for RE. When Lord Dearing produced his final report into The National Curriculum and its Assessment (1993) he made some recommendations which assume appropriate time allowances for RE, and for practical purposes these are widely recognised as ‘markers’.

Dearing’s recommendations were:

• Keystage 1: 36 hours a year
• Keystage 2and 3: 45 hours a year
• Keystage 4: 5% of total curriculum time

These are not requirements for schools, more a guideline that they might follow.

Why do schools hold RE Days?

The varying requirements for providing RE, and the pressures on the curriculum, mean that some schools have adopted RE Days as a way of fulfilling legal requirements for RE. Two or three days a year, often towards the end of the term, fulfill their obligations and leave the weekly timetable free for other subjects. This is especially common in school sixth forms.

Other schools, perhaps the majority, see RE days as an addition to their normal provision for RE. The equivalent, for example, of an English trip to the theatre or a geography field trip. They give a chance to explore a subject in more depth and include input that might not be possible in normal lessons: including input from external speakers like Christian schools workers.

Some RE Days may take place away from the school premises in a different environment. However, most remain in the school and use the same classrooms and halls.

What kind of involvement can schools workers provide?

An RE Day is a great opportunity for Christian schools workers to make a significant and positive contribution to a school. There are at least three kinds of input commonly given:

1. Local schools workers or youth workers helping run an RE Day that is organised by the school: the RE Department organise the theme and programme and invite a schoolsworker to help with some of the work. This could be supporting some of the group work during the day or leading a session.

2. Local schools workers or youth workers take on the organisation and running of an RE Day for a school. The schools workers develop the content and lead the day through, with teachers present but not involved in input. This may or may not be a paid service.

3. A professional full time organisation providing Christian RE Days is booked to run a day in a school. These organisations travel all over the country and are used to running RE Days. Normally the school will have to pay for this kind of service. Local schools workers can be involved in recommending the right organisation and helping on the day.