RE, Paganism and the Law
Alison Robertson 23 May 2007
When I tell people what I do for a living I can more or less guarantee one of a small stock of responses, of which far and away the most common is ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were a Christian.’ Well, I’m not a Christian, and never have been. What I am though is an RE teacher, and this response typifies the attitude of many people, including, sadly, many RE teachers, to the nature of this unique and fascinating subject. I also happen to be a pagan.
I run a successful RE department in what used to be known as a ‘bog-standard Comp’. We have successful Short Course GCSE for all pupils and a substantial take-up of Full Course GCSE as an additional option, we run AS and A2 classes and obtain good results (significantly over national average) at all levels, we passed our recent OfSted with flying colours and our internal procedures tell us that we are doing everything that you have to do in order to be able to say you are providing an education in this statistics obsessed day and age.
I also teach Paganism. In fact I teach the widest variety of faiths I and my colleague in the department can manage, including Zoroastrianism, Shinto, Rastafari, Humanism, Taoism and anything else that takes my fancy really. I am writing this for those of you that would dearly love your children to have access to the rich diversity that is religion in the world today – including of course your own faith – but have been told by your child’s school that this is not possible because the National Framework/Curriculum does not allow it.
Well, brace yourself. Powerful knowledge coming your way – there is no national curriculum for RE. At least not in the sense most of us picture a National Curriculum. The only person with the final say in what your child learns in RE in school is your school Head of Department with Curriculum responsibility for Religious Education. Anything to which they may refer for help and guidance in this task is non-statutory and hence non-compulsory. They, and they alone decide.
There are good reasons for this and although of course there are schools who, to put it politely, fail to rate RE as an important subject, I firmly believe that this is in fact the correct way for it to work. No centrally agreed syllabus could address properly the belief and practise of all Britain’s multitude of faiths; in fact we couldn’t even address one fully – off the top of my head I could name you four types of Islam, 5 of Judaism, 3 of Buddhism, 7 of Paganism, maybe 30 of Christianity and they say that there are as many Hinduisms as there are Hindus. All of these denominations have much in common but also many differences and you cannot possibly generalise without offending somebody. For example let us consider Christianity. We can say, just about, that all Christians believe Jesus was a pretty important bloke, but beyond that there is nothing, and I do mean nothing on which every person professing the Christian faith would agree. ‘Official’ denominations of Christianity worldwide number in the millions and even the most dedicated and thorough study of these could do more than scratch the surface in the five years your child will be studying RE as a discreet subject. (I refer to secondary schools here, although of course they should study it at primary school too). For this reason primarily the ‘law’ on RE does not attempt to restrict, control or define curriculum content. The legal requirements are three in number and they are these:
- All students must have Religious Education available to them until they leave compulsory schooling. In fact if your school has a sixth form attached it is required to provide RE provision for the Sixth form to, although independent colleges of Further Education do not have to do this.
- Religious Instruction is the domain of the family, Religious Education does not mean instruction in a particular faith. However Christianity must be included in a school’s RE curriculum as this is the majority faith in the UK.
- The RE provided by your child’s school should reflect the faiths represented within the locality of the school. That of course includes you!
In my school we take what I consider to be the most interesting way of tackling RE, namely the Thematic approach. We select a theme common across many religions and explore it from a variety of religious and secular perspectives. For example we have a unit called ‘Ideas about God’ in which we consider Paganism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism as well as exploring the more general ideas of monotheism, polytheism, pantheism and atheism. Other schools tackle their obligations in other ways but however your school does it there is no national, legal reason for them not to include paganism.
Let us then consider RE at the local level, since this is how it is managed. This will enable you to better understand those non-statutory documents to which your schools RE department may be attached.
At the root of pretty much everything produced on RE by pretty much everybody is the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) guidance. Exam boards are particularly influenced by these and for reasons I will make clear as I go along your schools RE provision at Key Stage 4 (GCSE level) is likely to be determined by the exam boards. QCA give two ‘attainment targets’ for RE – these are that the pupils should know about religion and should learn from religion. Notice the lack of specified named faiths there. However all the examples given in the QCA documentation are drawn from what we RE teachers know affectionately as ‘the big six’ – Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Sikhism. It is therefore easy for a school to focus entirely on these, unless like me the HoD is easily bored! Among other things QCA produced (in 2000) exemplar schemes of work, both Secondary and Primary for the guidance of schools, many schools teach these exactly as presented by QCA but, as I cannot say often enough, they are in no way obliged to do so.
In addition to any QCA documents the school might have they will be in possession of something called a Locally Agreed Syllabus. Since 1988 every Local Authority has been required to have a SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education). This body should advise the Local Authority on any matters pertaining to RE and is also responsible for producing and reviewing the Locally Agreed Syllabus. This document must be reviewed every five years. It is recommended that schools formulate their RE courses based on this document, which is generally little more than a section on each faith represented in the SACRE outlining the key elements of that faith, and a statement of the concepts, attitudes and skills which RE should set out to promote. It is worth noting here that the now bewildering variety of schools in the country (grant maintained, trust schools etc) has created some differences in the status of the locally syllabus – Voluntary Aided schools have a Trust Deed instead, and in Voluntary Controlled Schools parents may request that the Locally Agreed Syllabus be replaced by the Trust Deed. In all other cases however it is assumed that the Locally Agreed Syllabus is in place, and that the school is aware of its contents.
In 2004 the QCA produced a Non-Statutory National Framework for Religious Education primarily for the guidance of the SACRE in undertaking their tasks. This framework can be downloaded in full at www.qca.org.uk/9817.html
The SACRE should include representatives from all faith communities, however the total make-up and the selection of representatives is likely to vary according to locality. You should contact your local SACRE Clerk, either via your LEA or directly for clarification and information. A full list of all LEAs with SACRE contact details is available from www.theredirectory.org.uk . Just select ‘Full A-Z’ list from the ‘Local Authorities’ drop-down box and find your local area.
At Key Stage Four, because of the legal requirement that all students have RE available more and more schools every year are choosing to institute compulsory Short Course GCSE (this is a ‘half’ GCSE). The thinking behind this is that if students have to be spending 45 hours a year (recommended provision) studying the topic they will respond better if they have something to show at the end of it. Quality provision at Key Stage Three will ensure students are more enthusiastic about this than you might expect and at my school we run two full option groups at lunchtimes to enable those students who wish it to upgrade to a Full Course. While schools do not have to take this route, and if they do not all the rules outlined above remain true in determining their Key Stage 4 syllabus, if they choose to do this the content they must teach is taken out of their hands and determined by the exam board.
There is a great variety of RE courses available, ranging from Bible Studies (including papers focussing entirely on one book in the Bible!) to World Religions (what you may know as Comparative Religions) to Philosophy and Ethics (using religion to explore moral viewpoints on current issues). This last is probably the most popular and with good reason since the pupils own views and opinions are usually necessary in the exam, as well as specified religious ones. I mention this because in my experience the range of faiths specified on exam specifications is sadly limited, often to a choice of only three or four faiths. Obviously a child who is not a member of these faiths may feel restricted and marginalised and this is less likely to be the case if the student is able to refer to other faiths in the context of their own views. If it concerns you however you can put your concerns to the exam board. If enough people do so then the specifications may change!
What all this boils down to then is that if you wish to change the RE provision in your child’s school you can attempt to do so via the SACRE or via the Teacher with Curriculum responsibility for RE.
I add here, for lack of a sensible alternative place to put it, that you do have a legal right in RE which does not apply to any other subject. That is the right to withdraw your child from it. I would hope that you would not choose to exercise this, unless of course your child is being instructed in what they must believe, as I believe RE to be a valuable part of any education. However it is a right you have. You should be aware that doing this will alert the Head of the school to any issues you have with its RE provision (they may not be aware, even if you have been in repeated contact with the HoD on the issue!) although this is by no means a guarantee that things will change. You may also be asked to provide something for your child to be occupied with during the time allocated on their timetable for RE.
In fine then I wish only to say that RE is notorious for being boring, old-fashioned, Christo-centric and extremely repetitive. Sadly in many schools this reputation is deserved. But RE has to be none of these things, and including paganism is just one among many ways in which this image can be challenged and ultimately changed. It takes courage however on the part of the teacher responsible for the RE curriculum. People will complain; one of the reasons that it is so important to include paganism is the ignorance and misconception out there. However until we educate everyone this ignorance will remain in place and people will believe that their children are at risk being educated about paganism; that they will be indoctrinated or corrupted; that Satanism is involved in some way (I have taught lessons on Satanism by the way, but I doubt you will persuade many RE teachers to do so!); that spells will be being carried out in the classrooms. This may sound stupid but I assure you I have experienced this, and more. My appointment was challenged within weeks of my starting at the school, the Head was asked to get rid of me, told he should never have appointed me, asked to veto aspects of my curriculum. I am fortunate in that he has always supported me as a professional. I am of course twice the target, as a pagan myself. I do tell students that I am a Witch, if they ask me. Many RE teachers do not discuss their own faith with their students, whatever that faith may be. I mention all this because the RE teacher that you are approaching may actually be keen to accommodate you but worried about parental reaction. You should be aware that they have grounds to be, and attempt to persuade and reassure them – maybe offering to be an outside speaker for them, lend them some books, refer them to me! If they are confident in their own understanding of paganism they will be more prepared to deal with parental fears and concerns. I weathered my storms, and although occasional concerns still drift into school the benefits of my approach to the subject are apparent to all but the most fanatical. It can be done, it should be done, but it should be done carefully and with all the respect to others that we are seeking for ourselves. So mote it be.
