Dear Student

Welcome to the RE PGCE course at Sheffield Hallam University. I hope that you will enjoy studying here with us and working with our partner schools in the region. The PGCE course is an intensive one and each of you will embark upon the course with different strengths and areas to develop.  Therefore, I have suggested some things below that you might like to undertake to help you prepare for September. Also, if there were conditions attached to your offer (e.g. successful completion of a course or qualification) you will need to inform the Admissions team that they have been fulfilled.

I look forward to seeing you all in September.

Helen Sheehan

 

Key Preparations/Readings

The books below are some of the key texts that we use on the course. You may wish to do some preliminary reading from these:

• Barnes, P. (Ed). (2018). Learning to Teach Religious Education in the Secondary School: a companion to school experience (3rd ed). Routledge.
• Holt, J. (2022) Religious Education in the secondary school: an introduction to teaching, learning and the world religions (2^nded). Routledge

 

There are also several of reports, all available online, that focus on Religious Education. You may wish to review some of these to develop your understanding of current issues in the subject.

• Commission on Religious Education. (2018). Religions and Worldviews: The Way Forward. A national plan for RE. Commission on Religious Education. https://www.commissiononre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Final-Report-of-the-Commission-on-RE.pdf
• Religious Education Council. (2023). National Content Standard for Religious Education. https://religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk/resource/national-content-standard-1st-edition-2023/
• Ofsted. (2021). Research review series: Religious education. GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-review-series-religious-education/research-review-series-religious-education
• Ofsted. (2024). Deep and meaningful? The religious education subject report. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/subject-report-series-religious-education/deep-and-meaningful-the-religious-education-subject-report

 

Subject Knowledge Development

If you are concerned about your subject knowledge in relation to any of the religions taught in schools, you may wish to use your time to fill in any gaps. As well as wider reading there are number of online resources you could explore:

• Culham St Gabriel’s eLearning platform – https://courses.cstg.org.uk/– A good starting point would be the ‘Introduction to Subject Knowledge’ and ‘Digging Deeper: Subject Knowledge’ courses before enrolment.
• Open University Religion, belief and worldviews hub – https://www.open.edu/openlearn/religionandworldviews – The OU has some free courses. There is one called “Introducing the philosophy of religion” and another called “Religious diversity: rethinking religion” which may be of particular interest.
• HarvardX – https://www.edx.org/xseries/harvardx-world-religions-through-scriptures -– Free courses at university level looking at each religion through its scriptures.
• Humanism – https://humanism.org.uk/education/courses/– If you have not explored non-religious worldviews previously these online courses from Humanists UK may be of interest.
• Podcasts – There are lots of podcasts to explore will help develop your subject knowledge and/or get you thinking. The following are just a few examples:
  • The RE Podcast – https://www.therepodcast.co.uk/ This is particularly recommended.
  • The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast – https://thepanpsycast.com/home
  • The Sacred – https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/comment/podcasts-recordings
  • Beyond Belief – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s6p6/episodes/downloads
  • In Our Time – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qykl
  • Heart and Soul – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsn4
  • Moral Maze – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qk11

 

Curriculum and/or Key Specifications

Each local authority has its own Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education.  Some of these are available online (including the syllabus for Sheffield which can be found here)

You should also explore Religious Studies exam specifications:

• AQA
• Eduqas
• Edexcel Specification A and Specification B
• OCR

 

Preliminary Subject Knowledge Audit

You will be required to complete a more detailed subject knowledge audit at the start of your course.  In preparation for this we suggest that you look at the GCSE specifications for your subject and identify any areas where you will need to develop your knowledge further.

Links to relevant websites

• National Association of Teachers of Religious Education – http://www.natre.org.uk/– the website of the professional association for RE teachers
• Religious Education Council – https://www.religiouseducationcouncil.org.uk/– an umbrella organisation pulling together RE organisations and faith groups that seeks to represent the collective interests of the RE community.
• RE:ONLINE – https://www.reonline.org.uk/– a website supporting school-based teachers of RE with information and resources

 

To start to understand some of the discussion and debate that is taking place in the RE community you may like to follow some RE professionals on X/Twitter and Bluesky.  Below are a few suggestions to get you started:

• Team RE – @TeamRE_UK – retweet things relevant to the RE community
• National Association of Teachers of Religious Education – @natre-update.bsky.social and @NATREupdate – tweets from our subject association.  They host #REchatUK monthly on X.
• Olivia Seymour – @ollyre.bsky.social and @Ollysemour
• Nikki McGee – @re-mcgee.bsky.social and @RE_McGee – Subject lead for RE and Philosophy for a large MAT and member of the NATRE exec
• Dr Kathryn Wright – @kathrynfenlodge.bsky.social and @kathrynfenlodge – CEO, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust
• Fiona Moss – @fionajmoss.bsky.social and @fionajmoss – Education and programmes manager for Culham St Gabriel’s
• Joe Kinnaird – @joekinnaird.bsky.social and @josephkinnaird – Head of RE and member of the NATRE exec
• Natalie Ford – @inquisitivetea2.bsky.social – Assistant Headteacher and trust curriculum lead for RE and PSHE
• Sheffield Hallam University Humanities and Social Sciences PGCE Courses – @shuhumanities.bsky.social and @SHUhumanities

 

In order to keep up to date with developments in education we recommend that you read the TES (Times Educational Supplement- www.tes.co.uk) and the Guardian Education supplement (www.theguardian.com/education).