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bath & wells: services for children and young people
schools & colleges
The Legal Position
The Education Act (1996) requires that
- Religious Education should be provided for all pupils in full-time education, except for those withdrawn at the request of their parents. This will include children in reception classes, post-16 students in Local Authority and Voluntary Controlled schools and pupils with special educational needs.
- Religious Education in County Maintained and Voluntary Controlled schools should be taught in accordance with an agreed syllabus.
- As part of the curriculum, Religious Education should play its part in promoting the 'spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils'.
- An agreed syllabus should 'reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teachings and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain'.
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DFE Circular 1/94 states that an agreed syllabus 'must not be designed to convert pupils, or to urge a particular religion or religious belief on pupils'.
DFE Circulars 1/97 and 2/97 require schools to record and report on pupils' attainment in Religious Education at all key stages and brief comments should be made each year on pupils' progress in RE.
In Church of England Aided Schools, Religious Education offered is 'to be determined by the governors in accordance with the trust deed' (Circular 1/94). In the Diocese of Bath and Wells most Aided Schools have adopted the Agreed Syllabus which ensures progression through the Key Stages.
Time for Religious Education
DFE Circular 1/94 reminds the agreed syllabus conferences to take note of the assessment made in Sir Ron Dearing's final report on the National Curriculum about the time to be allotted to RE. The locally agreed syllabus for this area assumes that at least the following amounts of time will be allotted:
| Key Stage 1 : |
36 hours per year |
| Key Stage 2 : |
45 hours per year |
| Key Stage 3 : |
45 hours per year |
| Key Stage 4 : |
40 hours per year |
| Post-16 |
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| Y12 students on two-year courses : |
15 hours per year |
| Students on one-year courses and Y13 : |
10 hours per year |
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