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29 R E ABOUT THE AUTHOR Andy Lewis is director of RE at St Bonaventure’s, East London, and author of the forthcoming Outstanding RE Lesson s, published in May by Bloomsbury; follow him at @andylewis_re or visit mrlewisre.co.uk covering topics that will provide context for key texts. Understanding the persecution of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice requires an in-depth knowledge of both Christiantiy and Judaism. Allusions and allegory are often taught using an assumption of Biblical knowledge. Other examples include GCSE music courses that include choral settings of the Mass, A-Level Spanish units on Catholicism in Spain, and teaching around beliefs in society in A-Level sociology. Religious literacy For some, however, there’s an obvious counter- argument. Given that some subjects are so intertwined with religion – notably English and history – they cover sufficient study of religion as it is, and students will ultimately learn what they need to in order to get buy. Taking into account the rising levels of atheistic belief within the wider population, is this not the best way to cover these historic and outdated beliefs? As I’ve previously argued in these pages, we don’t avoid studying active volcanoes in the UK because there are none that directly affect us, nor do we ignore the Victorian era because there is no one from that period left alive. If we’re becoming more non-religious as a society, that surely makes the need for good RE greater than ever. Simply teaching RE as a by- product via other subjects, through a series of disconnected facts and snippets of information, will result in students missing out on big stories concerning various religions and faiths. Doing this also neglects the fact that according to the Global Index of Religion and Atheism, around 60% of the world still claim to be religious. It’s impossible to understand the contents of our museums, art galleries and libraries without a robust knowledge of religion, and we can’t be confident that this will come from piecemeal teaching across history, art, music and English lessons. The teachers of these subjects have their own curriculums to be teaching, and will doubtless prioritise the order, breadth and depth of those curriculums based upon various other factors. It’s hard to imagine students becoming ‘religiously literate’ via this approach. Coherence and synergy RE has often tried to justify it’s curriculum position by taking the lead on the social cohesion that schools aspire to, colonising curriculum areas such as British Values, PHSE, citizenship and SMSC. Yet it’s worth remembering that most subjects on the curriculum will be doing this at the same time in different ways, and I genuinely believe RE has far more to offer than this. RE as a whole school enterprise may work very well for ‘faith schools’ and perhaps be less necessary in others. But when we consider our curriculums in light of Ofsted’s recent reforms, it’s important to recognise the value of RE and the potential it can have for enhancing a whole school curriculum – the valuable context it can lend to other subjects, and extra critical engagement it can lend to virtually any subject you care to name. Imagine the possibilities of a curriculum planned with synergy in mind, where students move between coherently linked lessons. There will still be clearly defined disciplines in place, but also careful interdisciplinary dialogue and work that ensures students always have the background knowledge they need – especially around religion – to access content effectively across multiple subjects. If schools can get this right, it would be hugely beneficial for students. This, I would argue, is a ‘whole school approach’ to RE that’s appropriate for any school, but an imperative one for Catholic and other faith schools. To risk teaching religion – and by extension, the religious beliefs of your own community – inaccurately must surely be avoided as a priority. teachwire.net/secondary