...How do I know how well I'm doing

 Congratulations! You've been appointed to lead RE in your school! But what now? How will you know how well you are doing and, perhaps more to the point, how will you be able to demonstrate it? In a secondary school you might be able to point to examination successes or increasing numbers of pupils opting for Full Course GCSE or A level, but what about in an infant, junior, primary, middle or special school? And are exam results and option numbers the be-all-and-end-all of successful leadership anyway?

 This section of Better RE presents a strategy for finding out how well you are doing as a leader and manager of RE and provides a series of ideas for demonstrating success.

 Experienced subject leaders say that to be an effective subject leader in RE, it is important to ensure that you communicate your understanding of the principles of good RE to your teaching colleagues.

• How many of those teaching RE in your school know, for example, what the two attainment targets are and what the six areas of enquiry (called ‘key concepts' in the QCDA programme of learning and ‘essential knowledge' in the primary programme of learning) are?
• An understanding of these principles can really help them get to grips with the planning of ‘compelling learning experiences' in RE and also with assessing pupils' progress. In short, it helps to make RE relevant and engaging for all children!

Ultimately, though, the question about how well YOU are doing comes down to how well the PUPILS are doing in RE. So if you think there is a lot of improvement that could be made there, the following guidance should help. If you think your pupils are achieving to the best of their ability and are really enjoying RE you've obviously got it cracked, but you might still like to study the following to see if there are ways of demonstrating this clearly to senior colleagues, governors and parents / carers.

• As well as leadership there is also management of the RE in your school. Are you clear about the difference? Work your way through the sections of betterre.reonline.org.uk/lead_manage/index.php to see how you can improve your skills.

• Under ‘leadership and management' you will also find guidance on how to prepare for inspection and make use of a self-evaluation toolkit.

 

In order to demonstrate how well you are doing in your leadership role you will need evidence. Here are some basic sources of evidence that will be useful for you:

 

1. Documentation

 Here is a checklist of materials you might gather together over time:

Policy statement for RE, making reference to the appropriate syllabus for RE;
Specific approaches in RE to general school policies and practice, e.g. on RE for pupils with special or additional educational needs or for ‘gifted' pupils in RE;
Descriptions of roles and responsibilities for RE;
Outline programme of study;
Schemes of work, highlighted to show some opportunities for spiritual, moral, social and cultural development;
Sample lesson plans;
Samples of pupils' work at different levels;
Samples of pupils' work demonstrating key skills, e.g. in literacy or ICT;
Samples of pupils' work demonstrating where they are exploring issues of community cohesion;
Samples of marked work, demonstrating diagnostic comments and target setting (see Better RE's task-setting pages for ideas on suitable targets to support pupils' improvement in RE >>)
A record of visits and visitors, with letters to parents and risk-assessment ;
Notes on any monitoring of colleagues' work in RE [see next sections for criteria];
Results of assessments and examinations, with analysis and evaluation;
RE development/improvement plan;
RE budget statement;
List of resources;
Notes on RE meetings and staff development, with resulting agreements and targets;
Previous reviews and reports on RE conducted by senior managers, advisers and/or inspectors
A record of own training undertaken in relation to RE;
Correspondence with governors, parents, visitors, community groups.
Section of the School Prospectus on RE, including a statement about the right of parents to withdraw their child from all or part of RE

 

2.  Observation of lessons

According to how your school wants you to conduct your monitoring role as a subject leader / manager, it may be possible for you to conduct observations of RE lessons and interviews with children. Your senior leaders should provide agreed guidelines on how to conduct such observations.

 Here are some examples of good teaching to look out for in RE lessons. Most of the criteria are true for a good lesson in any subject. Items more specifically related to RE are highlighted. Make a note of what you see - this is your evidence:

Use of a ‘starter' activity which interests and engages pupils in the learning to come;
Sharing of lesson objectives with pupils and check their understanding;
Demonstrating their own enthusiasm for the topic by explaining briefly why it is important or what it means to them;
Making use of ‘first hand' religious material where possible, including religious scriptures, artefacts and artistic works and recorded interviews with religious believers;
Employing a variety of teaching methods - managing pupils' behaviour by involving them in their learning;
Taking account of different levels of ability within the class by setting differentiated tasks;
Setting high expectations of pupils by challenging them to engage with activities at a progressively higher level;
Demonstrating knowledge and understanding of RE by setting the lesson topic in a wider context of different religions and beliefs;
Using open-ended questioning on some big questions of life and belief, allowing time for answers and probing for depth of thinking;
Encouraging pupils to ask their own questions;
Encouraging pupils to develop their RE skills, e.g. empathy, interpretation of religious material, reflection, expression of their own ideas using evidence and example, working co-operatively;
Encouraging pupils to develop attitudes appropriate to RE, e.g. respect, curiosity, fairness;
In discussion, showing an awareness of learning that's taken place and the next stage of learning for the pupils;
Making effective use of learning support assistants by focusing attention on specific RE learning objectives;
Using a plenary activity or a homework task to consolidate learning or challenge pupils to make further progress.

 

3. Discussion with pupils

 One good way of monitoring RE is to take a small selection of pupils of different abilities out of a class to interview them about their learning.

 Here are some questions you could ask, depending on the age of the pupils. Keep a note of the key points in their answers - this is your evidence:

What are you doing in RE at the moment?
What questions could you ask about this work?
What is your opinion about this question / topic you are thinking about in RE?
What is most interesting in RE?
What is enjoyable in RE?
Do you get the chance to reflect on some big questions in RE?
Suppose you met someone from this religion / belief - what questions might you ask them?
Have any pupils in your class contributed to RE lessons from their own faith perspectives?
Where would you find the nearest Hindu / Buddhist etc community?
How do you know how well you are doing in RE?
Do you get comments on your work in RE? What do you have to do next to improve your work?
Can you give some examples of work you have done on your own and some you have done with others?
Do you get the chance to do your own research, e.g. from recommended websites?
Does RE help much with speaking, listening, reading and writing?
Do you get opportunities in RE to develop your ICT skills?
Do you think your teacher enjoys teaching RE?
Has any of your work been displayed or put on the school website?

 

4. Examination of pupils' work

 Subject leaders can collect and evaluate evidence on pupils' standards and achievement by analysing their written and other work. As well as exercise books, attention could be given to pupils' work appearing in classroom and other displays, material on a school website and collection of work placed in libraries or other areas of the school.

Does the set work look interesting and challenging at the right level?
Do pupils take a pride in their work?
Are teachers' comments clearly written and related to the RE objectives?
Do pupils follow up on teachers' remarks?
Are pupils involved in assessing their own and their peers' work?
Are there any differences in the progress being made by different groups of pupils (higher attainers, minority groups, boys/girls etc)?
Is work (and homework) set and completed regularly?
Does the work support the development of RE skills?
Does the work include reflection on different faiths and cultures?
Are there opportunities for pupils to develop spiritually, morally, socially and culturally?
Does the work support the development of other key skills including literacy and ICT?
Are set tasks in different classes coherent and consistent?
Is there evidence of higher expectations as pupils progress through the school?

 

Planning and Assessment

 Fundamental to your success as a subject leader / manager, will be the effectiveness of your planning. If you get this right, arrangements for assessing pupils' work will be much easier!

 There are three questions to tackle in relation to any curriculum plan:

 1.    What are we trying to achieve?

2.    How will we organise the learning?

3.    How well are we achieving our aims?

 These questions are the same, whether you are trying to plan RE as a discrete subject or trying to do something more creative with other subjects or areas of the curriculum.

 There are a variety of models for engaging in such planning, but don't ignore the first question! It is most important to consider your pupils: what are they like? What to do they need? What will engage them and help them to learn?

 Your next consideration is to consult your local agreed (or aided schools) syllabus. It is vital that you get to know your syllabus really well, and share its principles with colleagues teaching RE. Unless they appreciate the importance of RE in a young person's education and the rationale underpinning the agreed syllabus, they may not engage as fully as you might hope in producing really compelling learning experiences for the pupils.

 Use your agreed syllabus programme of study to work out your overall plan for each key stage, taking into account the balance of religions and beliefs to be studied and the areas of focus for pupils' learning. Many agreed syllabuses make use of the ‘key concepts' (secondary) or ‘essential areas of knowledge' (primary) recommended in the QCDA non-statutory programmes of learning. These are:

1. beliefs, teachings and sources;
2. practices and ways of life;
3. expressing meaning;
   
   
4. identity, diversity and belonging;
5. meaning, purpose and truth;
6. values and commitments.

 Many teachers find it helpful to focus a learning sequence on ONE of the first three areas alongside ONE of the second group of three, e.g. a unit of work combining areas A & D exploring Christian and Muslim beliefs about ‘ourselves and our communities'. Sometimes it is useful to turn the exploration into an enquiry, focusing work around a question like ‘Who helps us with what we need?' or ‘How do religious and belief communities help people to live good lives?'

 

To plan RE in relation to other subjects of the curriculum, consult BetterRE's guidance on the subject >>

 And use the interactive planning tool to take you through the next stage

 

Assessment of pupils' progress in RE

 The areas that you select for your planning should be carried all the way through the sequence of lessons, so that assessment can then be matched to these focus areas. This is where many people find the ‘Can-do' level statements really helpful.

 Suppose we keep to our example of a sequence of learning focusing on areas A and D as above. When it comes to planning activities that are amenable to assessment, you can choose appropriate level statements from the ‘can-do' list as a prompt for the type of task(s) to set.

 So, for example, imagine a year 3 or 4 class is learning about Jesus' parable of the Lost (Prodigal) Son. Having taken part in some role play and drama relating to the story, a level 3 set of tasks for focus areas A & D might be for pupils to:

• explain what a Christian might learn from the story of the Lost Son (Area A);

 and

• say which of the three characters is most like them and describe a time when they acted or felt like that (Area D).

 If you judge that pupils are ready to move to level 4 type tasks, you might tell pupils a story about caring for others from another religion or belief, such as  the Hindu story of Krishna and Sudama, and ask pupils to go on to:

• make a written comparison between the actions of the Father in the story of the Lost Son and Krishna in the story of Sudama, highlighting aspects of their behaviour that Christians and Hindus might try to copy.
  

and

• write an imaginary interview with a Hindu and a Christian, with questions and answers that relate to the examples of good and not so good character expressed in the two stories.

 

Exemplification of levels

For examples of pupils' work that exemplifies attainment at different levels, see BetterRE's Exemplification of Levels section >>.

 It is most important to read the introductory page before going on to consider the pupils' work. Then, you might take some examples and discuss with colleagues how the standards being attained in your own classes compare.

 

The Principles of Assessing Pupil Progress (APP)

 The principles and practice of APP are outlined fully on the standard website at: nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/app. Essentially, there are three parts to the process. Teachers are advised to:

 1.    Consider: do your schemes of learning contain a broad range of assessable activities, including written and spoken tasks? - ensure that the workload is manageable by selecting key tasks for teacher-assessment, self-assessment and peer-assessment;

2.    Review: can you track individual pupils against the assessment guidelines? - step back and take a broader view of pupils' progress over time; and

3.    Judge: does your evidence allow you to indicate the level at which each pupil is working? - share and discuss samples of your pupils' assessed work to ensure consistency.

 Overall, this approach is intended to reduce reliance on testing. As Black and Wiliam argue in their classic study, ‘Inside the Black Box', 1998, Kings College, London, ‘Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils' (p.9).

 Finally, consider how evidence about pupils' progress is to be recorded. Here are some commonly used methods:

• recording names of pupils at either end of the achievement spectrum;
• using a mark-book with learning objectives listed in the columns;
• providing pupils with self- and peer-assessment sheets;
• making digital records;
• making 'comment books' to scribe comments from pupils as they contribute to a discussion or debate. These can then be displayed.

 

 

Better RE

Summer 2010