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Achieving work at Levels 5 & 6 that passes inspection
Karen, a head of department in a comprehensive school writes:Recently we had a subject inspection. The inspector said lots of positive things about the department but we were disappointed to hear that he found almost no evidence of work at Level 5 or above. We had been awarding... Levels 5 and 6 for work that was no better than Level 4. I was devastated. I thought, and so did the school, that we were a really good RE department. Is this a common problem? What can we do about it? Barbara Wintersgill replies:You may take some comfort in the knowledge that you are by no means alone. For some schools the issue is enabling pupils to demonstrate achievement above L4, in others above L5. It is very rare to find work at Key Stage 3 at L6 or above. This is likely to be an even more widespread problem as local authorities adopt the new and more demanding 8 level scale from the Non Statutory National Framework (NSNF). Karen has identified the most serious issue in secondary RE; most pupils are supposed to reach L4 in Year 6 (at the end of primary school) and in my experience many of them do. Most pupils are supposed to progress one level every two years which means that at the end of Year 9 they will be working at between L5 and L6. More able pupils are, of course, expected to be working at higher levels. If Year 9 pupils are working at L4, it means that they have not made any progress since Year 6. That is indeed serious. I can understand Karen's frustration and disappointment. I have inspected many departments where aspects of good practice are exemplary - except that pupils are under-achieving. In former days inspectors may have judged the quality of teaching more by the teacher's performance than pupils' learning. But now inspectors are told, quite rightly, that they should give the same grade for teaching and learning as for achievement and standards. The reason is simple - if teaching is good, how can achievement be only satisfactory, or worse? Arguments that pupils' negative attitudes or lack of ability prevent progress are not convincing because the teacher's job is to teach in a way that will engage pupils and make RE accessible. This can be a hard lesson for teachers. It may be that a department has taken on board all the lessons from the national strategy; planning sets out clear learning objectives, lessons begin with lively starters, the focus is less on the teacher talking than on pupils engaging with exciting activities, attractive resources are used, ICT presentations enliven the lesson - and so on. But in all these qualities, one key question is not answered; are pupils making as much progress as they should? There are three principal reasons why pupils do not achieve the higher levels in RE
Assessment does not cover in sufficient depth all the strands of the attainment targetsThe scarcity of evidence for pupils achieving L5 and above applies particularly to AT1, perhaps because it is easier to make subjective judgements on attainment in relation to the more nebulous AT2. I will therefore focus on AT1, 'learning about religions'. Levels 4 to 6 are set out in tabular form below in order to illustrate the progression through the strands.
In too many schools, attention to the strands diminishes with their position in the level description. The sticking point in terms of progress is L4 strand B; and this applies in primary as well as secondary schools. L4 covers the familiar territory of description and explanation (understanding). This strand is covered extensively in assessments and other tasks but with more on practices than the other areas. Strands C, D and E are covered far less frequently and even then superficially. Evidence for pupils' understanding of 'similarities and differences' is too often simple charts showing the comparative names for holy books, founders, places of worship and pilgrimage (a task ably achieved by high ability Year 2 pupils in a primary school I visited recently). It is rare to find high quality comparisons between beliefs, values or the status of sources. The impact of religion of people's lives rarely extends beyond the stories of Mother Teresa (et al) with the emphasis on the story rather than the impact. Explanations of meanings for a range of forms of religious expression rarely extends beyond giving brief explanations for the meaning of symbols and sometimes religious actions in worship. Sadly in most schools it is as though religion/spirituality - inspired art, music, poetry, architecture and literature does not exist. The key point about this paragraph is that it concerns only L4. Even at this level, several strands that reflect a depth and richness in pupils' understanding get limited attention. Teachers are not attuned to the level descriptionsI would never suggest teaching to level descriptions in the sense of limiting teaching, resources and activities to those that contribute directly to achieving an element of a level. However, it is important to remember two key purposes of the level descriptions; they act as guides to the expected quality of a pupil's work and hence the standard, and also to the depth of pupils' awareness by introducing new dimensions of understanding at every level. The problem with L5 for many teachers is that it not only introduces new dimensions but removes old ones. In particular that mainstay of RE tasks 'describe and show understanding of...' disappears at L5. This is posing problems for many teachers, particularly those teaching mixed ability classes. The problem is that it is difficult, perhaps impossible to set an 'open ended task' in relation to strand B that is geared primarily to L4 but at the same time enables pupils to achieve L5 and above. It is very rare in my experience to find teachers setting different work for pupils who should be working at different levels. Given that RE tasks cover strand B more than any other, the result is that many pupils who could do better spend a lot of time on L4 work. I am not convinced that many teachers, even specialists in secondary schools, have got to grips with the demands of L5 and above. Considering that most Year 9 pupils should be achieving at least L5, this would explain why inspectors are uncovering underachievement. I would suggest as a way forward, deconstructing the level descriptions as a departmental activity. The following example of L5 shows what I mean.  Each group of ideas can be extended, as follows:
What emerges clearly in these diagrams is that we have in L5 quite a new vision of RE, mainly but not exclusively for secondary school pupils in which description per. se. plays little part. There are enormous pedagogical implications for this new look base for Key Stage 3. Teachers often say to me 'but they have to know the facts before they can do all this'. I would suggest that the L5 description provides clues as to how pupils should acquire this knowledge and what they should do with it. Some teachers claim that the demands of the new levels are too difficult. I do not agree. It is true that setting tasks that will enable pupils to achieve L5 and beyond is harder for the teacher. This is because few text books do it. But teachers can produce these tasks for themselves. For example, take one strand:
This cries out for survey work, the teacher's task being to set up the activity, for example by contacting local faith community leaders. The careful selection of people who are willing to be interviewed may yield examples of a range of reasons for belonging to a religion. If not teachers can provide supplementary material, for example case studies. Another strand calls for different methods:
It is particularly rarer to find evidence of pupils explaining the impact of religion. Yet it is not difficult to teach. Here is an example of an activity designed to help pupils understand the impact of religion on the wider (local or national) community. Pupils work in similar ability groups. Each group has a set of picture cards (reflecting different abilities) that include the Queen or coin with def fid on it, the House of Lords, people of different faiths, carol singers, hot cross buns, school assembly (act of collective worship), an RE lesson showing resources on Christianity and at least one other religion, religious buildings, weddings, religious schools, infant baptism, and contemporary headlines in the media (e.g. regarding the possibility of legislation regarding incitement to religious hatred). The second clue is a word or statement pinned on the wall. They find the right one (e.g. THE QUEEN) and find on the reverse a new direction - this may be a series of questions (what does the Queen have to do with religion?) and a clue as to where to find the answer. The answer has a picture of the Prince of Wales on the back and the question 'what did he say about it?' This leads to another answer/clue relating to his idea that the monarch should be the defender of all faiths and the question 'what do you think?'. Each trail can be specially designed in terms of length and difficulty to match the capabilities of different groups. Once the tasks are complete (this should take at least one lesson and homework) groups work on their presentations to the rest of the class (lesson 2). The presentations should not be the end of the process but an opportunity for the teacher to guide pupils in drawing out key emerging ideas - e.g. which of these examples of impact are historical, relatively new, political, legal, custom etc. The class can then create their own mind map using an interactive whiteboard if available. Work set for pupils is not sufficiently related to the demands of the level descriptionsThis follows from what has been said above. Most tasks I see set for Key Stage 3 pupils is targeted at L4 at best. Because of the leap from L4 to the higher levels, these tasks will not necessarily enable pupils to reach L5 and above. Extension work is not the answer because that involves able pupils spending most of the lesson doing work that is too easy for them before they are given something suitably challenging to do. Task
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