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RE and the Secondary Curriculum
Statutory Requirements
For local authority and direct grant maintained schools RE is a statutory subject which is part of the basic curriculum.
Specific curriculum requirements for religious education in secondary schools depend on the type of school as indicated here: Specific Curriculum and Inspection Arrangements for RE in Different Types of School
The National Curriculum for England at Key Stages 3 and 4 was first published by the (then) QCA in 2007 and implementation started in September 2008. RE was included as a statutory subject with non-statutory guidance. See links under 'Non-statutory Guidance' below.
A review of the whole curriculum is now underway. The government's intention is that new Programmes of Study for English, mathematics, science and physical education will be prepared and available to schools by September 2012, with teaching in maintained schools from September 2013. New Programmes of Study for all other subjects which are either to form part of the new National Curriculum or to have non-statutory programmes of study will be available to schools by September 2013, with teaching in maintained schools from September 2014.
Religious education is not to be included in the review. Instead, existing arrangements for the subject are to continue. Many organisations concerned with RE have requested that a review of the arrangements for RE takes place in parallel to the review of foundation subjects.
Until a new curriculum is in place, information on the whole secondary curriculum and the different subjects can be found at:
curriculum.qcda.gov.uk/key-stages-3-and-4/index.aspx
Non-statutory Guidance
In recent years there have been two other documents produced by government agencies that have had an important impact on secondary RE:
- The Non-Statutory National Framework for RE, 2004
- RE in English Schools: Non-Statutory Guidance from the DCSF, 2010