DCSF Project on RE and Community Cohesion in Secondary Schools and Colleges

Invitations to tender for this 22 month project were sent out to a range of interested agencies at the beginning of May. At its AGM on May 5th, the RE Council resolved to submit a tender. This was completed by the due date of May 14th. Having considered all the bids submitted, the DCSF has decided to appoint the REC – subject to the signing of a contract by both parties.

This is a major vote of confidence in the RE community as a whole, and in the RE Council and its member organisations in particular. It builds on the REC’s National Strategy for RE and the current RE Action Plan, as well as on other complementary work done by several of our member organisations. The challenge now is collectively to create a programme which will directly extend the subject knowledge and teaching skills of those teaching in RE in approximately a fifth of maintained secondary schools, so that they are even more confident and competent in:

• handling contentious theological and social/ethical issues;
• promoting understanding and respect for difference  through exploring key concepts such as identity and community, faith and belief;
• enabling dialogue