Assessing RE

Principles of Assessment

In religious education, just as in other subjects of the curriculum, it is important to let pupils know how they are doing and what they must do next to make progress.
This section on assessment in RE is intended to help you to:

• make reliable judgements about how pupils are doing in RE, where appropriate, in relation to a set of standards;
• provide you with guidelines on helping pupils to see what attitudes are needed for success in RE;
• provide you with guidelines on helping pupils improve their knowledge, understanding and skills in the subject.

A vital element of assessment in RE is to ensure that it is consistent with your focus for planning. But don't rule out some surprising achievements of your pupils. Sometimes the most astounding insights are communicated 'by the way'. We can't always plan for such progress, but should try to recognise it when it happens.

Here, it is good to find ways of rewarding positive attitudes being show by pupils. Without a positive attitude it is unlikely that pupils will make as much progress as they ought. Here are some ideas for promoting positive attitudes in RE.

In general, though, it is necessary to assess how well pupils have done in relation to some focused objectives. This means planning activities which are directly related to those objectives.
This is where the six areas of enquiry come in! These areas can be used to:

• FOCUS pupils' learning;
• combine learning about and learning from religion and belief;
• make assessment easier by linking learning to the can-do statements for each area.

See how to link learning and assessment in the two attainment targets of many agreed syllabuses in England here >>

Types of Assessment
In making assessment of pupils work it is important to distinguish between: Assessment for Learning and Assessment of Learning.

Assessment for learning involves the use of classroom assessment to improve learning.
(More information on assessment FOR learning)

Assessment of learning simply measures what learners know or can do. The focus of this section is on making assessments of learning.
(More guidance on how to use assessment information)

Exemplars for assessment of pupils' progress in RE:

• Better RE Exemplification of Levels 1 – 8 for two attainment targets
• National Exemplification 'standards file' materials for the Foundation Subjects, including RE, for Levels 3 – 8
• two further examples are given here to show how you can plan to ensure that pupils are being challenged to communicate their learning ABOUT and FROM religion and belief. The following examples also make connections with essential skills:
• developing levels 3 – 5
• developing levels 5 – 7

The examples track Area of Enquiry C (Forms of Expression) through Key Stages 2 and 3 in order to demonstrate progression in one area. But they each focus on a different area for attainment target 2, in order to demonstrate how AT 1 & 2 can be differently woven together to provide new angles for learning.

Locally Agreed Syllabuses and National Guidance

Whilst RE syllabuses are locally determined, a non-statutory national framework for religious education was published in 2004 to help improve the consistency and effectiveness of assessment in RE nationally.

More information about local syllabuses and the national framework

More information about level descriptions for assessment in RE

These levels of expectation are important - they help when comparing what is being done in the classroom with what is expected nationally. Locally Agreed Syllabus documents may also provide guidance on assessment in RE and often reflect the non-statutory national guidance.