Managing RE/Subject Management

Improved Leadership and Management

It is helpful to think of management as primarily about the solving of problems and leadership as about inspiring others with a vision of how things could be. Leaders take people with them on an agreed journey - they can make mistakes, but they inspire sufficient trust to maintain progress on the journey. Management is also about motivation and trust. If managers want to organise things effectively and efficiently, they also must inspire confidence in the team.

Click here for Ofsted descriptions of excellence in school leadership and management

In terms of RE, to develop your capacity for leadership, develop the trust of your colleagues by working out a shared vision for the subject which promotes high aspirations for all your pupils. Here, it is helpful to think about what sort of pupils you hope will emerge from their experience of RE. What will they know? What will they be able to do? What sort of attitudes will they display?

Click here to view two quotes taken from the draft non-statutory national framework for RE that may help in your formation of a vision for RE. The framework itself may also offer some inspiration for a vision for the subject and you may want to pick up on particular aspects such as inclusion, or the contribution RE makes to pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.

In order to develop your management skills, you will need to know your own strengths and weaknesses and those of your colleagues, so that you can be effective as a team. If you are the ONLY teacher of RE or the only person with direct responsibility for RE in your school you will want to share ideas on effective RE with colleagues in other schools wherever possible. Good managers head off problems before they arise, but are flexible enough to cope with the unexpected. If you make the progress of pupils your main management interest you should be prepared for most situations.

Click here to view a number of management dilemmas and some guidance on how to approach them.

Documentation

Paperwork should be kept to a minimum, but it's a good idea to have the information you need as far as possible in a single folder. This will include plans for teaching that could be shared with colleagues, supply teachers and so on. There will also be a statement about RE - its purposes in the curriculum and how you hope to see it develop in your school (in a 'development plan'). Other essential information includes any specific RE approaches to marking, assessment, and how you help ALL pupils to succeed, including those with learning difficulties and those who are 'gifted' in RE. A list of resources could be kept here also, so that it is easy to see what is available to colleagues and to note where the gaps are for future development.

Click here for a sample list of items to be included in an 'RE Handbook'

How ICT can help

There are a number of internet discussion groups and forums for teachers of RE to get advice or share information. It is fairly easy to set up a discussion group locally; your regional 'Grid for Learning' should be able to support this.

The Association of Religious Education Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (AREIAC) operate a 'Frequently Asked Questions' service at www.srsp.net/areiac/faq/faq.html Check for previous questions and answers before you put your own in!

A growing number of schools also have their own websites, with lesson ideas and programmes of study. See elsewhere on this site for examples.

Further Reading

Further useful information is contained in Effective Subject Leadership in Religious Education, 1999, and Taking Religious Education Forward in Your School: Challenging Targets in RE, 2001, both published by the Association of Religious Education Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (AREIAC) and available at www.srsp.net/areiac/public/publications.html and in Rivett, Rosemary (ed.), A Teacher's Handbook of Religious Education, 3rd edition, 2007, RE Today, ISBN 978-1-904024-95-8.

A helpful text for secondary school heads of department is Wright and Vale, 2001, Quality and Excellence in Secondary RE, Courseware, ISBN 1898 737 25 8.

The Ofsted report on RE in Primary Schools (for 2002-03) can be downloaded from:
www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.summary&id=3531

The report on Secondary Schools can be downloaded from:
www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.summary&id=3546

A report from Ofsted on a conference in July 2004 focussing on RE leadership in Primary Schools can be found at:
www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/index.cfm?fuseaction=pubs.summary&id=3776