The RE Podcast

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Making Every Lesson Count: Six Principles to Support Great Teaching and Learning was a book by Andy Tharby and Shaun Allison. From this initial book came a series of books which applied the principles to specific subjects.  Within this series was 'Making every RE lesson count' so I spend this episode chatting to one of it's authors, Dawn Cox. We look at the 6 main principles; Challenge, Explanation, Modelling, Practice, Feedback and Questionning and discussed what this looks like in the RE classroom.  I do get a little confused with the principles, but luckily Dawn corrects me!
You will have to read the book for some of it's juiciest nuggets, but this episode is an excellent overview of some ways you can make your teaching more dynamic and effective starting tomorrow.  Excellent for ITTs, ECTs and experienced teachers who need some inspiration. Or maybe you are a school leader or head of department looking for ways to support your team!  Always a joy to have Dawn on the podcast - and I think you are going to LOVE this one!

Link to buy the book below
https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/making-every-re-lesson-count

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If you are a primary RE teacher or know someone who is, then this chat with some incredible practitioners is for you! Gillian Georgio gathered a team of RE Primary specialists to look at how we teach substantive and disciplinary knowledge in primary schools.  Their piece of 'active research' will be vital to any primary school and this chat just skims the surface. We look at assessment, curriculum and progress!

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In August 2023 I got the opportunity to go on a trip of a lifetime.  I can't remember a time when I didn't know about Bethlehem, Jerusalem, The Garden of Gethsemene and the dead sea. To try and communicate this trip in one episode is impossible, but in this epsiode I give an account of some of what we did in real time, and I interview other people on the trip to find out why they decided to book it, and what their highlights were.  There are a few little gems for your classroom and an A=Z of the trip to give you some idea.  WARNING: Once you listen to this episode, you may want you go - you have been warned.  Please excuse the sound quality - it is not up to it's usual quality as I had a new bit of kit and I don't know how to use it!

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If you've just secured your first Head of Department job, or you are thinking about this as your next career move, or you are an experienced head of department in need of some inspiration, then listen to Charlotte Newman give some advice and ideas - the successes and the things she has learnt in her time as a head of deparment. 
We discuss such questions like 'What makes a successful RE department?' 'How do you get SLT to support RE?' and 'What would be the first three things a new Head of Department should do?'
This is such a wonderful to end the academic year and give some food for thought over the holidays.  If you need to totally switch off, then don't listen to this until the beginning of September!

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This week I am welcoming back my Head of Department Pete Bowdery.  I am so proud of what we have achieved with our GCSE classes under his leadership that I really want to share it with you.
We discuss our sequencing choices. pedagogy, assessment  model, exam question success, model answers, mock writing and feedback methods.
This really compliments the chat I had previously with Dawn and Matt so you can see that there are some wrong ideas, but there is more than one right way to teach GCSE RE.
We are a mixed academy with all our students doing GCSE full course (AQA, Islam and Christianity, Theme A,B,D,E)
I really think this episode would inspire new RE teachers, re-invigorate experienced teachers and is a must for any new RE leaders!

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Do you like Lego? Do you like philosophy? Then you'll love Philosobrick! Amanda Rogers (who's husband, Andrew, was previously on the podcast) talks to us about how she uses lego to help engage children in big ideas.  We particularly look at how this can be used as a strengths based approach rather than a deficit approach when it comes to neuro-diverse children.
It is also transferable cross curricular.  It can be used as a starter, plenary, flip learning or homework! It's so adaptable.
We also look at the drawbacks to this approach if it is not done correctly! (Leave time for free play!)
The Perth that is mentioned is in Western Australia - just to contextualise the regional and remote comment.

This is Amanda's website.
https://cultivatingcuriosity.com.au/

Here is a link to the quadrant question that is mentined
https://www.topsypage.com/blog/2019/7/15/question-quadrant

Lego serious play is an open source methodology - here is the link
https://seriousplaypro.com/about/open-source/

I'll add a PDF document with more information on the website!

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In last week's epsiode on Exam Success in RE, Matt Pitcher mentioned the work of Joe Kinnaird on extended writing, so guess what?  Yes, you've guessed it, Joe graciously agreed to chat to me about how to support children with their extended writing in RE. Inspired by the writing revolution, Joe explains how we can support our children in KS3 - 5, for example the 'beacause', 'but, ''so' statements that we use loads in our department. We also look at barriers to some of these methods and how to overcome them, as well as how to scaffold them for students with weaker writing skills. It's such a great chat that I think you will find so useful for your practice.

Here is a link to the book that inspired Joe;
https://www.thewritingrevolution.org/about/the-book/

And here is a link to Joe's amazing blog;
https://mrkinnairdre.wordpress.com/

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You may be wondering why I am doing an episode on Exam Success AFTER the GCSE - but there is method in my madness.  Many of us spend the summer term and gained time preparing for our exam classes next year, and this is therefore exactly when we need to think about HOW BEST to teach GCSE RE.  Then, next year, when you ask your students to listen to this podcast, it will support what you have been doing and furthe embed that knowledge.  
In this episode I chat to Dawn Cox and Matt Pitcher about how they approach;
Sequencing
Homework
Assessment
Revision
Pedagogy
Exam questions

What a treat!

Link to Dawns book: 
AQA GCSE Religious Studies A (9-1) Workbook: Themes through Christianity and Islam for Paper 2: Get Revision with Results

https://amzn.eu/d/ixzsyIX

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This is part one of a series on P4C and I chat to Andrew Rogers.  Andrew is an Australian Teacher of the Year, a teacher of Philosophy Religion and Ethics, a husband, a father , a thinker, a bibliophile, has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, is chair of  the Association for Philsosophy in schools and he gave up his precious time after a days teaching to talk to us about P4C (philosophy for children).
I think this episode is going to be so helpful as it is simple and really practical - a step by step guide on how and why to teach children  how to think! And not just in RE but to support lessons across the curriculum, bahaviour management and mental health! Please share this with as many colleagues as you can!
Andrew mentions a movie called Young Plato.  This is the trailer - it's a tear jerker!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtHG7NcCbqc

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When I read James Croft's tweets about Social Justice I immediatly DMd him and within 36 hours we recorded this interview. I think it is really going to support us in teaching humanism more rigouressly and authentically. Plus I think it will reinvigorate us to consider what social justice looks like.
James takes us through his unique role as the first humanist Lead chaplain of university in England, what humanism is and the importance of COMPASSION, REASON and HOPE. We discuss what social justice is and consider the importance of interfaith coalition in tackling Social Justice as well as why a humanist would be motivated to deal with it. We take a quick look at what humanists are doing to tackle social justice - in particular in India to challenge the misconception that humanism is a white western worldview.
James is articulate, knowlegdable and passionate.
Here are links to some of the things we talk about in the episode

https://www.ethicalstl.org/who-we-are/what-is-ethical-humanism/
https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/about-us/ethical-society/
https://humanists.international/2009/06/atheist-centre/
https://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/an_atheist.pdf
https://www.croftspeaks.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hq6sG4aROA

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