Well, the DfE wrote a reply to the last blog about the perilous state of RE and, as always, it is reproduced here. What is sad is that this plays into exactly the scenario I described. Of course, the government has no intention of changing the compulsory status of RE but it's selective deafness again, isn't it? If RE was so darned safe, why is the RE community so jolly worried? This is the bland Gibb Doctrine - a pity it continues to raise more questions than answers.
Here's the DfE response:
The Government is fully committed to maintaining the unique status in the school curriculum which RE enjoys. We agree that RE is central to the aim of the school curriculum to promote the spiritual, moral and cultural development of children and young people, to prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. I can certainly assure you that we have no plans to change the subject’s compulsory status.
Okay, now convince us that RE will be reinforced in Academies as well as LA schools, that it will be monitored by Ofsted and that schools failing in their statutory duty to provide it according to their Locally Agreed Syllabus will be reprimanded. And the rest, as they say, is silence.
And the rest, as they say, is silence.
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