The Hockerill / NATRE prize for Innovation in RE Teaching
2011 Prize Winners
In its first year the competition has attracted 22 entries, with schools from as
far north as Baltasound on Unst in the Shetland Isles and as far west as Exeter
taking part.
The judges commented that the standard of entries was very high and
wish to thank all participants for the efforts they went to, not only in preparing
their entries, but in developing the materials / schemes of work therein. It is
attribute to the teaching profession that we have such dedicated and imaginative
teachers in the RE field.
In Primary Education
First Prize
Kate Penfold-Attride – RE Coordinator
Boutcher C of
E Primary School
Bermondsey London
SE1
This entry deals with Key Stage 6 – Women in the Bible Unit of Work, and aims to
offer a new perspective on Christian stories that primary school children will be
familiar with. E.g. Instead of hearing the story of Moses concentrated on Moses’
role, the story is told from Miriam’s point of view and children are asked questions
about how she would have felt at different points in the story.
The children are assessed in the following areas :
- AT1 Beliefs, teaching and sources
- AT2 Identity and belonging.
The judges commented that this work was very much ahead of all the other entries
in the competition. It was innovative for Primary Education, it provided a good
amount of reflection, and other practitioners could learn from its approach. The
use of Circle Time was very good practice and although some outputs were somewhat
traditional the judges considered this to be not a bad thing.
Over all, this module
was very transferable. The non-specialist teacher could use it with ease; it applied
across the ability range and was not school specific.
Highly commended
Mrs Penelope Kite
Foxton Primary School
Foxton
Cambridge
This entry was a six week course on Buddhism for children in upper Key Stage 2.
It focuses mainly on AT1 Beliefs, teaching and sources and a little on AT2
Identity and belonging. The judges commented that it was innovative in looking
at Buddhism and was an interesting area for upper Key Stage 2. It was well
referenced but the worksheets didn’t give room to develop ideas as one would
have wanted. It is not as transferable to another classroom as the first prize
winner and does demand a knowledge of Buddhism that many teachers will not have.
That aside it has very full backup data and this entry was well ahead of the
remaining entries in the Primary sector.
In Secondary Education
The judges were unable to separate Calderstones School and Little Heath School
as they were both excellent, ticking all the boxes in the criteria laid down for
the prize, but in different ways. These two were very much ahead of the
remaining entries in the Secondary sector.
Joint First Prize
Ms Heather Marshall
Calderstones School
Liverpool
This entry is a series of six lessons to aid teachers in the teaching of “jihad”
focusing on the true meaning of the concept and the various issues/ideas linked
to it. It is designed to instil confidence in the RE teacher struggling to teach
controversial issues. It is to be used in KS3 Islam or Islam in practice,
conflict, religion in our world, community cohesion and role models, and also at
KS4 in AQA, OCR and Edexcel GCSE RE specifications.
The judges commented that it deals “face on” with a very difficult issue. It is
inventive, challenging and it is innovative in its treatment of the subject. The
judges also commented that you need to be an RE teacher to use it, but that the
entry is very transferable to other schools. A very good piece of work.
Joint First Prize
Ms Anne Krisman
Little Heath School
Romford Essex
This entry develops “The Five Keys into RE – a new way of planning for Teachers
of RE in Special Schools”. It does not adapt mainstream schemes of work but
takes a child centred approach to create authentic RE learning experiences that
spring from the child’s needs.
The Five Keys Grid takes five key categories to help the teacher focus their
planning :
- Connection
- Knowledge
- Senses
- Symbols
- Values
and then for each Key the Focus and then the Activities are developed.
The judges commented that although it was designed for a special school in the
Secondary sector it would work well at Key Stage 3 in any school particularly
for lower achieving children. It was very innovative in a special school
context. They also commented that it was detailed, professional, well thought
through and refined by practice. It was transferable both into other secondary
schools and into primary as well.
The Prizes are to be presented at Warwick University on 23 June 2011 within the
Hockerill NATRE PGCE RE conference being held on that day.
Entries for the 2012 Hockerill NATRE Prize for Innovation in RE Teaching can be made from 1 September
2011 onwards using the entry form that will be available on this website from
that date. The closing date will be 31 January 2012.