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.