Preparing the Workforce for the Future of Religious Education

NATRE warmly welcomes the Government’s decision to publish a draft National Curriculum programme of study for Religious Education for public consultation this September. It represents an important opportunity to strengthen the quality and consistency of Religious Education for every child.

However, curriculum reform can only succeed if schools have enough well-qualified specialist teachers to deliver it. A high-quality curriculum depends upon a high-quality workforce.

The workforce challenge is real, but the situation can be addressed through investment in both the existing workforce and the next generation of specialist teachers. 

Although recruitment to RE teacher training improved during the two years in which a Government bursary was available, recruitment remained below target and has fallen sharply since the bursary was withdrawn. At the same time, university teacher training provision continues to contract, schools remain heavily dependent on non-specialist teachers, and many parts of the country have limited access to specialist RE teacher training.

This series of blogs explores what the evidence tells us about teacher recruitment, subject expertise and training capacity. Together they make the case that investing in the recruitment and development of specialist RE teachers is not simply a workforce issue—it is essential if every pupil is to benefit from the high-quality Religious Education that the Government’s curriculum reforms seek to achieve.

Through this campaign, NATRE is inviting Government and the wider education community to look again at the evidence and to work with the sector to rebuild the pipeline of specialist RE teachers.