NATRE Local Groups

Groups are run mostly by teachers wishing to meet to share good practice in RE and support one another but they are also facilitated by diocesan RE advisers, school improvements adviser, independent consultants, local SACRE advisers and university RS lecturers. Many of our groups in the South West, West of England, North West and North East are also part of the Learn Teach lead (LTLRE) Hubs network

Some groups are formed following a local or national conference or through participating in the RE Quality Mark achievement award.

The majority of teacher-led groups meet in the school of the group leader; other groups meet in a variety of locations from coffee shops to CPD centres.

Supported by NATRE with further support from RE Today Services and occasionally by SACREs or local trusts such as Culham St Gabriel’s, local groups aim to open up the RE ‘world’ to class teachers, many of whom are non-specialists.

NATRE provides a termly newsletter for all affiliated group leaders to share with anyone who attends a NATRE affiliated local group meeting. Each newsletter includes national updates, news of local group activities, forthcoming courses, conferences, competitions and awards as well as reviews of new resources. It also includes an RE CPD ppt to share.

NATRE offers support by email, phone and postal mail for group leaders and their group members.

Just have a look at our local group map to find your nearest local group.

It’s simple – simply contact us to let us know you would like to affiliate your local group to NATRE. We will send you a registration form and then add you to our website and mailing list. There is no cost. All we ask is that you allocate a few minutes (or more!) of your meeting looking at the NATRE website, flagging up membership benefits and encouraging your teachers to consider school or personal NATRE membership.

You could form a primary, secondary, special schools or cross phase group.

There are at least three ways to form a Local Group:

1. You could have a primary and secondary chair at all times leading the group – the chair can change every year, so that the whole group get an opportunity to lead and host – this works well with cross phase groups as they could have a primary and secondary chair where the primary chair organises the primary focused meetings and secondary chair organises the secondary focused meetings.
2. You could have a local group leader who organises the Local Group meetings and leads the meetings – when the group leader steps down, they can either nominate the next group leader or someone could voluntarily take over the position.
3. You could be a collaborative group with no group leader as such but each meeting, a different member of the group hosts the meeting, with the agenda for the next meeting discussed at the previous meeting.

There is not a lot you need for a meeting, here is a list to help you out:

• A room big enough to accommodate your local group
• Optional Refreshments; tea, coffee, biscuits and water
• An agenda for the meeting