Teaching About Christianity in the New RE Syllabus for Worcestershire

Abstract

One of the peculiarities of Religious Education during the compulsory years of schooling is that each Local Authority has been required by law, since 1944, to have its own RE syllabus, the content of which has to be agreed by four committees on a syllabus conference: teachers, Church of England; other faiths and denominations and local councillors. As there are now over 150 Local Authorities there are over 150 RE syllabuses. Into this politically created maelstrom was pitched, in the Education Reform Act (1988), the legal requirement that Christianity should be taught and that each syllabus should be reviewed every five years. This event is currently taking place in Worcestershire