2022/11/29 by Paul Smalley · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Religion, Society, and Development #Religious Education and Schools #Religious Freedom and Discrimination
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/13617672.2022.2147291
openalex publication_date 2022/11/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
This paper critically examines the White Paper, Opportunity for all, published by the UK Government’s Department for Education (DfE) in March 2022. This has a number of recommendations for schools in an attempt to ‘level up’. In particular, there is a promise to deliver ‘a fully trust-led system with a single regulatory approach [and] a clear role for every part of the school system’. Such a system provides a serious challenge to the way that Religious Education (RE) structures in England are currently built: in short, when Local Authorities no longer have schools under their control – what is the point of a SACRE? Arguing that the ‘local settlement’ for RE serves two purposes – a curricular purpose and support and monitoring purpose – this paper will suggest that future RE curricula will be planned at the Trust level, with the monitoring and support functions being moved from the local to the regional.