RE
The Birmingham Religious Education syllabus takes seriously the overarching aims set out for education as a whole in 1988 Education Reform Act. These are as follows:
The curriculum for a maintained school satisfies the requirements of this section if it is a balanced and broadly-based curriculum which:
- Promotes the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of society; and
- Prepares such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of adult life.
In other words, the Religious Education syllabus primarily develops (a) pupils and (b) society. This takes the main focus away from religious traditions as such and sees these traditions more as a means to realising the overarching aims, i.e. Religious Education develops pupils/society and is not Religious Studies.
The requirement that the curriculum be ‘balanced and broadly based’ is addressed by the self-conscious use of faith and religious traditions in complementing other subjects to address the overarching educational aims. Religious Education does not claim an exclusive responsibility for any aspect of the overarching aims of the basic curriculum, i.e. Religious Education recognises that other subjects also have a responsibility for all of these aims. A consequence is that Religious Education confines itself to the contribution that faith and religious traditions alone may bring, i.e. Religious Education does not seek to represent secular humanism and atheism.