Blog Archives - Westminster Faith Debates

Gladiators, humanists and religion: a battle over collective worship

Posted on: 10/01/20 | Posted By: Charlotte Hobson | Category: Blog

Under current legislation, all schools in England and Wales must provide daily acts of ‘broadly Christian’ collective worship for their pupils. Although it is no longer enforced, this is a much-contested requirement seemingly…
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GCSE Religious Studies numbers plummeting outside the faith school sector, new report finds

Posted on: 19/08/19 | Posted By: David Lundie | Category: Blog

Thanks to a grant from the Culham St Gabriel’s Trust, and the work of my colleague Mi Young Ahn, now a research fellow at UCL Institute of Education, I have been able this week to publish figures on the dramatic drop in…
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Letter published in The Tablet

Posted on: 06/08/18 | Posted By: Admin | Category: Blog

RE syllabus A letter from Charles Clarke and Linda Woodhead, published in The Tablet on 2nd August 2018. In 2015, we published a set of recommendations on how to improve the quality of religious education in state schools, and…
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Letter to the Catholic Education Service

Posted on: 26/07/18 | Posted By: Admin | Category: Blog

A REPLY TO THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION SERVICE CONCERNING THEIR RESPONSE TO ‘A NEW SETTLEMENT’ BY CHARLES CLARKE AND LINDA WOODHEAD This letter can also be read as a pdf file here. Dear Paul Barber, Thank you for joining us at the…
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Address on 25 Years of NASACRE

Posted on: 24/05/18 | Posted By: Charles Clarke | Category: Blog

Remarks by Rt Hon Charles Clarke at NASACRE AGM, May 24th 2018 This AGM celebrates 25 years of the work of NASACRE. Over that time the National Association of SACREs has brought together, informed and represented the more than…
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New Research Shows It’s Time to End the Right to Withdraw from RE

Posted on: 09/05/18 | Posted By: David Lundie | Category: Blog

A new survey of school leaders reveals confusion and worse about the right to opt out of RE lessons. The survey, which I led, gathered Headteachers’ and RE Co-ordinators’ experiences of parents exercising the right to…
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We’ve Reached a Tipping Point for Religion in Schools

Posted on: 19/04/18 | Posted By: Charles Clarke | Category: Blog

The time is ripe for change in how the law deals with religion and schools. The welcome publication of the Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper on March 14th indicates that government thinking is changing and so it is time…
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Anglican Primates’ Meeting in Canterbury: A Sign of Hope for the Decriminalisation of Homosexuality?

Posted on: 03/02/16 | Posted By: Adriaan van Klinken | Category: Blog

The Anglican Communion made global headlines last week, after the Primates (the senior bishops of all the Anglican churches worldwide), assembled in Canterbury, decided to take measures against one member church, the Episcopal…
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Freedom of Religion – Universal Right or Matter of National Security?

Posted on: 17/02/15 | Posted By: Erin Wilson | Category: Blog

The extent to which Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB) should be promoted and protected as a foreign policy goal is becoming an increasing focus across numerous industrialized countries. While it has long been a priority for…
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In a class of its own? Time to treat RE like any other subject

Posted on: 10/02/15 | Posted By: John Reader | Category: Blog

I was fortunate enough to attend a recent Westminster Faith Debate event held in Birmingham exploring the state of Religious Education in the UK. Unlike previous debates the RE for Real event also incorporated a consultation with…
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