Welsh National Centre for Religious Education
The menu for this page is as follows;
Chapter 1
The Law and National Guidelines for RE
The substance of the chapter is correct as far as it refers to Wales but it fails to recognised those differences which apply to Wales. Specifically the SACREs in Wales have only 3 committees with the Church in Wales forming part of Committee A along with other Christian denominations and other religious groups.
There is no distinction made in the chapter between the circulars as they were published in England and Wales. The Welsh Office Circulars were numbered 6/89 (as opposed to 3/89 in England) and 10/94 (as opposed to 1/94). Likewise, there is no reference to the Curriculum Council for Wales review in 1993 whose recommendations differed from those of Dearing who had recommended a minimum of 36 hours per year of RE at Key Stage 1 and 45 hours (5%) at the other key stages. In Wales CCW recommended a mere 36 hours per year at Key Stages 1-3 and next to nothing at Key Stage 4. Similarly, it must be noted that there are 11 National Curriculum subjects in Wales (Welsh is added).
There is reference to the establishment of OFSTED (pg 15) but the body established in Wales was Office of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector (OHMCI) the name of which was changed to ESTYN in July 1999. There are references to the Model Syllabus of SCAA - they were published for England only and have no standing in Wales since NCC/SCAA/QCA are English bodies - their Wales counterparts variously being CCW, ACAC, ACCAC who produce their own separate and different publications for Wales.
Relevant CCW/ACAC/ACCAC publications which relate to RE in particular are:
1. Annual SACRE Reports, Price £2.00, ACCAC Ref: 1 86112064 8, (1996).
2. INSET Activities for Religious Education, Price £5.00, ACCAC Ref: TSP RE1, ISBN 1 898033 19 6, (1994).
3. The Review of Religious Education Syllabuses, Price £2.00, ISBN 1 86112 063 X, (1996).
4. Review of SACRE Reports 1993-94 and 1994-95, Price £2.00, ISBN 1 86112 065 6, (1996).
5. Review of SACRE Reports 1995-97, Price £2.50, ACCAC Ref: GA/98/002, ISBN 1 86112 181 4, (1998).
Details of these and all ACCAC publications can be obtained from:
ACCAC,
Castle Buildings,
Womanby Street,
Cardiff, CF10 1SX.
Tel: 029 2037 5400
Fax: 029 2034 3612
and also by visiting their website.
