Baroness Blake of Leeds
Main Page: Baroness Blake of Leeds (Labour - Life peer)National Curriculum: Religious Education
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Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Blake of Leeds) (Lab)
My Lords, schools are required to promote the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of their pupils. They can do this within lessons on religious education and in other teaching. Schools are required to promote fundamental British values, including encouraging mutual understanding, respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. The curriculum and assessment review has considered RE in its work and its final report will be published this autumn.
Lord Rook (Lab)
I thank my noble friend for the Answer. My sons were privileged to go to Rutlish School, a diverse state comprehensive in south-west London with no religious affiliation. They received excellent religious education—in fact, it was compulsory until GCSE—that enhanced the community cohesion in a very diverse setting and, most importantly, equipped pupils for the world in which they now live. Currently, 95% of teachers say that high-quality religious education is more important than ever, yet Ofsted reports that, in far too many schools, the delivery of RE is either poor quality or not fit for purpose. At a time when our country and communities need far greater social cohesion, will His Majesty’s Government ensure that religious education is properly prioritised in the new national curriculum, so that our young people can continue to develop and flourish within our multireligious and multi-ethnic world?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I thank the noble Lord for his enormous interest in this important subject. I reassure him that the Government note the findings of the Ofsted subject report and are committed to ensuring high-quality provision of religious education. To support teachers and help ensure high standards and consistency of teaching, we have funded Oak National Academy to develop a full suite of high-quality RE resources. We also welcome the work of the Religious Education Council to assist curriculum developers by publishing its national content standard for RE in England. I can only emphasise my comments; I cannot pre-empt the findings of the curriculum and assessment review, but we look forward with enormous interest to the conclusions of this work.
Baroness Gohir (CB)
My Lords, can the Minister say when the school curriculum will include the contribution of minority ethnic communities—for example, to World Wars I and II, to rebuilding Britain after World War II and to the NHS, which is a contemporary contribution? Some 18% of doctors are Muslim.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I can only repeat that I cannot be specific about the content of the curriculum after the finding of the review, but all the matters that the noble Baroness raises around inclusion, respect and recognising achievements in the areas that she mentioned are critical. We look forward to the result of the findings and the debates that will continue as a consequence.
The Earl of Effingham (Con)
My Lords, mutual understanding must mean the end of antisemitism in schools. Six months ago, Bridget Phillipson warned that antisemitism in schools is now a national emergency, but incidents continue to rise. When will the Government take decisive action to end this scourge, which endures across classrooms and playgrounds?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The noble Earl puts his finger on one of the most sensitive issues in education at the moment. I reassure noble Lords that we are absolutely committed to making improvements in this area. Hate crime, discrimination and racism have no place in Britain, particularly not in our schools. I am delighted that we have committed £7 million to tackling antisemitism in schools, £3 million of which has been spent already. We are launching an innovation fund to look at new initiatives, which will open some time towards the end of November.
Baroness Burt of Solihull (LD)
My Lords, the 2015 High Court Fox judgment made it clear that non-religious world views such as humanism must be treated on an equal footing with major world religions in religious education. What steps will the Government take to ensure that this principle is embedded in any future national curriculum?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
We have had several conversations on this, and I can only repeat the comments that were made. It is fundamental that we have a full range of views, right across the spectrum, and that they have equal respect within the curriculum. I look forward to taking these issues forward. They have been part of many discussions we have had recently, not least on the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The noble Baroness raises important points that need to be addressed.
Lord Raval (Lab)
My Lords, one in three secondary schools now teaches little or no religious education, even though, as we have just heard, incidents against faith groups have doubled in the past year. Does the Minister not agree that it is high time we invested in the one subject that can nurture faith literacy and the ability to disagree well?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
It is a very wide-ranging subject, and students also need to be taught to have critical appreciation of what they read in the media, for example. We need to make sure that every aspect of the curriculum picks up on the points my noble friends have raised, but there are other aspects in schools such as restorative practice, resilience, and nurturing and supporting young people wherever they are, as well as the subjects that are taught through the curriculum. We are going through a very difficult time, and we owe it to all our young people to make sure they get the support and subject input they need.
The Lord Bishop of Winchester
My Lords, I was pleased to hear the Second Church Estates Commissioner confirm recently in another place that the Government are committed to implementing the recommendations of the Truro review, which I wrote several years ago at the invitation of the then Foreign Secretary. I have to say that that came as a pleasant surprise to me. In view of the significant and egregious growth in international violations of freedom of religion or belief in the intervening years, does the Minister agree with me that we need to ensure a high level of religious literacy among our young people and that professionally delivered RE is critical to that end?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I must confess that I do not know the Truro report in detail, but I am happy to look at it. The right reverend Prelate raises very important points. The positive thing is that religious education, while not compulsory, is still a very popular subject at GCSE and A-level. We need to make sure that it is promoted and that there is a real understanding of its relevance and importance in today’s climate.
Lord Houghton of Richmond (CB)
My Lords, the national security strategy and the strategic defence review both talk of the need to build societal resilience in an age of hybrid attacks. I understand that the national resilience Bill, which is to come before the House, deals exclusively with regulation in the world of cyber. Does any revision of the national education curriculum not allow a golden opportunity for the introduction of resilience education and training of our youth, along the lines of what happens in Finland and Sweden? My first command experience was as a six year-old milk monitor, and I found that this gave me certain skills that were very valuable in later life.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I will not recount the experience of some of our milk monitors in our school. The noble and gallant Lord raises an important point. Of course, the curriculum is important, but as I mentioned before, skills such as helping young people move towards a position of resilience, fostering good relationships, and restorative practice are crucial and need to go along with a broad curriculum to help young people move forward.
Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)
My Lords, given that over 75% of the world’s population profess to have some kind of religion, does the Minister agree with me that the confidence of the teachers delivering this curriculum is as important as the curriculum itself in making sure that our children are educated properly? What work are the Government doing to make sure that teachers have the confidence and the training to deliver this curriculum properly?
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
This is a critical issue. To be honest, the Ofsted review has highlighted some failings in this area, which I know will have been the subject of representations to the curriculum review. Teacher training is absolutely at the top of our agenda, and this whole area comes under the heading “need to develop”.