What does ‘scholarly’ RE look like in the primary classroom? Developing disciplinary ‘ways of knowing’ in a coherent primary religion and worldviews curriculum

KATIE GOOCH, PRIMARY RELIGION AND WORLDVIEWS LEAD, UNITED LEARNING, UK Religious education (RE) as a subject has long existed in a hinterland, outside of the National Curriculum and subject to regional variation through the local Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACREs) and locally agreed syllabus (LAS). Academisation is changing (perhaps challenging) the status quo because academies, while legally required to teach RE, do not have to follow a local syllabus. Discussions on the position of RE as a subject within the curriculum surrounded the publication of the recommendations of the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) Report in 2018 (Tharani, 2018; Cooling, 2020). The 2021 Ofsted research review into RE (Kueh, 2021) usefully drew together much of the research and internal discussions of academics and teachers in England in a document that is influencing thinking on how we design curricula fit for purpose in today’s world. The 2021 Ofsted research review sugg