This website provides the information schools need to deliver Religious Education to the children of the City of Birmingham. It also provides much other information and being web-based the resources should be more accessible and useful to busy teachers.

As you will be aware Religious Education is required to be offered in school by law and together with the National Curriculum it is part of the Basic Curriculum, which every school must deliver. By clicking on Agreed Syllabus you will find the formal directions for Religious Education in the City of Birmingham.  It includes statements of purpose, policy, method, content and intended outcomes as well as other guidance.

The 1995 Agreed Syllabus for RE in Birmingham was guided by two main attainment targets: 1. Learning about Religion and 2. Learning from Religion. A notable feature of this syllabus is the way in which it reverses these two attainment targets as 1. Learning from Faith and 2. Learning about Religious Traditions. The purpose was to put greater emphasis on the development of pupils in community and making religious traditions subordinate to that task.

Children are not treated here as mere receptacles for select information about religion. They are seen as persons seeking understanding, with deep feelings and emotions. They are also seen as persons who are eager to act and contribute to schools, our society and our world and need to acquire requisite skills to do so.

By clicking on Dispositions you will see the qualities we would like to see children develop. There are further levels to provide additional information for teachers.

By clicking on Religious Traditions you will discover what the basic understanding is that we have of the religious traditions most readily found in the City and the wider world.

For a flowchart detailing route to 'lesson outline', click here.

The website gives access to other resources designed to help teachers in their planning. Whilst the statutory syllabus itself cannot be changed until the next formal Agreed Syllabus Review, there will be opportunity to share good practice, to add teaching resources or to alter supporting information. We hope that you may be able to help in this regard.

To understand more deeply the policies and principles informing this syllabus you might wish to click on Supporting Documents to consider some of the reflections that were offered for discussion.

For additional information or advice you should contact the Birmingham Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education which is a statutory body set up to advise the City on all matters relating to Religious Education.