Welcome to our religious education (RE) webpages providing information, advice and resources to support the teaching of religious education in Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire schools. Please read our RE Autumn Update, shared at the Illuminate sessions across the Diocese, for headlines about ideas, initiatives and resources to support quality RE teaching and learning. More information is available below. Please also check out the Schools training support and events page for information about training courses.
If you can’t find what you are looking for, or you would like to find out more, please contact Debbie Helme on:
RE Health Check 
This provision has been created for church schools who are concerned about any aspect of RE in their school or who are keen to receive support as they prepare for SIAMS or who would simply like to talk through ways of making the RE in their school even better. Due the high demand for this check, schools may have to be prioritised. For further details please contact Debbie Helme
Joint Cathedral and Mosque / Synagogue Visits 
For over three years the Cathedral Education Centre has been organising and running very successful joint visit days for school groups wanting to visit more than one place of worship on the same day. The Cathedral Education Centre will provide dates and a full itinerary for joint visits to the Cathedral and the Masjid E-Noor (Mosque) on Ryecroft Street, Gloucester and the Cathedral and the Synagogue in Cheltenham. Due to their popularity there is now limited availability for these days, so book as early as possible to avoid disappointment. For further information, contact Also, please see the Gloucestershire Visits and Visitors Guide for RE
Contact details for visitors and visits
A comprehensive list of contact details to support teachers to arrange visits and invite visitors into schools has been compiled by the Gloucestershire SACRE. You can find this resource here
New units to support sections of the Gloucestershire syllabus for RE 
When the Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education in Gloucestershire was published in 2017, teachers found that many of the units on Christianity were strongly supported by the Understanding Christianity resource. Many teachers felt they would therefore appreciate more support with teaching some of the units on other world faiths or the more systematic units. In response to this request, the Gloucestershire SACRE have commissioned a number of supporting resources.
RE Moderation Tool 
In order to support schools to monitor the standard of RE, the RE Hub leaders have pooled examples of work to reflect age-related expectations. This is a developing resource and if you have examples of work you would like to add to it, please contact your deanery hub leader for further details. The link to access the moderation tool to enable you to see examples of children’s work from other schools will be following shortly.
2. Model template assessment proformas
3. Long term planning template single year groups (Gloucestershire schools)
4. Long term planning template two year rolling programme (Gloucestershire schools)
5. Long term planning template two class school (Gloucestershire schools).South Gloucestershire schools can access examples of long term planning by contacting Debbie Helme
6. Feb 2019 Updated RE Statement of Entitlement for Church schools
Why should I go to a Deanery RE Hub Meeting? If you are an RE subject leader, if you enjoy teaching RE or even if you find RE a struggle then these hub meetings are for you! They are informal, after-school meetings within each deanery, which offer teachers the chance to meet together and talk about how RE is going in their schools. For those struggling it will provide a chance to talk to colleagues and get practical advice and tips to help move things forward, for those passionate about the subject it’s a chance to share what is going well and inspire others, for those leading the subject it’s a chance to keep up to date with resources, training and new initiatives.Each meeting is led by an RE Hub Leader who will loosely follow an agenda but will also allow opportunity for discussion. All are welcome and there is no cost. To help Hub Leaders make sure they have sufficient refreshments and resources, it’s helpful if you can tell them in advance you will be attending but not essential.
1. What is Godly Play?
2. How can we explore RE in an outdoor adventure context?
3. What is Active RE?
1.What is Godly Play?
Godly Play is a creative and imaginative approach to developing Christian spirituality. It uses symbols and objects as well as words, it values process, openness and discovery and it encourages children to make meaning for themselves. It invites listeners into stories and encourages them to connect the stories with personal experience through the use of wondering questions and open-ended responses.
Alison Summerskill has 20 years of experience in leading Godly Play sessions with children’s groups in churches and is a Godly Play trainer. In conjunction with the Education Department at the Diocese of Gloucester, Alison is now able to offer Godly Play sessions that have been specially amended to support RE in a school context.
Sessions available linked to the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE:
- Creation (Gloucestershire RE Syllabus units F1, 1.2, L2.1)
- Salvation (Gloucestershire RE Syllabus 1.5, L2.5 & U2.5)
- Kingdom of God (Gloucestershire RE Syllabus L2.6)
Outline of each session:
Each session to last one hour with groups no more than 30 – smaller if possible, 30 minutes settling into circle and story time, 20 minutes responding and 10 minutes mini- feast and completion.
For further information contact Alison Summerskill
2. How can we explore RE in an outdoor adventure context?
Following the great success of the Experience Christmas Adventure at Viney Hill Christian Adventure Centre, which included using tunnelling to consider the concept of incarnation and using bush craft and low ropes to make sense of the text in the Christmas story, staff at the Centre now plan to offer ‘Experience Easter Adventure. To find out more, book dates or discover what they can offer for bespoke RE Curriculum days, please contact
3. What is Active RE?
PSALMS, a Christian charity based in Gloucestershire, has developed a series of lessons to enhance and compliment RE which are linked to the Gloucestershire Agreed Syllabus for RE. The lessons utilise a method which engages with sport, games and physical activity. Although they have limited capacity, PSALMS are beginning to take these lessons into more schools across the Diocese for a small charge. If this is something you would like to find out more about, please register your interest with
4. The REaction Award
This is a new initiative, launched by Gloucestershire SACRE, to celebrate and recognise school commitment to better Religious Education. We are hoping to encourage as many church schools as possible to apply for it during 2019-2020. In order to qualify for the award, schools simply need to complete three simple tasks. For further information, please see: REaction information and REaction application form .
