Zoom event: ‘Fixing an RE Car Crash for our Key Stage 1 Pupils!’: Sarah Dennis’ road map to successful RE
Sarah Dennis, Chadsmead Primary Academy Teaching Assistant and Local NATRE Group Lead with Gill Vaisey, Religion and Worldviews Adviser, Books at Press
Are you finding the RE road a bit bumpy, with plentiful potholes, twists and turns and difficult to navigate?
Would you like to improve the RE provision and experience for your pupils?
Do you wish you were more confident about how to approach RE to ensure its impact is truly worthwhile and meaningful for your pupils?
If so, please do join us for Sarah Dennis’ road map to successful RE with her 5 – 7 year olds – and beyond.
As a classroom practitioner, providing RE across the school, Sarah became aware of the need to build bridges between the pupils’ own life experiences and the aspects of religion and worldviews being explored. She realised that without these connections, the knowledge pupils might be gaining was meaningless and lacking a relevant context.
In this session, Sarah will share her experience of ‘fixing her RE car crash’ – identifying the faults, doing the repairs, enjoying the new journey and looking forward to the road ahead.
She will highlight key resources, such as Gill Vaisey’s Belonging and Believing series of books, videos and PowerPoints which helped to transform her RE provision and experience for her pupils.
To book on to this event, please fill out this form.
About Sarah Dennis
Sarah is a Teaching Assistant and very much a non-specialist. She teaches Nursery to Year 6 every week as part of her school’s PPA cycle. Sarah became Religion and Worldviews lead 5 years ago at her primary school in Lichfield.
Sarah started her role with a box of items, a locally agreed scheme, and very little knowledge or experience of RE: She has mentioned that she can’t remember ever being in an RE lesson at school. Over time in Sarah’s role, she has started and led a local group for NATRE, attended the National Symposium for Religion and Worldviews – and from that experience she has rewritten her whole primary curriculum. Sarah is the networking chair for Religion and Worldviews for her academy chain. She is also in her first year of the Culham St Gabriel leadership course.
You can follow her on Twitter: @SarahDennis_RE
About Gill Vaisey
Gill Vaisey is a Religion and Worldviews Adviser and writer of high quality RE curriculum materials for practitioners and pupils. As an experienced primary school teacher and RE Subject Leader, Gill became an independent education consultant and has specialised in Early Years and Primary RE for over twenty years, providing support to teachers, LAs, Dioceses and SACREs across the UK.
To meet the needs of practitioners and pupils, Gill began writing and producing books and resource materials for the classroom. Her series of Puddles books were the first to be awarded accreditation for the Understanding Christianity project. Her Muslim story resources received an Early Years Excellence award and Belonging and Believing achieved Finalist in the Teach Primary Awards 2022.
Gill’s ‘Belonging and Believing’ project, working with eight families over three years, shares lived experience through the lens of a five-year old from within each family. These resources bring an exciting fresh approach to exploring different religions and worldviews with young children.
Gill’s high-quality advice, training and curriculum materials facilitate more enjoyable, accessible and meaningful RE for practitioners and pupils.
Gill’s work can be seen at www.booksatpress.co.uk
Twitter: @BooksAtPress
Email: Gill@booksatpress.co.uk