Charlotte Newman shares five approaches to challenge learners in secondary school religious education (RE).

I want to start off by sharing my context with you as I believe this is important in what I have found works well in my school. I am a Head of Religious Education in a secondary school in Cambridgeshire. We are the largest school in the county and as a result we are truly comprehensive with a wide range of student abilities and backgrounds. At KS3, our classes are mixed ability and therefore, it can sometimes be difficult to stretch and challenge the most able when there may be other students in the group that need more support. At KS4, we set by ability with English, taking into account students’ target grades and KS3 data. 

1.  Teach to the top (and beyond!)

At KS3, we always aim to teach to the top and scaffold for those students who require more support. This ensures that every student in the class is challenged. Regular opportunities are built into the lessons to extend students’ thinking. This does not simply mean additional tasks, as this is something our students often get frustrated with – that ‘challenge’ equals ‘do more’. Instead, we will ask them to research something from the key stage above. For example, when teaching about the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism I might ask more able students to research the idea of dependent arising to better understand the Buddhist philosophy. At KS4, when teaching about Jesus’ resurrection to sets 1 and 2, I will bring in the views of Rudolf Bultmann and N.T. Wright on the idea of a metaphorical versus historical resurrection from KS5. 

To ensure all teachers across the department are doing this effectively, we have spent CPD time mapping our KS3 against our GCSE specification to highlight the links we can make. We have done the same between our GCSE and A Level specifications. This has been particularly useful for those teachers who do not teach KS5, to increase their subject knowledge in order to stretch high ability students.

2. Encourage deep analytical thinking

In our school, we have employed PiXL ‘Thinking Harder’ strategies. These ensure students are showing their understanding of our topic by having to analyse the knowledge they have learnt. For example: which of a set of factors (Paul’s missionary journeys, martyrs, the Nicene Creed, Constantine) contributed most to the development of the early Church? They may order these and have to justify their choices. 

We can also do this through questioning during philosophical debates to get students articulating their thoughts in a sophisticated argument. Examples include: “Why might that be the case?”; “Why is that significant?”; “What evidence do you have to support that view?”; “Can you add to what X just said?”

Additionally, it is important to ensure that students have the opportunity to engage with primary religious texts such as the Qur’an, as well as those from different scholars, such as Descartes’ Meditations. This enables them to develop their hermeneutical skills to really understand the text and its context, compare interpretations/perspectives of it and critically analyse it.

3. Allow opportunities for multidisciplinary connections

Religious education is a multidisciplinary subject. The Ofsted RE Review (2021) promotes “ways of knowing”, that students should understand how they know, through the disciplines of Theology, Philosophy and Social Sciences. You could arguably add others too: Psychology, History, Anthropology, etc. 

When developing an enquiry question for a scheme of work, you may have in mind a particular discipline you wish the students to approach it from, for example exploring “What does it mean to be chosen by God?” using a theological method/tools to study the question from the perspective of Judaism. However, in order to stretch the most able students it would be fantastic if you gave them opportunities to think about this from a different ‘lens’. How might a Christian/Muslim approach this question? What would a philosophical/social scientist approach to this question look like?

4. Facilitate independent research projects

I currently run the NATRE Cambridgeshire RE Network Hub and so I regularly have the opportunity to meet up with other teachers/schools in my region. I was recently involved in a curriculum audit with other secondary teachers and I loved a scheme of work employed by one of my colleagues. Prior to starting the GCSE course, students are given the chance to choose a topic of interest to them within RE to conduct independent research and eventually present their findings. They are given a framework and some suggested ideas/resources to guide them as well as different ways in which they could present their research. This is a fantastic idea to stretch the most able as there is so much scope with this student-led project. 

In my colleague’s school, all students have access to a handheld device, therefore IT is easily accessible to support this work. Teachers can easily share documents and links to students this way too. Unfortunately, this is not the case in my context and so wouldn’t be feasible, but I am in the process of thinking about how we could do something similar that works for us.

5. Promote independent learning outside of the classroom

In RE, we have the privilege of being able to teach about many real-world issues and ethical debates that students find fascinating. As a result, they often want to explore these further in their own time. Therefore, in my school we have compiled ‘Independent Study’ materials for each unit of both the GCSE and A Level courses.

At GCSE, we have compiled booklets where we suggest something to read, something to watch something to listen to, and something to research. These have enabled us to introduce A Level thinkers into the course and engage students with high-level thinking through The RE Podcast or Panspycast, for example. This is key as it piques students’ curiosity and promotes a real love of the subject.

At A Level, we provide students with university lectures (the University of Chester is great for this for RE) and debates between scholars on YouTube (e.g. Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath on the relationship between religion and science). We then expect to see evidence of this further reading/research in their exam answers and their contributions to lessons.

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About the author: Charlotte Newman is a Trust Lead for Religious Studies for Archway Learning Trust. She is on the Steering Group for the National Association for Teachers of RE (NATRE) and the Oak Academy Expert Group for RE. She is also a member of Cambridgeshire SACRE and has until recently led an RE local group. She has delivered much CPD on RE nationally.

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Ten top tips to build learners’ sense of belonging and status

1. Welcome them to the class, ensuring that you make eye contact, address them by name and give them a smile – establishing your positive relationship and helping them feel noticed, valued and safe in the learning environment.
2. Go out of your way to find opportunities to give them responsibilities or assign a role to them, making it clear to them the skills and/or knowledge they possess that make(s) them perfect for the job. 
3. Reserve a place for them at clubs and ensure they are well inducted into enrichment opportunities.
4. Arrange groupings for activities to ensure they have supportive peers to work with.
5. Invite them to contribute to discussions, to read and to give their opinions. Don’t allow confident learners to dominate the discussion (learners with high status talk more!) and don’t ask for volunteers to read (students with low status are unlikely to volunteer). 
6. Show respect for their opinions and defer to them for advice. e.g. “So, I’m wondering what might be the best way to go about this. Martha, what do you think?” “That’s a good point, Nitin. I hadn’t thought of that. Thank you!”
7. Make a point of telling them you think they should put themselves forward for opportunities (e.g. to go to a football trial, audition for the show, apply to be a prefect) and provide support (e.g. with writing an application or practising a speech).
8. Connect them with a champion or mentor (adult or older peer) from a similar background who has achieved success to build their self-belief.   
9. Secure high-status work experience placements or internships for them.
10. Invite inspiring role models with similar lived experience into school or build the stories of such role models into schemes of learning and assemblies.  

• Closing the attainment gap – part 1: diagnosing challenges and barriers
• Closing the attainment gap – part 2: eliminating economic exclusion

Do academically strong pupils at your school who are on the Pupil Premium register progress as quickly and attain as highly as academically strong pupils who are not? 

Do these students sometimes grasp new concepts quickly and securely in the classroom and show flair and promise in lessons, only to perform less well in exams than their more advantaged peers?

If so, what can be done to close the attainment gap?

In this series of three blog posts, Rachel Macfarlane, Lead Adviser for Underserved Learners at HFL Education, explores the reasons for the attainment gap and offers practical strategies for supporting economically disadvantaged learners who have the potential to access high grades and assessment outcomes to excel in tests and exams. 

This first post examines the challenges and barriers often faced by economically disadvantage learners and offers advice about precise diagnosis and smart identification of needs. Part 2 explores strategies for eliminating economic exclusion, while Part 3 looks at ways to build a sense of belonging and status for these learners to enhance their performance.

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The problem with exams

The first point to make is that high stakes terminal tests and exams tend not to favour learners from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. These learners often lack the abundance of social and cultural capital that their more advantaged peers have amassed. This can result in a failure to recognise and connect with the cultural references frequently found in SATs and exam questions. 

Students on the Pupil Premium (PP) register have a lower average attendance rate than those from more affluent backgrounds. Those living in multiple occupancy and/or crowded housing are more exposed to germs and viruses, and families in rented or local authority housing move accommodation more frequently, resulting in lost learning days. With packed, content-heavy exam syllabuses, missed lessons lead to less developed schema, less secure knowledge and less honed skills. 

The families of economically disadvantaged learners are less likely to have the financial means to provide the personal tutoring, cramming and exam practice that their more advantaged peers benefit from. And if they have reduced levels of self-belief and confidence, as many students from underserved groups do, they are more likely to crumble under exam pressure and perform poorly in timed conditions.

But given the fact that terminal tests, in the form of SATs, GCSEs and A-levels, seem here to stay as the main means of assessing learners, what can school teachers and leaders do to ensure that economically disadvantaged learners who have the potential to access high grades and assessment outcomes excel academically?

Precise diagnosis of challenges and barriers

The first step is to get to the root of the problem. Schools which have closed the attainment gap tend to be skilled at diagnosing the precise challenge or barrier standing in the way of each underserved learner. Rather than treating all PP eligible learners as a homogeneous group, they are determined to understand the lived experience of each. 

So, for example, rather than talking in general or vague terms about pupils on the PP register doing less well because their attendance rate is lower, they drill down to identify the precise reason for the absences of each learner whose attendance is below par. For one it might be that they are working at a paid job in the evenings and too tired to get up in time for school, for a second it might be that they don’t come to school on days when their one set of uniform is dirty or worn, for a third that they sometimes cannot afford the transport costs to get to school and for a fourth that they are being marginalised or bullied and therefore avoiding school. 

Effective ways to diagnose challenges and barriers faced by economically disadvantaged learners include:

• Home visits, or meetings on site, to get to know parents/carers and to better understand any challenges they face;
• Employing a parent liaison officer to build up relationships based on trust and mutual respect with parents;
• Allocating a staff champion to each underserved learner to talk with and listen to them in order to better understand their lived experience;
• Administering a survey with well-chosen questions to elicit barriers faced;
• Completion of a barriers audit, guiding educators to drill down to identify the specific challenges faced by each learner.   

Moving from barriers to solutions

Once specific barriers have been identified, it is important to ask the question: “What does this learner need in order to excel academically?” This ensures that the focus moves from the ‘disadvantage’ to the ‘solution’ and avoids any unintentional lowering of expectations of high-performance outcomes. The danger of getting stuck on describing ‘barriers’ or ‘challenges’ is that it can excuse, or lead to acceptance of, attainment gaps.

Encouraging staff to complete a simple table like the one below can assist in identifying needs and consequent actions. In this case, an audit of barriers has identified that the learner, a Year 7 pupil, has weak digital literacy as she had very limited access to a computer in the past.

Barrier/challenge	Details of the issue and identification of the learner’s or learners’ need(s)	Strategies to be adopted to meet the need
Weak digital literacy	Student needs to be allocated a laptop and to receive support with understanding all the relevant functions, in order to ensure she gets maximum benefit from it for class work and home learning and can confidently use it in a wide range of learning situations.	1:1 sessions with a sixth former to familiarise the student with the range of functions. Weekly check-ins with tutor. Calls home to monitor that she is able to confidently use the laptop for all home learning tasks.

 

You can read more about strategies to close the attainment gap in Rachel’s books Obstetrics For Schools (2021) and The A-Z of Diversity and Inclusion (2024), with additional support available through HFL Education.

More from this series:

• Closing the attainment gap – part 2: eliminating economic exclusion
• Closing the attainment gap – part 3: developing a sense of belonging and status in economically disadvantaged learners

Plus: this year's NACE Conference will draw on the latest research (including our own current research programme) and case studies to explore how schools can remove barriers to learning and create opportunities for all young people to flourish. Read more and book your place.

Schools are tasked by Ofsted to “boost cultural capital” and to “close the disadvantage gap”. In this blog post, Andy Griffith, co-author of The Working Classroom, makes some practical suggestions for schools to adopt.

1. Explore the language around “cultural capital” and “disadvantage”

As educators we know that language is very important, so before we try to boost or close something we should think deeply about terms that are commonly referred to. What are the origins of these terms? What assumptions lie behind them? Ofsted describes cultural capital as “the best that has been thought and said”, but who decides what constitutes the “best”? Notions of best are, by definition, subjective value choices. 

The phrase “best that has been thought and said”, originally coined by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, is worthy of study in itself (see below for reference). Bourdieu described embodied cultural capital as a person’s education (knowledge and intellectual skills) which provides advantage in achieving a higher social status. For Bourdieu the “game” is rigged. The game Bourdieu refers to is, of course, the game of life, of which education is a significant element. 

When it comes to the term “disadvantaged”, Lee Elliott Major, Professor of Social Mobility at the University of Exeter Professor, suggests that instead we refer to low-income families as “under-resourced”. Schools should be careful not to treat the working class as somehow inferior or as something that needs to be fixed.

Action: Ensure that staff fully understand the term “cultural capital”. Alongside this, explore “social capital” and “disadvantage”. This is best done through discussion and debate. Newspaper articles and even blogs like this one can act as a good stimulus.

2. Create a well-designed cultural curriculum

Does your school have a plan for taking students on a cultural journey? How many trips will your students go on before they leave your school? Could these experiences be incorporated into a passport of sorts?

The cultural experiences you offer will be determined by factors such as your school’s location and budget. A lot of cultural experiences can be delivered in-house in the form of external speakers, films and documentaries, or virtual reality. Others will require excursions. In either case, creating a Cultural Passport helps staff to plan experiences that complement and supplement previous experiences. 

Schools should strike a balance between celebrating each community’s history and going beyond the existing community to broaden students’ horizons. Again, language is important. Does your school’s cultural curriculum explore the differences between so-called “high” and “low” culture? 

No class is an island. Students of all social backgrounds should experience live theatre, visiting museums, going to art exhibitions, visiting the countryside and encountering people from cultures other than their own. Equally, every school’s cultural curriculum should celebrate working class culture. The working classes have a vibrant history of creating art, music, theatre, literature and so on, which needs to be reflected in the core curriculum. 

By looking through the lens of race and gender, most schools have a more diverse offering of writers compared with when I went to school. It is right that more Black voices and more female voices are represented in the school curriculum. This opens new insights for readers, as well as providing Black and female students with more role models. 

Similarly, there should be a strong emphasis on the work of working-class artists and autodidacts, no matter the social demographic of the school. Studying working-class writers such as Jimmy McGovern, Kayleigh Lewellyn, and musicians such as Terry Hall and even Dolly Parton can be inspiring. Similarly, learning about autodidacts such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Vincent Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo can teach students that where there is a strong desire to learn, people can find a way. 

Action: Ensure your school is “teaching backwards” from rich cultural experiences. Outline the experiences that will be stamped in their Cultural Passport before they leave your school.

3. Explore social capital barriers for students

One of the greatest things we can do as educators is to remove a barrier that is holding a student back. One barrier that is faced by many working-class students is lack of social capital – i.e. the limited range of occupations of their social acquaintances or network.

In 2016 I created the first of a number of Scholars Programmes in Kirkby, Merseyside. I’m proud that as well as making a positive impact on academic results at GCSE, it has raised aspirations. The programme is deliberately designed to build social capital. Over the duration of the programme (from Year 7 to 11), students have opportunities to meet and interview adults who are in careers that they aspire to. As well as work experience, the school organises Zoom interviews for students with people working in the industry that they are interested in joining. Not only do these interviews invigorate students, they create a contact that is there to be emailed for information and advice. Over time, the school has created a database of contacts who are able to offer work placements or are happy to take part in either face-to-face or virtual interviews with students. These people are friends and family members of the staff, and even friends of friends.

It is much, much harder for working class students to enter elite professions such as medicine, law and the media. The arts and the creative industries are also harder to break into. Contacts who are able to help a student to build specific industry knowledge and experience can give them a better chance of future success.

Action: Creatively utilise a database of school contacts to provide information and advice for students. Match students with professionals who can offer career advice and insights.

Reference: P. Bourdieu, Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction. In J. Karabel and A. H. Halsey (eds), Power and Ideology in Education (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 487–51.

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The ideas and strategies in this article are contained within The Working Classroom by Matt Bromley and Andy Griffith (Crown House Publishing). More information about the book and training around its contents can be found here.

NACE members can benefit from a 20% discount on all purchases from the Crown House Publishing website. View our member offers page for details.

Plus... The NACE Conference 2025 will draw on the latest research (including our own current research programme) and case studies to explore how schools can remove barriers to learning and create opportunities for all young people to flourish. Read more and book your place.

Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Alfreton Nursery School, explores the power of metacognition in empowering young people to overcome potential barriers to achievement.  

Disadvantage presents itself in different ways and has varying levels of impact on learners. It is important to remember that disadvantage is wider than children who are in receipt of pupil premium or children who have a special educational need. Disadvantage can be based around family circumstances, for example bereavement, divorce, mental health… Disadvantages can be long-term or short-term and the fluidity of disadvantage needs to be acknowledged in order for educators to remain effective and vigilant for all children, including more able learners. If we accept that disadvantage can impact any child at any time, then it is essential that we provide all children with the tools they need to navigate challenge.    

More able learners are as vulnerable to the impact of disadvantage as other learners and indeed research would suggest that outcomes for more able learners are more dramatically impacted by disadvantage than outcomes for other children. A cognitive toolbox that is familiar, understood and accessible at all times, can be a highly effective support for learners when there are barriers to progress. By ensuring that all learners are taught metacognition from the beginning of their educational journey and year on year new metacognition skills are integrated, a child is empowered to maintain a trajectory for success.       

How can metacognition reduce barriers to learning?         

Metacognition supports children to consciously access and manipulate thinking strategies, thus enabling them to solve problems. It can allow them to remain cognitively engaged for longer, becoming emotionally dysregulated less frequently. A common language around metacognition enables learners to share strategies and access a clear point of reference, in times of vulnerability. Some more able learners can find it hard to manage emotions related to underachievement. Metacognition can help children to address both these emotional and cognitive demands.

In order for children to impact their long-term memory and fully embed metacognitive strategies, educators need to teach in many different ways. Metacognition needs to be visually reflected in the learner’s environment, supporting teachers to teach and learners to learn.   

How do we do this at Alfreton Nursery School?

At Alfreton Nursery School we ensure that discourse is littered with practical examples of how conscious thinking can result in deeper understanding. Spontaneous conversations are supported by visual aids around the classroom, enabling teachers and learners to plan and reflect on thinking strategies. Children are empowered to integrate the language of metacognition as they explain their learning and strive for greater understanding.

Adults in school use metacognitive terms when talking freely to each other, exposing children to their natural use. Missed opportunities are openly shared within the teaching team, supporting future developments.

Within enrichment groups, metacognition is a transparent process of learning. Children are given metacognitive strategies at the beginning of enhancement opportunities and encouraged to reflect and evaluate at the end. Whether working indoors or outdoors, with manipulatives or abstract concepts and individually or in a group, metacognition is a vehicle through which all learners can access lesson content.

We use the ‘Thinking Moves’ metacognition framework (you can read more about this here). Creative application of this framework supports the combination of metacognition words, to make strings of thinking strategies. For example, a puppet called FRED helps children to Formulate, Respond, Explain and Divide their learning experiences. A QUEST model helps children to follow a process of Questioning, Using, Explaining, Sizing and Testing.

Metacognition supports children of all abilities, ages and backgrounds, to overcome barriers to learning. Disadvantage is thus reduced.

Moving from intent to implementation

Systems and procedures at Alfreton Nursery School serve to scaffold day to day practice and provide a backdrop of expectations and standards. In order to best serve more able children who are experiencing disadvantage, these frameworks need to be explicit in their inclusivity and flexibility. Just as every policy, plan, assessment, etc will address the needs of all learners – including those who are more able – so all these documents explicitly address how metacognition will support all learners. To ensure that visions move beyond ‘intent’ and are fully implemented, systems need to guide provision through a metacognitive lens.  

Metacognition is woven into all curriculum documents. A systematic and dynamic monitoring system, which tracks the progress and attainment of all learners, ensures that children have equal focus on cognition and emotion, breaking down barriers with conscious intent.

 

At Alfreton Nursery School, those children who are more able and experiencing disadvantage receive a carefully constructed meta-curriculum which scaffolds their journey towards success, in whatever context that may manifest itself. Children learn within an environment where teachers can articulate, demonstrate and inculcate the power of metacognition, enabling children to be the best that they can be.

How is your school empowering and supporting young people to break down potential barriers to learning and achievement? Read more about NACE’s research focus for this academic year, and contact us to share your experiences.