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Church of England franchises Culham on RE

30 May 2002

The Culham College Institute is to act for the Church of England Board of Education on a range of Religious Education policy issues under a new franchise agreement between the two bodies.

It is, according to Canon John Hall, the Church's Chief Education Officer, an imaginative and innovative response by his Board to staff cuts following the Archbishops' Council budget freeze. "Culham already plays a major role nationally in RE," said Canon Hall, "so I decided to explore the opportunity of a formal partnership. Wide consultation produced a very positive response to this initiative."

Culham is an Anglican educational trust formed in 1980 out of the closure of a Church of England teacher training college. It established a research and development institute in the areas of Religious Education, Collective Worship and Church Schools. Many of the Institute's 30 recent projects have been done collaboratively, with a wide range of partners, and its output is now significantly web based (see www.culham.ac.uk). Current work includes developing an RE programme for primary teachers with the BBC, expanding a collective worship and two RE websites, adding to a range of RE curriculum material and managing an RE teacher recruitment project.

Culham's Director, the Revd Dr John Gay, will be the Church of England's spokesman on RE, focusing in particular on policy issues. The Board of Education aims, through training and support for RE teachers, to ensure that there is good RE for all pupils in all schools and throughout their schooling; to promote better knowledge and understanding of Christianity and the other major religions; to enable pupils to develop spiritually and morally; and to contribute to a more cohesive and inclusive society.

Dr Gay was previously involved in teacher training and, on the staff of Oxford University's Educational Studies Department, was responsible for RE, as well as for sociology on management courses. He is treasurer of the RE Council of England and Wales, the umbrella body for the subject.

The Institute will shortly be moving from Abingdon to Oxford where it will have an operational association with the Educational Studies Department.