By Matt Scorer
Hope Valley College has been praised for the high quality of teaching it provides to encourage social cohesion.
The Religious Education department, headed by Liz Brewin, was recently visited by representatives from Derbyshire's Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) team who were impressed by the ways in which the department tackles the topics of multi-cultural society and social cohesion.Jackie Carter, a member of SACRE's working group, said: "I found the technique of using puppets a particularly innovative method in secondary education. The puppets are used as a really effective tool in role playing and storytelling to help young people to explore sensitive and difficult social and cultural issues."
SACRE advise local education authorities on its RE and collective worship curriculum and are responsible for ensuring high standards are met in the subject. They are compromised of people from different faiths and representatives from the County Council.
Mrs. Carter added: "The College is a high performing specialising school situated in a rural area with only a few students from ethnic minorities yet the teaching of cohesion in a multi-cultured, multi-faith society has a strong presence in the curriculum which is very pleasing to see. The religious education on offer is of an outstanding quality."
The puppets were purchased with funds raised by the College's PTFA to aid the delivery of the RE within the College and have made a significant impact on the delivery of RE lessons at the College.
Head of RE Liz Brewin said: "I am of course delighted that the department has been recognised for the high quality of religious education it provides as we work hard to give students the ability to explore the subject for themselves. However the highest praise I could receive actually came from a student who said that RE had helped them discuss things that they hadn't encountered before and they felt better prepared for the real world as a result. The fact that a student voiced that they felt that way told me I was truly doing a good job and I was really touched by the sentiments."
Principal Bernie Hunter said: "I was delighted that SACRE recognised the excellent work that Liz does in ensuring our students, the majority of whom are not exposed to the issues of living a multi-cultured society, are aware and sensitive to people from different ethnic backgrounds, cultures and religions. It is essential that our students leave here prepared for the multi-cultured nature of our society that they will live in so that can easily adapt to the differences between rural and city communities. This is another fantastic sign that we are on course to achieve our goal of becoming an "Outstanding" school in our next OFSTED report and I'd like to congratulate Liz on her achievements."
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