Reasons for lack of confidence in tackling contentious issues in RE lessons vary from teacher to teacher, and circumstances vary from school to school. REsilience works with individual schools to help identify needs and plan to meet them.

The issues arising from religious and other belief-based extremism require specific teaching and learning methods. Using thinking skills and approaches that encourage collaboration, students learn to recognise and consider wider perspectives. REsilience aims to help teachers foster debate, dialogue and the development of respect and understanding.

The goverenment funded project that ran until April 2011, demonstrated that the mentoring approach was generally very successful and increased teachers' confidence and competence in dealing with contentious issues. The formal evaluation will be available in late summer 2011. REsilience offers each participating school:

• a mentor who acts as a facilitator to support each school through the process. REsilience is something done with schools and teachers, not to them.
• a portfolio of resources specially developed for use by teachers to boost their own knowledge and confidence.  They are not intended for classroom use but, rather, to give quick pointers and information to teachers who have little time to spare. They all include ‘signposts’ to further information and other resources (including classroom resources in some cases) for teachers who want to pursue the topic further.

How do I become involved?

If you are interested in being involved, please submit the “I am interested" form on the right of this page to express your interest. Your interest will be acknowledged and you will be contacted and given further details of the next stage in the process.