The 2007 Birmingham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education: a new direction for statutory religious education in England and Wales

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce and summarise the main feature of the new Birmingham City Council Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2007), consider the relevance of its commitments and conclusions to ongoing debates within British religious education, and, finally, offer some kind of provisional assessment of its strengths and worth. By way of introduction, attention is given both to the mounting controversy that currently attends British religious education, which has given rise to conflicting opinions and estimates of its achievements and value, and to the historical role and legal status of agreed syllabuses within English and Welsh education.

Keywords:

• agreed syllabuses
• Birmingham Syllabus for Religious Education
• statutory religious education
• The Non‐Statutory National Framework for Religious Education

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Dr Marius Felderhof, Conference Drafting Secretary of the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus, for making materials and information available to me that assisted with my research.