Le Chéile RE Day
On Nov 14th 2019, Dr. Gareth Byrne, Director MDCCE, gave the keynote talk at a day organised for its religious education teachers by the Le Chéile Trust. Dr. Audrey Doyle gathered teachers from schools all over Ireland, building on the introduction of the new specification for religious education, introduced for 1st Years in September. This was an opportunity for teachers to meet up, speak about their experience of the new approach. and discuss all the questions they might have.
To launch the day off, Dr. Byrne took as the title of his input: Responding to the RE Specification in a Catholic School. A great exchange took place with teachers reviewing what might be meant by ethos in a Catholic school and how religious education for all, whether Catholic or not, can be envisaged in their schools. The rationale for the new approach to RE, and what this would mean in a Catholic school, helped create a lively conversation. The opportunity was given also to respond to a number of the specification’s Learning Outcomes and underpinnings.
Many of the teachers had been students of Gareth’s over the years in Mater Dei Institute of Education. His engagement provided a good opportunity to renew acquaintances – and to grapple with how religious education, responding to the variety of needs of all pupils in a school, can continue to make an essential contribution to the holistic education of young people in the years to come - in Catholic schools and in other schools.
Later in the day the teachers reviewed the style of learning envisaged by the Framework for Junior Cycle and how this applied to RE. They also had the opportunity in the afternoon to work with some of the authors of two of the new RE school textbooks. A very worthwhile day indeed!