North Yorkshire Council

North Yorkshire Standing Advisory Council

on Religious Education (SACRE) –

December 2025

Update from Professional RE Adviser – Curriculum and Assessment Review

1.0	Purpose of the Report
	To inform Members on the Curriculum and Assessment Review report published November 2025

An overview of the context of Religious Education and recommendations made on Religious Education in the Curriculum and Assessment Review Curriculum and Assessment Review Final Report - GOV.UK

The importance of RE

• Stakeholders’ responses to our Call for Evidence showed there was a strong consensus about

the subject’s importance and its essential place in a school’s curriculum, stressing its

important role in children and young people’s intellectual, personal, spiritual, moral, social

and cultural development. (107)

• Given the role that religion, belief and values play in local, national, and international events,

it continues to be vital for children and young people to have access to high-quality RE. (108)

National Content Standard

• Some work to improve and standardise a curriculum offer for RE has been done, most

notably by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (REC), which published its

National Content Standard for RE in England in 2023. 

• This has received consensus from across the sector and laid strong foundations for change.

We believe it has potential as a catalyst for more substantial reform. (109)

RE should be moved to the National Curriculum

• The Review believes that RE should be moved to the national curriculum to improve access

to high-quality provision and to prevent further diminishment. (109)

• The Review ultimately wishes to see RE in the national curriculum, but it recognises that it is

unrealistic for this to be achieved immediately. We therefore believe that a staged approach

to reform is the most appropriate way forward. 

• To this end, we recommend that the Government invites the sector to establish an

independent task and finish group made up of representatives from faith bodies, secular

groups and experts from the teaching and wider education sector, to develop a draft RE

curriculum. (109)

• The group should also consider whether there would be benefit in changing the name of

Religious Education. (109)

Future action

• We recognise that making RE a national curriculum subject is not a panacea that will

automatically improve the quality and quantity of compulsory RE. 

• Other mechanisms would also be needed, including reviewing the DfE’s non-statutory

guidance for RE (which has not been updated since it was published in 2010) and the wider

framework (which includes SACREs, for example). 

• Following any changes, attention may also need to be given to the subject content of the

optional GCSE in Religious Studies. (110)

DFE should consider the legislative framework for RE

• Alongside this, the DfE should consider the legislative framework for RE, including, for

example, what any changes to its status in the curriculum would mean for functions such as

SACREs. A long-term plan for implementing potential changes to legislation should be

drafted. (111)

RE sector responses

• NASACRE statement: https://nasacre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/NASACRE-chairs

Statement-on-CaAR-11.25.pdf

• REC / Religious Education Policy Unit Statement: “New era” for Religious Education as panel

recommends subject added to National Curriculum for the first time – REC

• CSTG: Our statement on proposed landmark RE curriculum reform

• NATRE: The Curriculum and Assessment Review 2025– Implications for Religious Education –

NATRE

Olivia Seymour

Professional Adviser to North Yorkshire SACRE

County Hall, Northallerton

20/11//2025

Report Author: Olivia Seymour