Education - OU Community Online

Religious leaders argue RE is academically rigorous and helps build community cohesion

Ministers are poised to reject pleas to include religious education in the list of GCSE subjects that go towards the English baccalaureate.

Religious leaders have criticised the government's decision to exclude RE, arguing that it is just as academically rigorous as history or geography and helps build community cohesion.

Musicians also fear their subject will be overlooked as schools focus on core GCSEs to boost their standing in league tables.

However, in a statement to be published next week, the government will confirm that the Ebacc subjects this year will be English, maths, two sciences, ancient or modern history or geography, and an ancient or modern language.

Schools will be rated on the proportion of their pupils getting good passes in these subjects, when league tables are published by the department for education.

A government source said: "The subjects in the English Bac are backed by the best universities and are the most important subjects for parents. We will not be changing it."

The National Association of Teachers of Religious Education warns that schools are starting to "kill off" the subject, despite the fact that it is compulsory to teach it to children under 16.

A quarter of 1,517 state school RE teachers polled by the association said their schools were not fulfilling their statutory duty to teach the subject.

The poll, published on Friday, found that pupils' interest in studying the subject to GCSE had fallen by a third.

Just 15.6% of pupils achieved the Ebacc last summer. Of the 4.9m GCSEs passed last year, 1.4m were in subjects not related to the baccalaureate, such as music, the visual arts, design-related subjects and RE.

Foreign languages in particular have declined dramatically since they were made optional at GCSE. French fell out of the top ten most popular subjects last summer, with more pupils entering for GCSE Art.

Subject choices fuel the gap between private and state school pupils in access to the most competitive universities.

Figures obtained by Elizabeth Truss, MP for South West Norfolk, show that private school pupils are twice as likely as comprehensive pupils to take maths, physics and chemistry A-level and three times more likely to take foreign languages. Students at comprehensives were seven times more likely than children in private schools to take media studies A-level.

Labour regards the Ebacc as a "prescriptive and narrow" measure which deprives pupils of choice.

Professor Brian Gates, chair of the Religious Education Council, a multi-faith forum, said: "We sincerely hope that Michael Gove responds positively to the widespread support for including Religious Education in the English baccalaureate

"Leaving RE out of the 2010 EBacc is already having devastating consequences in schools, as revealed in yesterday's report from the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE), and we will continue to campaign for its inclusion.

"We will look for evidence from the Secretary of State which demonstrates that any reassurance he gives about RE genuinely guarantees that every child and young person has the benefit of effective provision for the subject."

• Religious studies and theology
• Teaching
• Schools
• GCSEs

Sarah Franklin grew up reading aloud to her grandfather, who was blind – a privilege that she will always treasure

I have an abiding memory of my grandfather, Jack. It's 30-odd years ago; Grandad's sitting in his customary high-backed armchair in the front room, his stick hooked behind it. I'm seven, perched next to him on a stool I've fetched from my grandmother's sewing room. The Sunday afternoon light's drifting in through the window. We're reading aloud, our two earnest, bespectacled heads bent over the page in front of us, a finger marking the words; separated by seven decades, brought together by words.

It's a common scene in families; except, in our case, the usual order of things is reversed. Grandad's been blind since I was tiny. Rather than him reading to me, I'm reading to him.

An avid reader from the moment I cracked the code, I was indiscriminate in my choice of material. When you're reading aloud, you read something that's of interest to the listener. So I didn't read children's books; I read the sorts of things Grandad liked to hear about. Snippets of the local newspaper; hymnals; RNIB newsletters.

To begin with, much of the vocabulary in Grandad's reading material was far beyond me. When I came to unfamiliar terminology, I'd spell it out. Grandad would catch the letters in his mind's eye and painstakingly reassemble the word, returning it to me whole so I could stumble on with the sentence. It must have been an excruciating way for him to hear news; but he never once hurried me along, or complained at a mispronunciation. Our reading sessions weren't really about the dissemination of knowledge; they were about much more than the information on the page. It was a way for us to spend time together when other mutual pastimes were out of reach.

My grandfather wasn't always blind. A kind and gentle man, he had been a carpenter, a magician who could gauge by sight and touch which texture and heft of wood he'd need for a given job; capable of creating a whole world from a rough piece of timber. The first Christmas of my parents' marriage, Grandad built my bookworm mother a mahogany bookcase, his way of welcoming her into the family. The bookcase came with me when I moved into my first tiny flat in London, a tangible reminder of the woodland roots we shared. One hundred years after Jack's birth, my first son was born in America; the bookcase, which had crossed the Atlantic with us, became Jonah's, connecting the memories across the miles, providing a link between four generations.

I was a fortunate child; I spent a lot of time with all my grandparents, and each of them opened the world to me in a particular way. Jack was potentially the grandparent I might have gained least access to, as small, chatty children and blind septuagenarians aren't obvious partners in crime. Reading was our way of building a relationship that has had a lasting effect on me.

In the school holidays, my sister and I sometimes accompanied our grandparents on coach trips to the seaside with the local association for the blind. This might seem an eccentric choice in the context of today's technicolour world of kid-centric entertainment, but we felt privileged, and valued. Older people, especially those who are sight-impaired, have a lot of time for the young.

When you can only move as quickly as your cane can detect obstacles, a barrage of chatter becomes a sightline into the world beyond your view. And for me, helping our elderly friends across the road, reading the menu for them, describing the vista that accompanied the tang of the saltwater and the stiffness of the sea breeze – all this imbued me with a very real sense of self-worth and responsibility beyond the usual sandcastle-and-candyfloss fun of the beach. And it taught me a lot, though I didn't know it at the time, about how to tell a story; how to draw pictures with words; how to engage your audience.

A decade later, seeking a college holiday job, I eschewed bar and shop work and found a position in a nursing home, which echoed my early experiences; reading to senior citizens, chairs arranged in a horseshoe in the residents' lounge. It was a connection back to Grandad, who had died by now, and a reminder in my hectic 20s that, if we're lucky, age comes to us all.

More so even than simple conversation, reading aloud is a contract between two individuals, forming a connection that endures beyond the words themselves. Katie Clark of The Reader Organisation, a national charity devoted to the benefits of reading aloud, says that this can have an enormous emotional impact on elderly people in particular. "Relatives visiting their loved ones in a care home can find it difficult to know what to talk about," Clark explains, "and reading a short piece aloud often triggers people's memories." Even without that nudge of recollection, The Reader Organisation's research has found that the closeness of the attention being paid to the listener by the reader, and the intimacy that reading aloud brings, has tremendous benefits to both parties.

This year, my elder son has discovered the joys of reading for himself, and with it the enormous source of pride that comes to reading to those you love. His younger brother is currently unconvinced that he wants to hear stories at "Jonah speed", preferring his tales read to him by an adult. So Jonah has discovered, as I did, that a grandparent often makes the ideal partner in crime. I watch him with my father, heads bent over a book selected from that very same mahogany bookcase that's travelled so many miles with us, and I see traditions passing through generations. Reading together creates an experience that's simultaneously utterly unique and completely universal, and that remains imprinted on us long after the final pages are turned.

• Family
• Literacy
• Relationships

Those with legal qualifications are not limited to roles as solicitors or barristers – just ask comedian Bob Mortimer

Studying takes years of hard graft followed by at least two more years of vocational training to qualify as a solicitor or barrister. But there are plenty of other career options for law graduates who don't necessarily want to have their day in court.

They will have learned about the laws governing the constitution as well as areas such as criminal, civil, European, land and human rights law.

But the years of perusing past cases, and poring through books, will not be wasted for those who decide to pursue a different path.

They will have the skills to work in any number of other careers, from accountancy and business to journalism and education.

Famous law graduates include Bob Mortimer, who graduated from Sussex University before opting for comedy over courtroom drama.

Your degree will have given you a thorough understanding of the law of the land, but you will also have gained excellent research skills and be able to wade through complex documents and extract the information you need. You should also have developed strong communication skills and be able to confidently state your case in court and formulate sound arguments. Other key skills include problem-solving, critical judgment and good teamwork.

In 2009, just over 35% of law graduates found employment. Of those, 13% went straight into jobs in the legal profession. But those in other areas, including the commercial/industrial sector (just over 10%), business and finance (7%), social/welfare (4.2%) and marketing (3.7%) were also popular.

"Beyond the obvious – such as solicitors, barristers, barristers' clerks and court legal advisers (also sometimes called court/magistrates clerks), legal executives, paralegals or licensed conveyancers – there are other careers where knowledge of law and the legal system would prove invaluable," says Margaret Holbrough, a careers adviser at Graduate Prospects.

"Chartered secretaries are a prime example, requiring a thorough understanding of both business and company law, governance and compliance, especially in public limited companies (as company secretaries), but also in limited liability organisations, the not-for-profit and public sectors."

The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators offers a professional qualifying scheme, which also includes finance modules, for chartered secretaries in all types of organisation.

Also consider human resources management, accountancy, the patent agency, trading standards, the police service and advice work.

"Working in administration or management for charities and other not-for-profit organisations, as well as local and central government, may also appeal, particularly where they have an interest in human rights or other socio-legal issues," Holbrough adds.

Solicitors need to do a legal practice course followed by a paid training contract with a firm, while barristers must do the Bar Professional Training Course followed by a one-year training period or pupillage. Of 2009 graduates, 38.7% undertook further study, with 11.3% combining work with study and 7.5% studying for a higher degree, providing the opportunity to specialise in subjects such as criminology, international relations, business or education.

Data supplied by the Higher Education Careers Services Unit and Graduate Prospects

• Graduate careers
• Work & careers
• Law
• Higher education