Template letter

Religion, values & ethics - Curriculum for Wales

Writing to your MS can help to get the campaign for a balanced religion, values, and ethics curriculum for Welsh schools on the political agenda and show this is an issue their constituents care about. We campaign in parliament as an organisation, and your support will bolster our case. It is quick easy and helps your MS represent you in Parliament.

Tell your MS that it's time to introduce a curriculum that is equal for all.

Read our latest briefing on 'Curriculum for Wales: Religion, Values and Ethics Consultation' to ensure that you are up to date and well informed surrounding this issue.

Personalising your letter will make it more likely to have an impact.

MSs will respond to casework even if they disagree on policy, so remember to tell them if you are being personally affected by this issue.

Keep your thoughts brief. MSs are busy and get a lot of correspondence.

If you are not happy with an initial result, make sure you follow this up with them.

Use clear and simple language

Name*:

Email*:

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Address:

Message*:

Dear {{name}},

I am writing as a constituent to ask you to help raise concerns regarding proposed changes to legislation to support religion, values, and ethics (RVE) as a mandatory part of the curriculum in Wales.

I hope you will consider supporting the National Secular Society’s move towards a more pluralistic and balanced curriculum by replacing Religious Education with the teaching of Religion, Values & Ethics (RVE) is very welcome.

However, I am concerned that the proposals fall short of their own ambitions.

The current proposals will create a dual system regarding the teaching of RVE across Wales, exacerbating a divisive approach to how the subject is taught.

It is difficult to see how, in practice, faith schools will run two RVE curricula in parallel and that a biased and confessional approach to RVE will still dominate in many schools – creating unnecessary segregation in the teaching of religion, values and ethics.

This dual approach runs counter to the ambitions the Government has set out to achieve with its reforms. All children across Wales should have the same entitlement to a pluralistic, objective, and balanced RVE curriculum; this should not be put at risk simply because of the type of school they attend.

I am also concerned that the retention of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs) will allow RVE to continue to be heavily influenced by religious interests, undermining its legitimacy as an objective, critical and pluralistic subject in all schools.

I hope we do not miss this opportunity for genuinely transformative change to the teaching of RVE in Wales – which could function as an exemplar for how the subject should be taught across the UK, more widely.

I therefore urge you to support changes to:

- Implementing a duty on all schools to teach an objective, critical, and pluralistic RVE syllabus, without exception.

- Abolish SACREs, so that religious interest groups no longer control the subject.

- Pause on removing the right to withdrawal until the new curriculum has had time set into place.

I know that the National Secular Society are writing to all Members of the Senedd and hope that you will be interested in their briefing at secularism.org.uk/RVE-Wales

The NSS have produced a concise briefing on this matter. I hope that you will read their work here: 
https://www.secularism.org.uk/uploads/briefing-on-the-rve-proposals.pdf

I look forward to your response on this matter.

Kind regards,

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Template letter

Religion, values & ethics - Curriculum for Wales

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