ABSTRACT
Religious education, however, has never been a part of the national curriculum; instead its content is determined locally. It follows then that, subject to certain limits, it is up to each local authority to decide on how assessment should be undertaken in locally controlled community schools and voluntary controlled schools. Assessment in religious education was particularly ineffective, but the quality of assessment in other subjects was also not good. The report maintained that assessment for all children, but particularly for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), 'should focus on successes rather than being grounded in failure'. Some schools and some SACREs (Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education) have recognised that for assessment to improve in RE there needs to be a departure from steps, ladders and end-of-Key-Stage statements which use non-specific, generic statements. Assessment in RE based on core knowledge is not, however, without its weaknesses.
