Cranford Review 2016

Hounslow Annual 6th Form RE Conference 2016
For
the second consecutive year Cranford Community College hosted the annual Hounslow
Borough 6th form RE Conference on Friday 17th June 2016.
Owing to his huge success last year, Dr Ranvir Singh was invited to return as the key note speaker
with a refreshed angle on the question: Is Britain still a Christian country? Dr. Singh always stimulates
minds. He is involved in religious studies as a teacher, an examiner, a teacher trainer, and an activist
in interfaith relations. He asked many profound questions, for instance, when the now former Prime
Minister David Cameron stated in 2015 “Yes, we are a nation that embraces, welcomes and accepts all
faiths and none but we are still a Christian country” was this divisive? And whilst attendance figures
in Roman Catholic churches have overtaken those in Anglican churches, when people like David
Cameron say ‘Christian’ do we really mean Church of England only?
There was lively, interactive workshops lead by UCL IOE teachers and Cranford’s
own A level religious studies students, which put them in their teacher’s shoes as they
facilitated a range of controversial topics including the common perception that Islam
oppresses women.
The ‘Question Time’ style panel enabled students to quiz experts representing different
belief systems on topics ranging from the meaning of life and the perennial Israel Palestine
problem and what causes people to question their faith in God. Once again this stimulating
and thought provoking day was enjoyable and rewarding for all involved.
Mehmoona Yousaf (Senior Teacher- Head of RE Department)
“The day was great fun. I really enjoyed working with students
from other schools as they often had different ideas which added
to our workshop. At first I was afraid to speak in front of lots
of people but after teaching the workshop once, I felt more
confident and actually learnt a lot from the different discussions
taking place. Furthermore through listening to the Question Time
panellists I gained a lot of understanding of topics that I didn’t
previously know about, for example different perceptions about
the purpose of life”.
Anmol Talwar (year 12)
“The preparation for the RE conference was fun because
we had autonomy in the subject of our workshops and
we chose to consider “Does Islam suppress women?”
The idea behind our workshop was to show that
often it is the channels through which a religion is
communicated that discriminate and suppress rather
than the religion itself. Our workshop first encouraged
us to think outside of the box as we had to embolden
our peers to be proactive and ask questions. At first
it was difficult to come up with ideas for this but then
with a little team work we created something fun and
challenging and the year 12 students seemed really
got involved in and had lots to say about”.
Suad Abdullahi & Shafla Sharaz (year 12)
“I really enjoyed the question and answer section of the
conference, as this allowed us to speak to learned members
of different religious and non-religious communities. All
of the representatives answered honestly even when they
were given difficult questions to respond to. Such answers
I felt gave us a better understanding of the different faith
communities and allowed us to see that in many ways we
often agree on topics rather than disagree”.
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Navneet Arura (year 12)