ISRSA Professional Development Day
and Annual Conference 2014
Lessons from Narnia:
Intellect and the Imagination in
Religious Education
Southwark Cathedral, London
Wednesday 19th November, 9.30am to 3.30pm
Principal Speaker
Professor Alister McGrath
"Faith and the Imagination:
What Religious Studies can learn from CS Lewis"
admin@isrsa.org.uk
ISRSA, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, OX44 9EX
BOOKING FORM
ISRSA PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY
and annual conference
Wednesday 19th November 2014
Please complete a separate booking form for each delegate and return by Friday 31st October
Title
Name
Postcode
School
Contact Email
I have the following dietary, access or support requirements
I wish to reserve a place @ £145
EITHER
I am enclosing a cheque for £145 (made payable to ISRSA)
OR
I wish to pay by BACS (NatWest 60-24-77, 19205953, ISRSA)
Please provide an appropriate school or delegate name as the reference
Please tick your preferred morning AND afternoon seminar choices
MORNING
AFTERNOON
Imagination and the religious image: icons
and idols Dr Douglas Hedley
Mindfulness, embodiment and imagination
Satyadasa
Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) in
Religious Education Peter Dawes
The use of Art in Teaching about Religion
Stephen Bird
iPads in Religious Education Peter Dawes
(best if you have an iPad with you, but don't feel
excluded if not)
Use of artefacts in teaching Judaism
Frances Jeens
Teaching Philosophy: what is philosophy
and why do it? Stephen Law
CS Lewis: apostle to the sceptics
Philip Vander Elst
Christian truth in CS Lewis’ fiction
Philip Vander Elst
Signed ………………………………………………………
admin@isrsa.org.uk
Imaginatively engaging with traditions:
how to make multi-faith RS less about
what 'they' believe. Clare Jarmy
Date ………………………………
ISRSA, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, OX44 9EX
Speakers’ Profiles
Alister McGrath
In the summer of 1983, McGrath and his family returned to Oxford. McGrath had been appointed as
tutor in doctrine and ethics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He remained at Wycliffe Hall until 2006, including a
period during which he served as the Principal (1995-2004). McGrath served as the first Director of
the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics from 2004-6, subsequently becoming its President. During
this time, he developed a close working relationship with the Oxford Faculty of Theology. He became a
member of the Faculty in 1983, and was appointed University Research Lecturer in Theology in 1993. He
taught frequently at Regent College Vancouver, and served as its Research Professor of Theology from
1993-7. In 1999, in recognition of his research, McGrath was elected to a personal chair of theology at
Oxford University, with the title of “Professor of Historical Theology”. He was elected a fellow of
theRoyal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (FRSA) in 2005 in
recognition of his role as a public intellectual. From 2006, McGrath became Senior Research Fellow
at Harris Manchester College, Oxford, and retained this role after moving to London in 2008 to take up a
chair of theology at King’s College London. In 2009, McGrath also became Associate Priest in the Shill
Valley & Broadshire benefice in the Diocese of Oxford, a group of village churches in the Cotswolds.
In 2014, McGrath returned to Oxford as the third holder of the Andreas Idreos Professorship of Science
and Religion at Oxford University, and Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion. He is
expected to retire from this position in September 2023. McGrath sees the Idreos chair primarily in terms
of public engagement with the great questions of science and faith, embedded in a tradition of
outstanding teaching and research.
Douglas Hedley
Dr Douglas Hedley is Reader in Hermeneutics and Metaphysics at the University of Cambridge. He is
Fellow of Clare College and the author of Coleridge, Philosophy and Religion (2000), Living Forms of the
Imagination (2008) and Sacrifice Imagined (2011). He was a Templeton Fellow at the Institute of Advanced
Studies, Notre Dame (2013-14) and was visiting Professor at the Sorbonne in 2001.
Satyadasa
Satyadasa read law at Keble College, Oxford and trained as a lawyer before becoming a member of the
Triratna Buddhist Community in London where he now lives and teaches Buddhism and meditation.
He is also the Buddhist Tutor at Eton College and a non-practising solicitor.
Clare Jarmy
Clare Jarmy read Philosophy at St Catharine’s College Cambridge, and trained under Mary Earl at the
Faculty of Education. She is now Head of Religious Studies and Philosophy at Bedales School in
Hampshire, UK, known in the RS community for its innovative ‘BAC’ course in Philosophy, Religion
and Ethics, which replaces GCSE. She is the author of three A Level text books: Arguments for God,
Miracles and Attributes of God. Clare also writes for the Times Educational Supplement, both on
pedagogy and broader philosophical issues in education. Earlier this year she gave a workshop entitled
‘No Concept is Too Hard’ at an international conference run in partnership between the Faculty of
Education and the Woolf Institute at the University of Cambridge. She is passionate about the
Philosophy of Religious Studies, and has just started a Masters in RE at the Institute of Education in
London.
admin@isrsa.org.uk
ISRSA, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, OX44 9EX
Peter Dawes (Dragonfly Trainer)
Peter Dawes is an engaging and enthusiastic trainer with a broad repertoire of practical ideas. He has
17 years’ experience of teaching MFL in a variety of schools (to A-level) and taught English abroad. He
has also run highly successful residential courses in Somerset and Wiltshire, and developed extensive
German and French materials for the Internet. He has spoken at numerous conferences, for example
at ALL and ECIS. There is a common strand running through all his Dragonfly courses – whether at
home, or increasingly, abroad in Europe, Africa and the Far East - they offer practicality and involve
minimal teacher preparation time.
Peter’s courses have evolved to embrace new technologies, yet his guiding principle through these
changes has always been pedagogy before technology.
Dragonfly Training is one of the UK's leading CPD providers, specialising in 100% practical and
hands-on training designed to have an immediate effect on school performance. Last year, we delivered
training to over 10,000 teachers, middle managers and senior leaders, with 92% of all attendees giving
us five star feedback. We pride ourselves on the high quality of our training, which is why our hotelbased and school-based training sessions are delivered by only the finest experts in their fields.
NB: Numbers to these seminars will be limited: first come, first served!
Stephen Bird
Stephen Bird studied Art at Chelsea School of Art and Goldsmiths College Art from 1975 until 1983.
Whilst completing his postgraduate studies he worked as a community youth and art worker in the
London Docklands painting murals with unemployed teenagers. He also taught as a visiting lecturer at
the Sir John Cass School of Art London. In 2004- 5 he completed a fellowship with the Farmington
Institute Oxford researching the iconography of the Last Judgement. Stephen Bird paints or draws
every day before teaching. (Stephen is Head of Art at Ampleforth College). He finds inspiration from
the North Yorkshire Moors, and frequent visits to the Hebrides and the rugged coastline of north
Devon and Cornwall. Favourite quote: (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux) "You will find something more in woods
than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters."
Frances Jeens
Frances Jeens is London Links Learning Manager at the Jewish Museum in London. She is a museum
educator and has been working in the museum sector for 8 years. Having completed a Master’s degree
in Museum Studies at UCL, Frances moved to the Channel Islands to work as Curator at the Alderney
Museum for two and a half years.
Returning to London in late 2013 Frances started working at Jewish Museum London as a Learning
Manager co-leading on an Arts Council England funded project to help the museum engage with local
schools. The Jewish Museum focuses learning on Discovering Judaism, Exploring History,
Investigating the Holocaust and Revealing Arts.
Stephen Law
Stephen Law is editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK and author of many
introductory books including The Philosophy File and The Philosophy Gym. He is currently Senior
Lecturer in Philosophy at Heythrop College University of London.
Philip Vander Elst
Philip Vander Elst is a freelance writer, lecturer and C.S. Lewis scholar, and a former editor of Freedom
Today. After graduating from Oxford in 1973, with a degree in politics and philosophy, he spent more
than 30 years in politics and journalism. His many publications include: C.S. Lewis: a short introduction
(Continuum, 2005), From atheism to Christianity: a personal journey (bethinking.org, 2011), The Principles of
British Foreign Policy (Bruges Group 2008), and Power Against People: a Christian critique of the State, (Institute
of Economic Affairs web publication, 2008).
admin@isrsa.org.uk
ISRSA, Ripon College, Cuddesdon, OX44 9EX