A campaign to persuade more people to teach religious education has been a success, with new figures showing a rise in applicants, reports The Times.
Analysis of the latest trainee teacher applications for those intending to start courses in the autumn shows a 31 per cent rise in religious education applicants, up from 650 a year ago to 850.
This is against a backdrop of falling numbers of applicants for secondary school teaching, down 0.8 per cent on last year.