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- Published: 16th September 2026
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Personal statement example
For the past two years I have run a table at a Saturday homework club in the library where I work, and it is there that I noticed how often religion surfaces in questions children have no obvious place to ask. A Year 8 pupil wanted to know why her cousin fasted and she did not; another asked whether Buddhists believe in God, then argued with himself about what believing would even mean. These conversations reminded me how much I enjoyed studying religion, and convinced me that I want to teach it properly rather than answer it in passing at a library table.
My degree in Theology and Religious Studies gave me the subject grounding I will need. My final-year project looked at how modern pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago describe what they are doing, drawing on published accounts and travel writing. What interested me was how many walkers used religious language while denying religious belief, and how uneasy the categories of sacred and secular became under pressure. That project taught me to take people's own words about their practice seriously, which seems to me the heart of good religious education: pupils should meet Islam, Sikhism or Judaism as lived traditions with internal debate, not as tidy lists of beliefs to be revised and forgotten.
Graduating in 2015, I went into local authority customer services because I needed work and stayed because I found it more interesting than I expected. Explaining council tax reduction or a housing decision to someone who is worried and short of time is a skill in itself: you have to find out what they already understand, choose your words carefully, and avoid the jargon that makes people nod without following. I also learned to keep my footing in difficult conversations without becoming defensive, which I think will matter in an RE classroom where topics such as marriage, death or the existence of God can touch pupils personally. Moving to the library gave me more contact with young people, including running two story sessions a week for primary-age children and helping teenagers navigate reading lists and revision guides.
To prepare for returning to study I have been reading and observing. I spent four mornings in an RE department at a local secondary school, watching a Year 9 lesson on Christian responses to suffering and a Year 11 revision session. I was struck by how much the teacher planned for disagreement: she gave pupils sentence starters to challenge one another's views, which kept the discussion sharper than the free-for-all I had imagined. I have also been reading Jonathan Sacks's The Dignity of Difference and returning to the Qur'an in Abdel Haleem's translation, partly to strengthen areas my degree covered less thoroughly, and I follow the debates about whether RE should be framed as religion and worldviews, which seems to me an honest response to classrooms where several pupils hold no religious commitment at all.
Being a mature applicant has its practical advantages. I am used to shift patterns, deadlines that belong to other people, and being the person who has to keep calm when a system fails. I know that training to teach will be harder than my degree and that subject knowledge alone will not carry a lesson. What I bring is a genuine interest in the material, experience of explaining complicated things to people who did not choose to be interested, and patience built up over several years of ordinary work. I would like to spend the rest of my career helping pupils think carefully about questions that will not go away.
Why this example works — strengths and ways to improve
A grounded, coherent statement for postgraduate RE teacher training. Your library, council and classroom-observation evidence links naturally to teaching, and your Camino project yields a real educational principle. The main gaps are thin detail on your project methods, observation notes that stop before showing how you would teach, and a closing paragraph that drifts towards general self-description.
Subject motivation
I noticed how often religion surfaces in questions children have no obvious place to ask
This opening works because it shows motivation through observed questions rather than declared passion. The fasting and 'what believing would even mean' examples are specific and age-appropriate. They show why you want to teach religion properly, and they also hint at the conceptual thinking RE should develop in pupils.
Academic preparation
how many walkers used religious language while denying religious belief
This is a genuine finding, and you carry it forward into a principle about lived traditions. However, 'drawing on published accounts and travel writing' says little about method. A sentence on how you selected or analysed sources would show more rigour. Your reading on Islam usefully addresses knowledge gaps since graduating.
Evidence and reflection
she gave pupils sentence starters to challenge one another's views
This is strong, precise observation. You also admit that you had imagined a 'free-for-all', which is honest reflection. You could take it one step further by saying what this changed in your thinking about structuring discussion of sensitive topics. At present the insight stays with the teacher rather than becoming your own developing practice.
Relevant experience
you have to find out what they already understand, choose your words carefully
Customer services becomes convincing evidence here because you name transferable skills: checking prior understanding and avoiding jargon. These map closely onto teaching. The story sessions and revision help are mentioned only briefly. One concrete moment from working with teenagers would strengthen your evidence about the age group you hope to teach.
Credibility and voice
patience built up over several years of ordinary work
Your voice is modest and believable throughout. You acknowledge that training will be harder than your degree and that knowledge alone will not carry a lesson. Nothing is overstated, and the four-morning observation is described at a plausible scale. The closing self-assessment repeats qualities you have already demonstrated, so it adds little.
Structure and format
Being a mature applicant has its practical advantages.
The order is logical: motivation, degree, work, preparation, then readiness. The final paragraph is the weakest section. Shift patterns and calm under system failure are less relevant than your earlier evidence. The closing line about questions that will not go away is apt, but it would land better after a tighter, more specific lead-in.
What you’ve done well
- The Camino project turns into a clear, defensible view of RE: traditions as lived, with their own internal debate, rather than lists of beliefs.
- Your ordinary jobs are treated as serious evidence of explanation and handling difficult conversations, not as filler.
- Your engagement with the religion and worldviews debate shows awareness of current thinking in the subject, tied to classroom realities.
How this draft could improve
- Add one sentence on how you gathered and analysed sources in your final-year project, so your academic preparation shows method as well as findings.
- Extend the observation paragraph so it says what you would now do differently when planning a discussion, turning observation into emerging practice.
- Cut or compress the generic mature-applicant traits and use the space for a specific interaction with a teenager at the library.