The head of religious teaching in Bradford has today welcomed the first publication of national guidelines for the subject - and said the district was already leading the way.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority yesterday revealed its Non-statutory Framework for RE which advises all pupils should study other faiths alongside Christianity to help them develop a deeper understanding and respect.

It recommends the studying of a broad range of religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.

And Joyce Miller, head of diversity and cohesion, and RE teaching, for Education Bradford, said the framework would help boost the quality of RE lessons across the country.

"We welcome this and we believe it will provide the basis for ensuring that all local education authorities promote high quality RE," she said.

The new guidelines, which are not compulsory, will be used by Education Bradford when it next reviews its syllabus in 2005/2006. The process is overseen by Bradford's Standing Advisory Council for RE (SACRE) which was given a glowing report by Ofsted last year.

"We already, therefore, meet all the key requirements of the non-statutory framework for RE, including the provision at post 16, of the study of minority religions such as the Baha'i Faith," said Mrs Miller.

Education Bradford also organises single-faith assemblies where youngsters who share the same faith meet for sessions with a tutor from the Interfaith Centre, who is also of the same faith. These are held to help students build respect for one another and other faiths.

Clive Sedgewick, director of education for Bradford Diocese, said although it was early days they 'greeted it warmly.'

"We have to be a little bit cautious about being too optimistic or too damning until we look at it closely but anything which will boost the provision of RE on the curriculum has to be welcomed," he said. "The framework is not going to evangelise or push out Christianity at the expense of all other faiths. It is a rounded framework, not statutory, which will have enough flexibility to be subsumed in most of the agreed syllabuses."