Agenda and minutes

Following nomination by Councillor Blatchford and seconding by Councillor Davison, David Fawcett was elected as Chairman.

Following nomination by David Fawcett and seconding by Councillor Blatchford, Madeline Diver was elected as Vice-Chairman.

The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting.  Apologies received were noted.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10 July 2014.

The minutes of the meeting held on 10 July 2014 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to Minute 38 being amended to read Neasden Temple in place of Neesdan Temple.

Minute 39 – It was clarified that the Religious Education Quality Mark only applied to secondary schools.

Minute 41 – It was reported that Jo Fageant would be contacting representatives to arrange a meeting for the working group that would be looking at a pan-Berkshire SACRE shortly.

The Chairman reported on a proposal to send a survey to local schools to allow SACRE to gather information on what they were doing with regard to collective worship.  The survey would be brief to encourage as many schools as possible to respond and would ask schools for details of any collective worship activities undertaken for either the week commencing 19 January 2015 or 26 January 2015, including the form and length of time that the activity took. 

It was proposed to send the survey to the Headteacher and Chair of Governors of each school with a request to forward it to the most appropriate member of staff.  It was suggested at the meeting that schools could be contacted in advance to ask for the most appropriate addressee and that the survey should include a deadline for responding with an e-mail reminder send a week before that date.  The Chairman would include his own e-mail address for responses so that he could collate them.  It was also suggested that, as the number of teacher representatives on SACRE was low the survey could include information on how to get involved.

(Action: Chairman)

Anne Andrews reported that attendance at the last twilight training session had been very good, with twelve schools represented.  The meeting had considered the Big Questions and how the syllabus could be used to plan activities around these.  Anne added that she had been to Crown Wood School to deliver some training.  The school had bought the scheme of work but none of the teachers had seen the syllabus or the questions.  A further visit had been booked and this would consider how to get the most from faith visitors.

The meeting discussed the role of Religious Education leaders in primary schools, and concern was expressed that the position generally had a high turnover.  Ben Britton reported that children starting at secondary school tended to have a wide variation in their knowledge and the transition from primary to secondary RE needed to be improved.  Support was expressed for this idea, although it was noted that the syllabus was skills based and set concepts and ideas rather than specific content, so it was likely that there would be differences in children’s knowledge.  Ben explained that he was exploring the idea of a ‘transition pack’ for primary schools to use, but when he had contacted schools for their views he had only received one reply.  Anne Andrews reported that she would be able to provide him with the contact details for Sandy Lane Primary School.

(Action: Anne Andrews)

Chris Salt reported that he had been contacted by College Hall requesting confirmation of how the syllabus could be incorporated into their planning.  Chris explained that the school did not currently have formal RE lessons but had a strong PSCHE element, and they were including faith within this.  The school had proposed to hold ‘RE days’ in place of a weekly timetabled session.  Anne Andrews confirmed that this would still meet the needs of the syllabus, and that they key to doing this was to ensure that pupils had the opportunity to debate the questions set out in the syllabus.

Chris Salt tabled GCSE grade summaries for secondary schools in Bracknell Forest from June 2014.  It was noted that short courses were not included in the statistics.  It was also noted that Edgbarrow School had achieved excellent results, with 60% of pupils achieving an A* grade.

(a) SACRE Annual Report and Newsletter

The meeting considered the SACRE Annual Report for 2013-2014.  It was noted that there were a number of amendments needed to the membership list, as follows:

·         Addition of Cathy Hatfield as a co-opted member;

·         Cllr Gareth Barnard had attended two meetings rather than one as listed;

·         Ken Blanton was listed as attending one meeting but it was reported that he had not attended any during 2013-2014;

·         Madeline Diver was listed as Madeline Driver.

Anne Andrews reported that she would pass these amendments on to Jo Fageant as report author.

It was noted that Rabbi Zvi Solomon had not been able to attend any meetings, and suggested that the Chairman approach him to ask him to nominate an alternative representative if he was not able to attend.  Carol Nicholls reported that she would be retiring after the next meeting and she had requested that the Diocese appoint an alternative representative.

The Chairman expressed his thanks for the full and informative report.

(b) Interfaith Week

Madeline Diver reported that Interfaith Week fell in the week following the meeting.  The Faith and Belief Forum would be holding an event to consider spirituality across different groups, and this would be held on Thursday 20 November at Easthampstead Baptist Church at 7.00pm.

(c) Support from Oxford Diocese

Anne Andrews reported that SACRE needed to consider whether to continue buying in to professional services from Oxford Diocese. This was agreed.

(Action: Chris Salt)

(d) NASACRE

Anne Andrews reported that the SACRE was part of the National Association of SACREs (NASACRE), and members should have received a password to access the website.  Some members had not received the password so it was requested that the clerk circulate this.

The website included a toolkit for self-evaluation consisting of five comprehensive questions.  It was proposed that members of SACRE consider the first of these questions, on collective worship, in advance of the next meeting so that it could be discussed at the meeting.

(Action: Priya Patel and All).

Proposed dates for 2015:

19 March 2015

9 July 2015

12 November 2015

The proposed meeting dates for 2015 were as follows:

19 March 2015

9 July 2015

12 November 2015