Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD. View directions

Contact: Lizzie Rich  01344 352253

Items
No. Item

26.

Election of Chair for the meeting

Minutes:

RESOLVED that Councillor Dr Barnard be elected Chair for the meeting, which was the last in the academic year.

27.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 149 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 March 2019 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

28.

Matters Arising

Minutes:

There were no matters arising from the minutes of the previous meeting.

29.

Membership Update

Minutes:

It was noted that there remained a number of vacancies on SACRE membership which would be addressed over the summer holidays. Anne Andrews had contacted several different Church of England contacts to fill the Church of England vacancies and had only had one reply.

 

Members discussed the impact that SACRE could have on community cohesion more widely, as well as it’s contribution to the improvement of RE and Collective Workship in the borough. It was thought that a broader focus may give incentive for a wider membership.

 

SACRE members agreed to send any contacts who were interested in joining SACRE to Lizzie Rich.

 

30.

Budget Update (including financing of the hub) pdf icon PDF 218 KB

Minutes:

Steve Bogg had agreed to give an update on the SACRE budget to Anne Andrews, but had given his apologies to the meeting.

 

NASACRE had conducted a survey the last year, which had involved a spreadsheet to calculate the Central Schools Support Budget for each area. Members commented that the spreadsheet had been very difficult to use and interpret. It was noted that the CSSB would impact on what was achievable through the SACRE 3-year plan. Members recognised that any specific commitments made in the 3-year plan would need to be supported by funding.

 

Lizzie Rich agreed to follow up on the NASACRE payment for the upcoming year.

 

It was agreed that SACRE would continue to pay their contribution into the Berkshire Hub work.

 

31.

NASACRE conference feedback

Minutes:

Anne Andrews reported back from the NASACRE conference which she had attended, representing RBWM and Bracknell Forest.

 

Anne reported that the workshops had been more effective for SACRE work than the keynote speakers, although the speakers had been on interesting subjects. Anne had attended a workshop on Communication between NASACRE and SACREs, which had been useful and she agreed to share the slides from this when available.

 

It was noted that a workshop on Monitoring and Evaluation of Collective Worship and RE had been oversubscribed on the day, which showed that this was a matter of concern across the country.

32.

SIAMS and OFSTED inspection updates pdf icon PDF 410 KB

Minutes:

SACRE received reports from the latest SIAMS and OFSTED inspections of Crowthorne CoE and Ranelagh.

 

It was noted that schools in Bracknell Forest had been receiving Good results from SIAMS where previously they had been rated Outstanding, but that this was not reflective of any dip in standards or performance.

 

It was noted that once the new OFSTED framework was embedded, there would be a significant crossover between the two frameworks.

 

Arising from discussion, the following points were noted:

·        Bracknell Forest schools had been improving through their OFSTED inspection.

·        SACRE proposed that the criteria for Outstanding in SIAMS inspections was too high. Schools graded Good had received supporting narrative that suggested that they had improved, and had previously been rated Outstanding. Anne Andrews agreed to feed this back to SIAMS through her inspector training. (Action: Anne Andrews)

·        It was clarified that RE was inspected in all schools, however only Voluntary Aided schools got an RE grading through Ofsted. Voluntary Controlled schools were inspected by SIAMS but did not receive an RE grading.

·        SACRE requested extracts of any published Ofsted report for Bracknell Forest schools where they related to RE. (Action: Steve Bogg / Gary Paterson)

33.

SIAMS report updates pdf icon PDF 163 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The SIAMS reports were considered under the previous agenda item.

34.

OFSTED report updates

Minutes:

OFSTED report outcomes were considered under a previous agenda item

35.

Hub action plan for Westhill project pdf icon PDF 450 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Anne Andrews reported that Bracknell Forest SACRE had been granted the Westhill Bid in conjunction with the Berkshire Hub.

 

An additional Hub meeting was planned for 17 July 2019, and any feedback or comments were to be sent to Madeline.

 

The Bid consisted of £4k allocated to the Hub of 6 Berkshire SACRES. The fund would be used to take a small group of teachers to 4 places of worship, to ask syllabus questions of people who worship there and video the interviews for use in the classrooms. It was hoped that a secondary school media department might be used to film and edit the interviews.

 

All SACRE members were asked to send any suggestions of proposed venues to Gareth and Madeline to feed back on 17 July 2019.

36.

Proposal for RE ambassador scheme pdf icon PDF 274 KB

Minutes:

Anne Andrews presented the proposal to expand the RE Ambassador Project which had been started in Ranelagh.

 

It was proposed to use Ranelagh as the Bracknell Forest training school for other secondary school pupils. Trained ambassadors would be sent out to primary schools to deliver RE lessons.

 

SACRE commented that they had been very impressed with the Ranelagh ambassadors when they presented to the meeting.

 

Arising from discussion, the following points were noted:

·        Pupils from all faith groups would be encouraged to apply to become ambassadors.

·        It was proposed that children could be given the opportunity to interview for the role of ambassador.

·        SACRE members discussed how the project could fit into SACRE’s goals.

·        Ranelagh ambassadors had visited Wildridings, St Michael’s Easthampstead and Jennet’s Park.

·        It was suggested that ambassadors could be brought into schools to deliver collective worship assemblies.

·        SACRE members asked what support the schools would need.

 

 

It was agreed that a letter would be written to RE lessons from the SACRE meeting in September, to ask what the barriers to the project would be and how SACRE could support the project. SACRE agreed to reconsider the proposal in September when it was further appraised of the issues arising from it.

 

 

 

37.

Locally Agreed Syllabus and Related Training

Minutes:

Anne Andrews reported that the recent RE Network meeting had been poorly attended, but those who had attended were from faith schools. SACRE considered that the move of the Network meeting to the Open Learning Centre might have discouraged attendance due to parking issues.

 

It was clarified that enough feedback on the Guidance materials had been received, but the Berkshire Hub had asked for cross referencing between Crossing the Bridges documents and the Guidance. Anne Andrews had agreed to put this together

 

The need for blended learning with face-to-face and online training was recognised for the future.

 

SACRE recognised that the SACRE Resources had been transported to the Open Learning Centre following the move from Easthampstead Park Community Centre. The artefacts had been purchased by Berkshire County Council, and as such, SACRE members agreed they were happy for other SACREs to loan the artefacts. SACRE agreed to write a letter to support the loan, to inform the Open Learning Centre.  (Action: Anne Andrews/Gareth Barnard)

 

38.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

Anne Andrews reported that the SACRE Hub had been keen to re-establish the SACRE Conference. It had been suggested that this could be hosted at a hotel, with all SACRE committing to sending a certain number of people. SACRE members supported the concept of the conference , but proposed that the venue should be somewhere which could be provided free of charge. It was hoped that this could encourage more teachers to attend in addition to SACRE members.

 

Robyn Lynch asked that the matter of substitutes for SACRE members be revisited.

 

 

39.

Dates of Future Meetings

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk