Agenda item

• Religious Education Council’s Revised Guidance on the R.E Curriculum

It was reported that this was non-statutory guidance which attempted to address issues raised by the recent Ofsted report.

When SACRE undertook its next review of the syllabus this guidance was likely to be very influential. It would now be the core document referred to, for all future developments in R.E and as a result SACRE members needed to be mindful of it.

It was reported that the guidance was quite a flexible document and open to a wide range of interpretation. One of the key differences between this guidance and the syllabus that Bracknell Forest currently had in place was that the guidance didn’t include the eight level scale, which measured children’s progress. It was not clear what the eight level scale had been replaced with.

The guidance had been launched on 25 October 2013 in the House of Lords and was currently being discussed in various venues across the country.

• Responsibilities of Governors for R.E in their Schools

It was reported that these papers had emerged from an all party working group and could be used as the basis of a meeting with governors that was scheduled to take place early in the summer term.

• Annual SACRE Report 2012-13

This report would be finalised by Jo Fageant and then sent to all schools and NASACRE with a letter from the Chairman and would be available on the Council’s website.

(Action: Martin Surrell/Priya Patel)

It was noted that membership of the Group needed to be checked and updated where necessary.

(Action: Priya Patel)

• Religion and Belief, Discrimination and Equality Research Project (Derby University)

Madeline Diver reported that she had participated in the project and would share the findings with the Group. She stated that it was encouraging to see that discrimination had reduced in comparison to ten years ago. It was agreed that the project findings would be emailed to the Group and added to the Council’s website.

(Action: Priya Patel)

• Interfaith Week – November 2013

Flyer to be circulated to the Group.                                  (Action: Priya Patel)

• Accord Inclusivity Award 2014

The Group felt that as Bracknell Forest did not have a high level of diversity, this award should not be pursued.

• NASACRE Newsletter

It was reported that the links in this newsletter led to some interesting documents.