Minutes:
Mrs Sam Hunt reported that SACRE had spent £900 on new religious artefacts – concentrating on Hindu, Jewish and Sikh collections as these had the greatest demand. The Chairman declared that he had authorised an additional £400 to be allocated for the purchase of artefacts which he asked the meeting to ratify, this was agreed by members. In addition Mrs Hunt asked if SACRE would consider an additional allocation of funds – as an imminent school trip to Israel would present a good opportunity to purchase Christian artefacts which were difficult to obtain in the UK. The Chairman felt that money should be spent cautiously; as a result the meeting agreed that an allocation of up to £500 be made for Mrs Hunt to spend.
It was reported that over the summer term Mrs Hunt would photograph all current artefacts and update their descriptions over the course of a day. It was then proposed that SACRE reprint this updated Artefacts catalogue in the autumn term and send it to all local schools and NQTS. The possibility of publishing the catalogue in an electronic form was also debated and the Principal Adviser was asked to investigate the costs involved in each case. The meeting decided to approve the reprinting of the catalogue in principle, depending on the costs involved as reported by the Principal Adviser.
On the issue of the loaning of religious artefacts it was reported that this had been erratic; while Primary schools had often utilised the service, secondary schools had been less keen to do so. One of the problems which discouraged schools from using this service was reported to be confusion over the loaning of the artefacts. While the two people conducting the loaning of artefacts were hard-working, it was reported that they lacked an in-depth knowledge of the artefacts and could only use the artefact catalogue which caused problems in communications with schools. It was suggested that the Education Centre would benefit from a person dedicated to the loaning of artefacts.
It was felt that the fact that two people were working on this task was positive – since this offered a continuity of service if either individual left the Council’s service. It was noted that an in-depth knowledge of the artefacts was beyond the remit of these individuals and that the teachers and religious specialists in schools should be supplying this knowledge.
It was reported that in-service training sessions (illustrating the correct handling and proper uses of religious artefacts) continued to be run for primary school teachers. It was hoped that attendance would be good as this might allow the knowledge imparted to be cascaded through course attendees to other staff at their schools.
Finally, Mrs Hunt reported problems surrounding discontinuity in the artefact catalogue. Originally she had worked closely with the individual who had catalogued every artefact and stored this information electronically. Subsequently, this person had left the employment of the Education Centre and after several different people had filled the vacant position - the whereabouts of these records within the ICT system was lost. The Chairman expressed concern over this issue and asked Mrs Hunt to continue to pursue this matter.
(Action: Sam Hunt and Bob Welch)