Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of this Committee and the Agreed Syllabus Conference held on 15 November 2024

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 November 2024 were approved as a correct record.

The invitation to the chaplain of Ranelagh School should be pushed back to a later date once the Agreed Syllabus Conference had progressed.

SACRE proposed to hold its next meeting in person, at a school or at the Council offices. It was requested that this meeting should be a hybrid meeting.

The Annual Report was yet to be submitted, subject to the inclusion of GCSE and A Level results.

SACRE welcomed Sevde Gundogdu who was a prospective Group A: Islamic representative. Sevde’s nomination to SACRE was pending approval from the Executive Member: Children, Young People & Learning and would be finalised by the time of the next meeting.

Vicki Gibson updated SACRE members on work to move the SACRE artefacts from the Open Learning Centre, and the plan to move them to Bracknell Library. It was hoped that this move would keep the artefacts in the public domain, and there were plans for a piece of work to encourage children and families to access the resources when they visited the library.

Bracknell Forest Council had funded the removal service and for the locking of the artefacts

SACRE were happy to support the use of Council funds for this work.

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        There was work to develop ‘faith trails’ with teacher in Bracknell Forest to support religious education teaching in schools. The plans would be further developed at the Autumn network meeting.

·        Some SACRE members were meeting at the Open Learning Centre to sort through the cabinets and artefacts which would go on loan to schools, and to appropriately store these. This work would identify which artefacts should be displayed in cabinets and which should be stored in boxes.

The latest RE Network meeting had discussed how teachers assessed the curriculum and the criteria for a good curriculum. Teachers at the meeting seemed very engaged.

The next Network meeting was scheduled to meet in person at Birch Hill Primary School to share resources, discuss the artefacts work and the syllabus.

Anne Andrews presented the National Content Standard.

The document was a non-statutory guide which aimed to achieve a standard for syllabus content. The standard would be referred to when developing the pan-Berkshire syllabus to ensure that it was in line with the general national standards.

Clare Hawkins presented the proposed SACRE Action Plan. The plan had been kept as simple as possible in light of the syllabus review, but it was important to maintain a focus on all the other functions of a SACRE.

In response, SACRE commented that the plan was very practical and agreed to take it forward as a working document over the next few meetings.

AGM and training

SACRE members were encouraged to attend NASACRE training sessions and were reminded that the slide decks and most recordings of training sessions were also available on the NASACRE website. Lizzie Rich agreed to recirculate the log in for the NASACRE website. (Action: Lizzie Rich)

This year’s NASACRE Annual General Meeting was scheduled for 20 May 2024 in York. There was sufficient budget for one SACRE member to attend, and SACRE agreed that Vicki Gibson should attend the AGM. Vicki agreed to feed back on the AGM at the next SACRE meeting. (Action: Vicki Gibson)

SACRE members were asked to send any articles for the SACRE Newsletter to Anne Andrews by 22 April.

SACRE noted the SACRE budget position and noted that the artefacts work was being covered separately to the planned budget.

Tracey Bradshaw updated SACRE on the latest outcomes at GCSE and A Level.

A query was raised around local secondary schools offering RE at A Level, and whether SACRE could be doing more to encourage schools to offer this. It was agreed that this matter would be further discussed at the next meeting. (Action: Vicki Gibson/Lizzie Rich)

9 July 2024

16 October 2024

5 March 2025

9 July 2024, in person

16 October 2024, TBC

5 March 2025, TBC