Agenda and draft minutes

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

Contact: Lizzie Rich  01344 352253

Items
No. Item

16.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 153 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 13 November 2019 were approved as a correct record.

17.

SACRE Hub

·         Update on project so far

·         Details of launch conference

Minutes:

Anne Andrews provided an update on the work of the pan-Berkshire SACRE Hub.

 

The Hub had been awarded £4k from the Westhill Bid to fund a project to further RE teaching. The Hub had planned a video project, called ‘Real People, Real Faith’, to create a series of short films with interviews with people from the faith groups covered by the locally agreed syllabus. It was hoped that the filming would be complete by the end of term, as 4 out of 6 sessions had been held. The next step would be to produce teaching notes to accompany the videos.

 

The next Hub meeting was scheduled for 27 April 2020 at Brakenhale School, and the Hub would be discussing whether to create two further films to capture a traditional Jewish view, and a Catholic view.

 

The Hub had booked a launch event for the resources at Easthampstead Park Conference Centre on 2 July 2020. Each SACRE would be allocated 8 funded delegate spaces with the remaining grant funding, and any further delegates would need to be funded by their SACRE.

 

All of the Berkshire SACRE Hubs had made their financial contribution, and so the project was fully funded. It was queried whether the Hub would have the budget to fund further films and to release teachers for afternoon/twilight sessions to produce the teaching notes and support materials.

 

In response to questions, the following points were noted:

·        SACRE members commented that the resources would be most useful if teachers were involved in the launch process, and could be ‘champions’ of the resources from the start.

·        SACRE agreed to offer its allocated delegate spaces to RE teachers (primary and secondary) and if there were more than 8 volunteers, SACRE would discuss whether it was possible to fund additional spaces. A ‘save the date’ would be sent to all RE leads, and expressions of interest be sought.

·        The technical filesharing arrangements with the filmmaker were yet to be agreed, and it was noted that the video files were very large and could not easily be shared by email. It was proposed that a film portal such as True Tube could host the videos and the link be shared.

·        There were 72 films in the project, each lasting 2-3 minutes.

·        SACRE requested that schools be consulted in a years time to see how the resources had been used.

·        SACRE requested that the materials be branded so that they were easily identifiable as part of the project.

·        Tracey Bradshaw agreed to contact schools to request details of their RE leads, so that an easy contact list could be established for the sharing of such resources. (Action: Tracey Bradshaw)

18.

Update on RE Network Meetings

Minutes:

Anne reported that the latest RE Network meeting had been well attended, with 15 attendees looking at the intent and purpose behind RE teaching. Feedback following the meeting had shown that teachers had found the time useful.

 

The summer Network meeting (3 June 2020, Garth Hill College) would be looking at the implementation of RE teaching, and attendees had been encouraged to bring examples of activities they had done, and examples of pupil books to ascertain the impact RE teaching was having.

 

SACRE welcomed the news of good attendance and enthusiasm the current cohort of RE leads.

 

19.

Ofsted reports

Minutes:

Tracey Bradshaw updated on the Ofsted inspections which had taken place since the last meeting. Meadow Vale Primary School had been inspected in October 2019 and the report was available, and Sandy Lane had recently been inspected and the result and report were not yet in the public domain.

 

Tracey reminded SACRE members that the format of Ofsted reports had changed, and reports were now written for parents. The detail which used to be provided in reports was now provided to schools directly, and this was likely to include any reference to RE along with any other specific subject. It was noted that there was not often reference to RE in Ofsted reports nationally.

 

SACRE members queried whether it would be possible for Local Authority officers to note ay feedback given to schools pertaining to RE or Collective Worship over the course of a year in order to provide anonymity for schools. (Action: Tracey Bradshaw)

 

Tracey agreed to circulate Ofsted reports to SACRE as they became publicly available. (Action: Tracey Bradshaw/Lizzie Rich)  

 

 

20.

SIAMS reports pdf icon PDF 142 KB

Minutes:

Anne Andrews reported that since the beginning of the academic year, there had been three SIAMS inspections in Bracknell Forest. Jennett’s Park Primary School and Winkfield St Mary’s had both been rated Good for RE, however Winkfield St Mary’s had been told that their collective worship needed improvement. It was noted that these schools lay under the diocesan remit.

 

The School Link Advisor from the Diocese would work alongside Governors to improve on any points raised in SIAMS inspections.

 

Arising from discussion, the following points were noted:

·        SACRE members that Winkfield St Mary’s Primary School had progressed significantly in many areas, and members had faith for further improvement.

·        The Diocesan Board were rewriting the support programme for Governors to make it more effective. It was requested that this be shared with the Council’s Standards and Effectiveness Partners for use with the relevant schools. (Action: Anne Andrews)

21.

Feedback from the activity

Minutes:

SACRE considered the output of the workshop activity undertaken at their last meeting in order to establish the strategic priorities.

 

Members welcomed the strategic priorities as a concept and agreed to send specific comments to Anne and Gareth for consideration and collation before the strategic priorities were signed off by SACRE.

22.

Budget

Minutes:

Tracey advised that the Bracknell Forest contribution to the pan-Berkshire Hub had been delayed but had now been paid.

 

The current SACRE budget was £1680, of which £265 had been spent (excluding the Hub contribution of £900). The NASACRE conference and membership were also due to be paid.

23.

Interfaith Group

Minutes:

Madeline Diver reported on the work of the Faith and Belief Forum.

 

The Group had been required to separate from Involve, and had been required to register as its own entity with its own bank account and GDPR compliance. The Group had therefore appointed a new secretary.

 

The objective of the Faith and Belief Forum was to promote community cohesion and to arrange activities to help the public understand faith and belief in Bracknell Forest.

 

For Interfaith Week in November 2019, the Group had organised an event to discuss ‘Are science and religion compatible?’ which had been a great success.

 

The Faith and Belief Forum’s Annual General Meeting had been arranged for 3 June 2020 at St Joseph’s Church, and all SACRE members were invited to attend if interested. It was hoped that a speaker would be arranged to speak on Sex and Relationship education, and how different faiths approach this. Tracey agreed to liaise with Madeline about the speaker, however it was suggested that a PSHE teacher or similar may be more appropriate than a Local Authority officer. (Action: Tracey Bradshaw)

 

24.

Feedback on GCSE/A Level results

Minutes:

SACRE noted information on the last round of GCSE/A Level results.

 

In response to discussion, it was noted that:

·        SACRE agreed to write to Brakenhale and to College Hall to recognise their successes in the increase of the number of pupils taking RE at GCSE. SACRE also agreed to write to Edgbarrow to recognise a successful pass rate. All three schools would be asked about their work, to ascertain best practice to be shared with other schools.

·        It was suggested that a representative from Brakenhale be invited to a SACRE meeting to speak about their work on encouraging RE uptake.

·        It was suggested that a performance metric on RE uptake and outcome could be included in the SACRE strategic priorities

·        SACRE requested that for future result updates, national percentage data would be useful for comparison.

·        It was suggested that RE uptake at A Level may be compromised by conflicting choice ‘blocks’ set by schools.

·        It was queried whether RE was promoted as a subject which would be useful in the modern world. SACRE members reiterated the fact that the curriculum was challenging and provided a breadth of understanding for students.

25.

NASACRE AGM

Minutes:

It was noted that Anne would be attending the NASACRE AGM in London on 18 May 2020, having been joint funded by Bracknell Forest and Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead SACREs. Anne agreed to provide an update at the next meeting.

26.

Items for next SACRE newsletter

Minutes:

Items for next newsletter

·        Summary of 3 year plan.

·        Feedback from Brakenhale GCSE/A Level uptake

·        Sikhism in Bracknell

·        Promote new resources coming up, advertise the Real People, Real Faith conference

 

27.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

RajdipMarok-Dhanju commented that she would like to see community cohesion be more strongly promoted in Bracknell Forest, following the example of events in towns like Birmingham.

28.

Dates of Future Meetings

Minutes:

13 July 2020

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk