Agenda and minutes

It was announced that Councillor Quadir had been elected as Mayor for the 2011/12 municipal year. The meeting congratulated him on this.

The Professional Adviser to SACRE, Colin Adams, informed the meeting that two of the four teacher members of the body (Mr Efthimiou and Ms Still) no longer worked for schools in the borough. Further nominations would be sought from the trade unions to try and fill their places.

Mr Adams also informed members that the former Clerk to SACRE, Jennet Mosley, no longer worked for the Council.

Apologies were received from Rev Christine Cargill and Lynn Trigg.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the SACRE meeting that had been held on 15^th February 2011.

Mr Adams informed members that he had contacted the officer responsible for the Youth Council about student co-option to SACRE. He had been advised that the ‘Youth MP’ would be the ideal person to involve, but he had not heard back from them.

Members thought that the Youth MP would be likely to be too busy to attend SACRE meetings and that efforts should be made to contact other young people who might have more interest in RE and more time to attend meetings.

Mr Adams updated members to let them know that he had contacted Beckford School regarding their determination and of expectations relating to collective worship.

Rev. Walters mentioned that the C of E Diocese had an RE advisor who could offer advice to Beckford, as their work was focussed on community schools.

Verbal update

The Professional Adviser informed SACRE that Haverstock’s determination had expired and that they had not responded to him when he contacted them asking if they wished to renew it.

Concern was expressed by members that Haverstock might not be meeting the requirements laid out in the 1944 Education Act to have a daily act of collective worship. It was suggested that the Authority or the school might be open to legal challenge if the school continued to be in non-compliance with its obligations. 

Ms Wolverson stated that the local authority was open to prosecution, since it had the responsibility for community schools. She commented that challenges only tended to take place if a complaint was formally made by a parent. The last instance she was aware of this occurring had been against the ILEA when they had responsibility for Inner London schools prior to 1990.

Councillors Katz and Fulbrook expressed concern that the Council could be held liable for this omission on the part of the school. It was agreed that the Professional Advisor should write to the Headteacher and the Chair of Governors to highlight SACRE’s concerns and that legal advice should be sought as to the options open to SACRE if the school remained in non-compliance.

ACTION: Professional Advisor to SACRE (CA)

     Committee Services (VS)

Councillor Katz, as a new member of the body, stated that he would like to see an overview of the situation across the borough, in terms of how many schools had determinations and whether other schools were not providing a daily act of collective worship in line with the 1944 Act.

ACTION: Professional Advisor to SACRE (CA)

Verbal update

The Professional Adviser updated members on the situation regarding the English Baccalaureate. This was the name given by the Secretary of State for Education for a qualification for pupils who got 5 GCSEs in specified subjects. The only humanities subjects specified were variants of History and Geography.

He said those involved in RE had been concerned about this, since they feared that schools would concentrate on the “core” subjects in the Baccalaureate and not devote resources or time to teaching pupils Religious Education and the RE GCSE. A letter had been sent to Michael Gove and to the two Camden MPs by the Chair of SACRE.

Ms Wolverson added that, in light of the concerns regarding the English Baccalaureate, a Select Committee of the House of Commons had been assembled to inquire into them. She urged members to write in to the Committee to make their views known. She warned that there were also cuts in teacher training in RE and that this would have a significant detrimental impact on the teaching of the subject.

Rev. Walters highlighted the importance for the individual and for society of ensuring that pupils had good religious education in schools. He noted that, from his experience from his work at the LSE, he had seen that levels of ‘religious literacy’ were low among many young people. This situation would worsen if they were taught less RE in school. 

RESOLVED –

THAT SACRE write letters to Michael Gove, the Select Committee and Camden’s local MPs to highlight concerns about cuts in funding to RE and the exclusion of RE from the English Baccalaureate. Individual members of SACRE were also invited to write to Mr Gove and MPs to make their views known.

                                                ACTION: Chair of SACRE (JH)

                                                                 Professional Adviser (CA)

Verbal update

The Professional Adviser reported on the joint conference that had taken place at Islington PDC between the Camden and Islington SACREs. The event had interesting speakers and was fairly well-attended.

Mr Adams also mentioned that the next joint conference was likely to be in 2013 and that it was Camden’s turn to host it, if agreed.

Consideration was given to the materials that had been circulated as part of the agenda.

The view was expressed that this information aimed at new SACRE members would also be helpful to schools, if accompanied by a suitable explanation and introduction.

However, Rev. Walters expressed disappointment that the tone of the document seemed to be apologetic with regard to collective worship, when it should be seen as a positive aspect of schooling.

There was also discussion about whether some parts of the documents were an accurate summary of Circular 1/94.

It was agreed that the Professional Adviser should work on drafting a circular to schools based on the information in the document.

                                                            ACTION: Professional Adviser (CA)

The meeting dates agreed for the 2011/12 academic year were:

• 4^th October 2011
• 28^th February 2012
• 12^th June 2012 (provisional)

The meeting gave its thanks to Peggy Double for her service to SACRE, as she had served on the body for many years and was now standing down.

The date of the next meeting would be 4^th October 2011.