Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair for SACRE for the 2017-18 academic year.

Shahanaz Begum was nominated to serve as SACRE Chair. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED –

THAT Shahanaz Begum be elected Chair of Camden SACRE for the 2017-18 academic year.

To elect a Vice-Chair for SACRE for the 2017-18 academic year.

Ann Boater was nominated to serve as SACRE Vice-Chair. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED –

THAT Ann Boater be elected Vice-Chair of Camden SACRE for the 2017-18 academic year.

Apologies were received from Siobhan Baillie, Abdul Quadir and Aidan Cottell-Boyce.

There were no announcements.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd May 2017.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd May 2017.

Jean Harrison asked that her apologies for that meeting be noted.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd May 2017 be approved, subject to the amendment above.

It was noted that no Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC) meeting was being held today as the last ASC meeting had wanted to have sight of the Westminster version of the Hampshire syllabus, but this was not ready yet.

The Chair asked if the latest version of the Ramadan guidance could be circulated, as it would need to be discussed at the February meeting to ensure that it could be given to schools prior to Ramadan starting.

Members asked if a response from the school had been received to the query about the number of children whose religion had been listed as “unclassified” at Fleet. The Clerk said he had had an email exchange with the school after the May SACRE meeting, and they had said that the system formerly used in their office had been to list children whose parents had not indicated a religious affiliation for them as “unclassified”. It was noted that this was not what other schools had done in the returns they had provided to SACRE when requesting a Determination.

REPORT TO FOLLOW

Copies of the draft annual report were circulated to members.

The Professional Advisor, Lesley Prior, introduced the draft report. It was agreed that details about examination results would be included.

                                    ACTION: Executive Director, Supporting People (OR)

The membership of the committee over the academic year 2016-17 would need to be added. There had been a number of changes in the membership of SACRE.

                                    ACTION: Committee Services (VS)

It was agreed that the final version of the annual report would be presented to the 8^th February 2018 SACRE meeting.

RESOLVED –

THAT the draft report and the comments above be noted.

http://www.commissiononre.org.uk/religious-education-for-all-commission-interim-report/ 

The Professional Advisor informed members of two reports which had been published recently.

One was an RE Council and National Association of Teachers of RE report on the teaching of RE. They had found that RE was most likely to be taught at faith schools and least likely to be taught at academies. LA community schools, which SACREs had jurisdiction relating to, were in between. Members commented that it would be interesting to see whether these national trends were the same in Camden.

The report had noted that it was easier to obtain data from secondary schools, as RE was taught as a separate subject and some pupils sat exams. In primary schools, where RE was incorporated into general teaching, it was more difficult to collect information about this.

The second report had been the interim report of the Commission on RE, chaired by the Very Rev John Hall. The Commission was inviting comments by 4^th December to feed into their final report.

There were four recommendations in the interim report:

·         A national entitlement to RE

·         Holding schools to account for implementing the national entitlement

·         An expanded role for SACREs

·         A national plan for RE

Some members welcomed the suggestion of changing the name of the subject to emphasise that it would include non-religious worldviews and consideration of moral and ethical questions. “Philosophy, Religion and Ethics” was one suggested name that the Welsh government were thinking of introducing.

Members welcomed the idea of a national entitlement to RE. Some suggested that it would be better to have a national curriculum in the subject, rather than individual academy chains or SACREs deciding on an agreed syllabus for the schools within their jurisdiction. Others commented that the direction of travel was moving away from a statutory national curriculum and so it would not be the time to introduce it for RE.

Members welcomed the recommendation of holding schools to account. They felt that OFSTED should not judge schools as “outstanding” unless they had good RE.

Members supported a national plan for RE. In light of the concerns in the first report, they felt that efforts needed to be made to train teachers and to give them confidence to deliver lessons on what was seen as the sensitive topic of religion. Currently, primary trainee teachers had 3 hours of training on how to deliver RE; the Commission was proposing 12 hours. The Vice-Chair also added that it was important that schools gave staff time to take Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses when they were in post.

Members agreed that the points raised in the discussion would be circulated to members via email for them to make further comments. On matters on which there was a consensus, the Chair would then draw up a submission and send it to the Commission.

                                                            ACTION: Committee Services (VS)

                                                                             Chair of SACRE

RESOLVED –

(i)            THAT the report and the comments above be noted;

(ii)          THAT the Chair make a submission to the Commission on RE reflecting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

As mentioned at Item 6 above, the Agreed Syllabus Conference scheduled for 9^th November had not been held as they were awaiting the Westminster version of the Hampshire syllabus. Members noted the next ASC meeting would be on 8^th February, prior to SACRE.

There were no items of urgent business.

Future meetings of SACRE will be held on:

·         Thursday, 8^th February 2018

·         Thursday, 26^th April 2018

Future meetings of SACRE would be held on:

·         Thursday, 8^th February 2018

·         Thursday, 26^th April 2018