Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chair of Camden SACRE for the academic year 2020-21.

Mary Thorne was proposed as Chair for SACRE for the 2020-21 academic year. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED –

THAT Mary Thorne be elected Chair of Camden SACRE for the 2020-21 academic year.

The meeting thanked the outgoing Chair Shahanaz Begum for her work on SACRE over the past few years and wished her the best for the future.

To elect a Vice-Chair of Camden SACRE for the academic year 2020-21.

Ann Boater was proposed as Vice-Chair of SACRE for the 2020-21 academic year. There were no other nominations.

RESOLVED –

THAT Ann Boater be elected Vice-Chair of Camden SACRE for the 2020-21 academic year.

To note guidance on remote meetings.

The guidance was noted.

There were no apologies for absence. Apologies for early departure were received from Councillors Nasim Ali, Maria Higson and Abdul Quadir.

There were no declarations of interest.

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair to announce the following: ‘In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for six months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.’

Any other announcements

Broadcast of the meeting

The Chair made the following announcement: ‘In addition to the rights by law that the public and press have to record this meeting, I would like to remind everyone that this meeting is being broadcast live by the Council to the Internet and can be viewed on our website for six months after the meeting. After that time, webcasts are archived and can be made available upon request.

If you have asked to address the meeting, you are deemed to be consenting to having your contributions recorded and broadcast, including video when switched on, and to the use of those sound recordings and images for webcasting and/or training purposes.’

To note the Terms of Reference for Camden SACRE.

The terms of reference were noted.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 21^st January 2020.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting held on 21^st January 2020.

The Clerk reported that he had been in contact with the schools whose Determinations had expired or were coming up for renewal but had not had a response.

Owen Rees, the Schools Information and Governance Consultant, clarified that OFSTED were not carrying out regular school inspections at the moment. He also send he would send out 2019 exam data.

Lesley Prior, the Professional Advisor, reported that the Hampshire syllabus, which was the ‘parent syllabus’ of the Camden one, was under review.

RESOLVED –

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 21^st January 2020 be approved as a correct record.

To note the membership of Camden SACRE.

The current membership of Camden SACRE was noted.

Members said they wished to have further discussion on the SACRE’s membership at Item 12 (Self Evaluation Framework) below.

To note a list of schools with Determinations.

Consideration was given to the list of schools with and without Determinations.

The Determinations for Brecknock and Rhyl schools were coming to an end in early 2021. The Clerk was asked to write to these schools.

It was noted that the Determinations for Torriano Primary, Hampstead and Primrose Hill had recently expired. They would be written to in order to inform them of this and to encourage them to consider submitting a new application.  

RESOLVED –

(i)            THAT the list of schools with and without Determinations be noted;

(ii)          THAT Brecknock and Rhyl schools be contacted to inform them that their Determinations were coming to an end and the process for renewing them.

(iii)         THAT Torriano, Hampsead and Primrose Hill schools be contacted to inform them that their Determination had recently expired and of the process for applying for a new Determination.

To consider the draft annual report for Camden SACRE.

Consideration was given to the draft Camden SACRE annual report.

Members noted that, due to the coronavirus situation, there had been no exams this summer and so the usual exam results could not be included. There had also been no NASACRE conference.

RESOLVED –

(i)            THAT the draft report be agreed;

(ii)          THAT the report, when finalised, be sent to the Local Authority, the Department for Education and NASACRE.

To consider the Self-Evaluation Framework for Camden SACRE.

Consideration was given to the paper on the SACRE self-evaluation framework.

Lesley Prior explained that she had worked with the outgoing Chair and Owen Rees on completing the framework. They thought the SACRE could be considered established with regard to Aspects 2, 3 and 4.

Aspect 1 (the monitoring and improvement of standards) was an area they felt the SACRE was on the border between ‘developing’ and ‘established’. In terms of Aspect 5 (the contribution of SACRE to social and racial harmony) they felt SACRE was ‘developing’.

In terms of improving on Aspects 1 and 5, members said that this could be improved by having a wider range of members of SACRE.

With regards to Panel A, the Committee noted the need to broaden the representation of different religious communities.  

It was noted that for some faiths it was difficult to find a representative organisation to nominate SACRE reps and so SACRE was dependent on the LA’s judgement as to whether the person was ‘representative’ of the faith in question and on personal contacts to find volunteers.

In addition to the two Sunni Muslim representatives the Panel currently had, the Professional Advisor said it might be desirable to have a Shia representative. Members noted there was a vacancy for a Sikh representative. It was also suggested the Board of Deputies could also be approached to see if a representative could be obtained from the Reform Judaism tradition as well as from the Modern Orthodox.

Panel A had formerly had a Humanist representative, to represent non-religious traditions. However, he had stood down. The British Humanist Association would be approached to seek a new representative. Councillor Fulbrook also suggested that the South Place Ethical Society could be approached as an alternative source of representatives from non-religious philosophical traditions. 

With regard to Panel C, the custom and practice in Camden had been to seek nominations from teachers’ unions. However, there had been a large number of vacancies in that section and low attendance. It was suggested that the primary and secondary RE networks could be approached for volunteers, as they could be considered teacher ‘associations’ as mentioned in the terms of reference. Stephanie Ellner said that SACRE reps in Havering came from the RE networks.

There was a discussion about the need for special schools to be represented. When Tracey Edwards had been a member, there had been a link with Swiss Cottage special school, This was considered important as some special schools were innovating and being creating with regard to personal, social and moral education.

With regard to Panel D, the custom and practice in Camden had been to fill all places with councillors nominated by the Annual Meeting of the Council. However, Ann Boater said that in Islington school governor representatives also sat on SACRE Panel D. However, any change in this in Camden would require the agreement of the borough’s Full Council.

RESOLVED –

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

(ii)          THAT the Clerk, Professional Advisor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

There was no other business.