Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Ian Hopwood, Tasnim Khawaja, Charlotte Betteridge and Ellie Hill.  Rebecca Davidge from the University of Worcester attended for Ellie Hill.

None

To confirm the minutes of the meeting on 4 October 2016.

The minutes were accepted as an accurate record of the previous meeting and were signed by the Chairman.

To receive an update from Irene Punt.

Irene Punt Schools Improvement Manager attended and reported amounts of funding which would be available for SACRE until 2020. The money would be paid by Babcock from the money received from the County Council under the contract for Education Services until the end of contract in 2020.

RESOLVED that SACRE thanked Irene Punt for the confirmation of the money that SACRE would be receiving and it was suggested that a 3 year strategic plan could now be produced.

To receive an update from Steven Pett.

Stephen Pett explained that the project was due to start on 23 May with the first day of training with follow up days in September and November 2017 and February 2018.

Stephanie Boulter gave details about the Church of England Project Understanding Christianity which was launched last year and was led by Stephen Pett. The Understanding Christianity pack was a substantial resource but was everything the teacher needed. Cathedral staff had already completed training.

RESOLVED that SACRE would receive a further report about the Hub Leaders project at the next SACRE meeting.

To receive an update from Stephen Pett.

Stephen Pett gave a brief update of the Special RE Day which was held on 11 October 2016.  17 delegates attended from 5 Counties. They dealt with very varied pupils and found it helpful to be able to meet other teachers.

It was suggested that it would be helpful for future invitations to be emailed to 'office@(School)' email addresses.

2017 Conferences

·       The Primary Conferences were being organised by RE Today for 19 and 20 June 2017. The venue on 19 June would be in Worcester and on 20 June it would be held in Herefordshire

·       The secondary RE conference was booked for 29 June 2017 and would be jointly organised by RE Today and South Bromsgrove High School.

SACRE were asked if they could consider supporting the Conferences with a financial contribution towards the organisation of the conference.

For SACRE members to discuss and decide on a response.

The REC Commission Call for Evidence to advise the Government on the provision of RE had produced an interim report. The final report would be produced next year.

SACRE members agreed with the proposed answer that ALL schools should adhere to the local agreed syllabus; there was a discussion whether a legal requirement should be enforced whether a common baseline entitlement for RE should apply to all types of school and be monitored by SACRE.

The Big NASACRE survey would be live until the end of April.

RESOLVED that Stephen Pett send round draft answers to questions for the NASACRE survey to enable SACRE members to give their views and feed into the survey.

To receive an update from Stephen Pett.

Ofsted were beginning to report the non-compliance in RE teaching and that some schools were not doing any RE.

Yvonne Stollard reported that the Holocaust Memorable Day in Bromsgrove for Bromsgrove, Redditch and Worcester was well attended.

The Interfaith Group had encouraged support for Holocaust Day in Hereford.

The Chairman reported that she had received a query from a Research Student asking about whether Worcestershire SACRE monitored visitors who went into schools. Gloucestershire had a monitoring Committee which kept a list of visitors. The Chairman asked if anyone would like to volunteer to take on a monitoring role. She would also like someone to take on the task of updating the list of places of worship that are good for schools to visit. It was suggested that SACRE could look at setting up a training day to help monitor the quality of places of worship as a learning destination for schools.

Kate to find list of destinations for TL and YS

Yvonne Stollard pointed out that there was a problem with question 1.7 in the syllabus as an example of a welcoming ceremony was put down for Judaism – this was not appropriate and should not be included. Stephen Pett said the syllabus had now been amended.

Dates 2017

Friday 9 June at 2pm

Tuesday 3 October at 2pm

Future meeting dates were

9 June 2017

3 October 2017.