The Chair, Karen Butler, welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced Margaret Smith as a new member representing Maidenhead Quakers.

Reverend Vicci Davidson (Methodism) started off by explaining that Methodism, the church she was a minister for, had the President of the Methodist Conference – the equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury – who was elected every year for a single-year term. She added that Methodism had a sort-of triumvirate: the ex-president, the sitting president, and the president designate (who would succeed in the following year). Every year, the president would come up with a theme for the year, with the theme for 2023 being ‘Hidden Treasure’. She believed that this was relevant because all traditions, whether faith groups or Humanist, had hidden treasures within their stories and understandings which were sometimes forgotten because they were so intrinsic to how the world was seen.

(Councillor K. Singh entered the meeting at 5:08pm)

Rev. Vicci Davidson stated that the ‘Hidden Treasures’ theme was taken from the words in Book of Isaiah 45:3 (from the Old Testament of the Christian Bible). She felt that the traditions (or ‘hidden treasures’) gave everyone something to “steer the ship of [their] lives” as they grew on.

Rev. Vicci Davidson then shared her Methodist Prayer Handbook with other SACRE members which contained 30 days of prayers which Methodists prayed through each month. As the date was 4^th December 2023, she concluded the reflection by reading a prayer from the handbook for that date.

Apologies were received from Clare Roberts (KS2 Teacher – Cheapside Primary School), David Saunders (Church of England), and Vanessa Alfred (Judaism). Thomas Kingsley-Jones (KS3 Teacher – Churchmead School) had notified that he was arriving late to the meeting.

Clive Haines, Deputy Director for Education (Achieving for Children, AfC), was unable to attend and was substituted by Helen Mastrilli, SEND/EAL Advisory Teacher (AfC).

Councillor Coe informed that Councillor Douglas had given his apologies. He then notified that he would have to leave the meeting early.

The Chair went through the matters arising in the previous meeting minutes:

·       Laura Dexter (KS1 Teacher – Furze Platt Infant) confirmed visits to Maidenhead Mosque and Synagogue had taken place, though she still needed to write the articles for the newsletter. She also stated that she still needed to do the article on the book which the Bahá’í Faith had donated. When she asked for the date of the newsletter, Anne Andrews informed the meeting that it would be circulated at the beginning of January 2024, and therefore asked for the article to be forwarded by the first week of January 2024.

ACTION: Laura Dexter to write articles for a future newsletter on:

·       Trips to Maidenhead Mosque and Synagogue,

·       The book which the Baha'i Faith had donated to the school.

·       The Chair informed SACRE members that, while some new members were recruited, a resignation had been received.

ACTION: The Chair to continue searching for potential candidates to fill the vacant SACRE positions.

·       Regarding the changes to SACRE’s Constitution (terms of reference, ToR), Laurence Ellis, Democratic Services Officer (clerk), confirmed that Anthony Lewis (Humanism) was now a member of Group A on SACRE as the Humanist representative; and that the references to ‘Chairman’ and ‘Vice-Chairman’ had been changed to ‘Chair’ and ‘Vice-Chair’, a minor amendment which did not require a ToR amendment at a SACRE meeting.

·       The Chair requested Laurence Ellis to circulate the list of action points relating to the current meeting as he had done so after the previous meeting in September 2023.

ACTION: Laurence Ellis to continue to circulate the action points shortly after each meeting.

·       The Chair informed the meeting that she had received only one email from a SACRE member regarding the Development Plan. It was agreed that the discussion on this issue would be deferred to the next meeting as members would be meeting in-person.

ACTION: SACRE to discuss the SACRE Development Plan at the next meeting in March 2024

·       Laurence Ellis confirmed that he had circulated the NASACRE Resource login details to SACRE members. The Chair requested for these to be re-circulated again in case anyone had missed them.

ACTION: Laurence Ellis to re-circulate the new NASACRE login details.

·       Laurence Ellis informed the meeting that he received email replies from members consenting to their email addresses being added to a SACRE member email list but had not received responses from every member. He then asked members in attendance whether they consented or objected to their email being added to the membership email list. Councillor Coe and Ravinder Singh gave their consent. The Chair highlighted that this was based on the headteachers requesting the email addresses of faith leaders.

ACTION: Laurence Ellis to further confirm whether SACRE members would consent for their email addresses to be added to a mailing list which would then be made available to other members.

·       Anne Andrews, SACRE Advisor, believed that she forwarded the dates of secondary RE Network meetings to Laurence Ellis for circulation, and that she also circulated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 442.

The Chair reiterated (and Laurence Ellis confirmed) that two new candidates had been recruited to SACRE: Reverend Matthew Scott (Baptist Church) and Rachel Beaumont (Church of England and RE lead teacher at Eton Porny First School). Laurence Ellis confirmed that the appointments had been approved at the Cabinet meeting on 29^th November 2023.

The Chair also noted (and Laurence Ellis confirmed) that Clare Roberts had stepped down as a SACRE member. She hoped that the next person to replace Clare Roberts might come from the Ascot area.

ACTION: SACRE Chair and Diocesan Adviser to confer over strategies required to recruit a replacement Key Stage 2 representative for SACRE, to replace Clare.

The Chair informed the meeting that Clive Haines had sent out an email with a summary of the budget. The annual amount remained the same at around £6,200 and half of this had already been spent by the time the email was sent a couple of weeks prior to the meeting. The Chair believed that the invoice for the Hub was still outstanding.

The Chair reminded attendees that a financial commitment by SACRE was to offer all schools up to a £100 bursary towards RE-related training. She added that SACRE would support up to 10 schools, stating that a number of requests had been received from schools for this money. Anne Andrews confirmed that the latest update from Clive Haines was that there were at least four schools to receive funding from SACRE though it could be more.

The Chair commended the very positive Ofsted reports for Riverside Primary, St. Luke’s Primary and Altwood Schools. She highlighted the Ofsted reports on Riverside and St. Luke’s primaries, quoting from them sections that commented on how pupils valued difference and the schools sought to ensure that everyone was treated with respect and tolerance. She also pointed out in the reports that pupils learned about different faiths through local faith walks and school panels attended by local faith leaders.

Helen Mastrilli mentioned that she used to work as a teacher at Riverside Primary before working for the Borough.

The Chair then referred to the Ofsted report for Altwood School, highlighting the inspectors’ praise for Sixth Formers mentoring students in younger year groups.

Michael Gammage (Baha’i Faith) informed the meeting that he took part in the 75^th anniversary of St. Luke’s Primary during which the school brought together parents and faith leaders at the local church. He highlighted that the school accommodated the pupils who had English as a second language by translating the school prayer into various languages, such as Arabic, Portuguese and Hindi.

The Chair briefly asked for attendees to introduce themselves, having missed this out at the start of the meeting. Each member also revealed their links to education, from being teachers or former teachers to having schools in their local area.

The Chair reported that she had visited Queen Anne Royal Free CE First School after reviewing the school’s SIAMS report at the SACRE meeting in September 2023, congratulating them on the school’s positive report. During this visit (meeting the headteacher, Judith Street), she learnt that Queen Anne First School had linked up with another school in Soho (Westminster, London). As part of this, the schools had joint assemblies through Zoom, involving their local priests and developing curriculum work around parts of London. In addition, Queen Anne First pupils had visited Soho on a school trip, and all staff had benefited from a joint training day on spirituality. The Chair described the impact of collective worship as “excellent”.

The Chair said that Queen Anne First School had been encouraged to broaden the sphere of its faith work; and had recommended Real People, Real Faith, the SACRE Hub series of interview films featuring a wide range of faith communities.

The Chair then explained her other visit to Desborough College, during which she observed Dai Prendiville (KS4 Teacher – Desborough College) teaching a tutor session through the use of Lyfta, a platform which showed short videos of compelling stories on different ways of life and cultural dimensions from individuals from across the world. She commented that some of the pupils had been very enthusiastic about Lyfta.

Each teacher representative on SACRE then gave a brief update concerning their respective schools.

Laura Dexter reported that Furze Platt Infant School (FPIS) recently had an Ofsted inspection at the end of September 2023, describing it as refreshing and a positive experience. She informed SACRE members that they had received positive comments from inspectors when it came to the curriculum at FPIS.

For Eton Wick CE First School, Karen Waller reported that she had been busy with Nativity plays and maintaining a structured curriculum to ensure the pupils remained focused through to the end of term. She also added that Eton Wick continued to embrace collective worship. Karen Waller added that the school continued to utilise Space Makers after a couple of years, having joined an online call with a group of teachers and headteachers with Reverend Charlie Kerr to share experiences with Space Makers and how to develop it further. She also noted that a couple of schools were visiting to observe Space Makers in action. She added that the use of Space Makers was positively commented on during a SIAMS inspection in 2022.

The Chair asked for a brief overview of Space Makers. Karen Waller explained that Space Makers was a programme which had 5 practices (stilling, noticing, dwelling, mending and blessing) and encouraged children (of any faith or worldview) to consider the world around them, such as things which they were sorry or thankful for. Describing the resource as amazing, she recommended it to any school who were considering to alter their collective worship. Karen Waller further explained that the programme was used once per week whereby an aforementioned practice was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 446.

The Chair informed the meeting that she herself, Anne Andrews and Clive Haines attended a virtual regional NASACRE (National Association of Standing Advisory Councils for RE) meeting for South-East England on 16^th November 2023. She found the meeting useful as it brought together other SACRE members and chairs to share their experiences, as well as discussing the successes and challenges with the SACREs in south-east England.

Anne Andrews hoped that this meeting would be repeated to build stronger links with other SACREs. She then reminded meeting attendees that there was a NASACRE training session on how to monitor RE in schools, taking place during the following evening (7:00-8:00pm) which she was attending. Laura Dexter and the Chair confirmed that that they were also attending the session.

Recognising that monitoring RE education was an issue, Anne Andrews informed meeting attendees that many other SACREs paid their advisor for half-a-day per week or one day per week whereas she herself was only paid by RBWM for five-and-a-half days per year. This meant she could not visit schools as other advisers in other LAs could and stated that half-day-a-week payment (2 days per month) would make a huge difference. The Chair stated that it was within SACRE’s remit to monitor RE in schools by visiting them with their advisor, thus providing the basis of a sound argument for increased payment to Anne Andrews as SACRE’s advisor if required. Further discussion on this issue was needed.

ACTION: At a future meeting, SACRE members to debate the possibility of increasing the budget to enable Anne Andrews to make monitoring visits to Borough schools alongside SACRE colleagues.

Anne Andrews explained that one RE Network meeting had taken place, focusing on the proposals for the Agreed Syllabus. The meeting had improved attendance with people keen to talk about the syllabus though there had been some confusion on what constituted a syllabus as opposed to a scheme of work.

The RE Network meeting discussed the audit tool (which Thomas Kingsley-Jones mentioned earlier) and a couple more schools became interested in pursuing the audit tool, with two or three teachers stating that they had found the tool helpful and had requested a copy.

Anne Andrews believed that there was a desire amongst the schools attending the RE Network meetings to evaluate and audit their provision of religious education and to improve on this.

The Chair mentioned that she asked the clerk of the RE Network meetings, Elaine Norstrom, to send an email out to the schools stating that they could contact her if they wanted to use the audit tool. She added that she was open to using SACRE funding to support those meetings to promote its use.

The Chair asked Thomas Kingsley-Jones whether there were any notes from the second Secondary RE Network meeting at Altwood School which had been circulated. He replied that he had not received any notes, though he was aware that the question was raised at the meeting on whether RE teachers wanted to come together to moderate in 2024. While he had not been able to attend the meeting, he stated that he would attend the next meeting in January 2024.

The Chair informed the meeting that the RE Network meeting was a meeting of the Heads of RE at secondary schools in the Borough, convened and headed by the Head of RE at Altwood School.

Before discussing the item, the Chair raised the fact that the item title should be ‘SACRE Development Plan, 2023-25, Draft 1’, in contrast to its current title in the agenda.

The Chair explained that she had drawn up a development plan which was based on the previous one from last year (2022) but had been extended for another two years on the grounds that its content was too ambitious to be achieved within 12 months. She said the changes which had been made were to remove the completed actions points, while retaining the outstanding actions.

Covering Part 1 of the draft plan, the Chair highlighted the actions which SACRE needed to push forward on:

·       Induct new SACRE members, particularly due to the resignation of some members and the recruitment of new ones.

·       To strengthen SACRE’s understanding of RE in schools through the use of exam results and visits to schools when doing SACRE meetings, such as the next one at Desborough College in March 2024.

·       To further build links between SACRE and other key support networks and IT providers.

Moving onto Part 2, the Chair went over the additional priority areas:

·       Establish a universal approach to the auditing of provision for RE in RBWM schools through the use of REQM (Religious Education Quality Mark) criteria.

·       Develop a simpler approach to auditing collective worship in schools, with hopefully a more extended network once the audit tool was shared across more schools.

·       Implement a more systematic way of getting schools to report on their religious education so that SACRE could fulfil its role in spreading good practice in RE, alongside maintaining the RE Network meetings and Ofsted/SIAMS inspections being fed back to SACRE.

When the Chair asked whether they approved the draft plan, SACRE members gave their approval.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED: To approve SACRE Development Plan 2023-25, Draft 1

Anne Andrews announced that she had not received any feedback on the draft Annual Report for Academic Year 2022-23 from any SACRE member apart from the Chair, assuming that the draft report was approved for submission to NASACRE and Department for Education (DfE). She would then request for Elaine Norstrom, Clive Haines and/or Helen Mastrilli to circulate it using the circulation list at the bottom of the report. She requested that any questions arising to be sent to her as soon as possible.

The Chair approved the draft Annual Report.

The Chair explained that the proposal was to add another priority area to the action plan to SACRE. There were three suggestions:

·       Strengthen professional relationships between SACRE members, stating that it was important for its various members (Councillors, school and faith representatives) to know each other better. She suggested that SACRE members have a meal together after the next meeting in March 2024.

·       Establish a simple system to enable SACRE to support teaching and learning in RE in RBWM schools. This would involve SACRE becoming the ‘go-to’ hub for faith representatives to visit schools. The Chair acknowledged that this would require training for representatives through the Hub.

Anne Andrews said that the Hub website was a ‘one-stop shop’, and they offered free training for places of worship, organisations and speakers who wished to be accredited and Kitemarked to visit and talk at schools. She added that Anthony Lewis did not need to do this because all accredited Humanists speakers were automatically Kitemarked by the RE Hub, though she mentioned that this did not prevent Anthony Lewis from adding his details to the RE Hubs website.

Anne Andrews informed meeting attendees that the website was free to access and recommended the training. She offered to share the link to the Hub website.

The Chair suggested that the website link could be included in the meeting minutes.

ACTION: The RE Hubs weblink to be added to the minutes.

RE Hubs website:www.re-hubs.uk

ACTION: All faith representatives willing to make visits to schools to seek appropriate training.

The Chair elaborated that this would give SACRE an enabling and active role, stating that there were schools which wanted to invite speakers to visit and that the processes involved needed to be formalised.

ACTION: SACRE to develop a formal procedure for schools’ requests for faith group representatives to visit.

·       Hold a 'Worldviews Exhibition'. Having visited West Sussex SACRE in October 2023, the Chair said that this SACRE had held a ‘Worldviews Roadshow’. This involved an exhibition showcasing all faith groups with their representatives as well as teachers across the key stages being invited to build connections with faith leaders who could potentially visit their schools. It included religious films, artefacts and food (e.g., Jewish cake).

The Chair asked SACRE members what they thought about the proposals. Laura Dexter supported the idea of a Worldviews Exhibition for teachers to attend. Vicci Davidson also supported the idea, stating that it would be useful for everyone to better understand each other.

Michael Gammage highlighted that the Chair visited his house and gave a talk to a U3A group about RE in schools, namely what was taught and what should be taught as well as discussing RE in a broader societal context and the merits of SACRE.

The Chair extended her gratitude to Thomas Kingsley-Jones, Laura Dexter and Barbara Meaney (Vice-Chair, Roman Catholicism) for allowing themselves to be interviewed by her about RE teaching at their schools. Describing the interview process as wonderful, the Chair hoped to show these  ...  view the full minutes text for item 451.

No additional business.

·       Monday 4th March 2024 at 5:00pm – Desborough College

SACRE attendees noted the future meeting date:

·       Monday 4th March 2024 at 5:00pm – Desborough College (college tour at 4:15pm)

The Chair declared that the SACRE meeting had ended and that the Agreed Syllabus Conference had begun.

As with the SACRE meeting, apologies were received from Clare Roberts (KS2 Teacher – Cheapside Primary School), David Saunders (Church of England), and Vanessa Alfred (Judaism).

By the time that the Agreed Syllabus Conference had started, apologies were also received from Ravinder Singh (Sikhism) and Councillor Coe.

Anne Andrews, SACRE Advisor, reported that an RE Hubs meeting took place after the last SACRE meeting in September 2023 where she received feedback from the Christians in Groups A and B. From this feedback, she had written some minor modifications to the Agreed Syllabus and would share this in due course. She added that she had received little feedback on the questions in the Agreed Syllabus from non-Christian organisations. While she tried to use notes from the conversations surrounding this, she commented that most people on the SACRE Hub were not a very mixed group of people. With the exception of Ashpreet Singh Nainu (Chair of Slough SACRE), most SACRE chairs were “white British” and (at least, nominally) Christians. As a result, Anne Andrews received much feedback and interaction in regard to the questions on Christianity, while receiving little feedback from the other groups, hoping there could be some discussion on this during the current SACRE meeting.

Briefly reflecting on the feedback from teachers, Anne Andrews reported that teachers wanted to see how they could build something coherent from the syllabus so that it provided clear progression in content, skills and understanding. They also wanted the syllabus to be more streamlined so that it was clearer on what they were meant to teach, namely ensuring that it was precise and not too vague and was easily accessible. They also wondered whether there were too many questions and whether to divide the syllabus between compulsory and optional courses (though questions were raised on whether coherence was lost if teachers were given a choice).

Anne Andrews advised that SACRE needed to consider the syllabus proposals and discuss the questions. Afterwards, if there was time and with the Chair’s approval, she would then share some of amendments to the Christianity section of the syllabus.

The Chair asked Anne Andrews to go through the syllabus proposals, through Zoom screenshare.

Starting with the section on Christianity at Key Stage 1, Anne Andrews informed meeting attendees that the feedback from Christian groups was that they wanted to see more emphasis on the big story of the Bible (i.e., how the Bible fitted together and became a story). For the time being, she suggested to leave this section unchanged.

Moving onto the recommendations for the next section on other faiths (namely Abrahamic and Dharmic faiths), Anne Andrews noted that she had used the current syllabus as the basis for the new one rather than making radical changes to the range of recommended religions because most schools did not want radical change. Therefore, her suggestion was that, alongside Christianity, schools could choose to focus on Judaism in one year, Islam in another year, and Sikhism in another year in each year group across Key Stage 1 and Lower Key Stage 1. However, there could be deliberation later on in regard to whether the study of each of the aforementioned religions should be assigned to a specific academic year group (e.g., Hindu Dharma in Year 2, Islam in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 456.

Anne Andrews conveyed the importance of the interaction between the ideas which the RE Hub and SACRE members put together and the individual SACREs with the faith representative members. She then sent out a plea: if anyone was a member of a worldview or faith community, whether they were a representative of that community or a member of SACRE from that faith, that they forward any feedback on the syllabus proposals. From there, she would then present a new syllabus proposal based on the feedback from all the SACREs which had met in the current term in early 2024.

No additional business.

Before closing the meeting, the Chair wished everyone a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

• Monday 4th March 2024 at 5:00pm – Desborough College

SACRE attendees noted the future meeting date:

·       Monday 4th March 2024 at 5:00pm – Desborough College