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 focused on and developed over the year. Using an example of either ‘stilling’ or ‘mending’, pupils picked up a crochet stone and placed it back in a basket if they were prepared to forgive someone who had upset them.

After the Chair commented that it would be great to share effective approaches to collective worship, Karen Waller offered to do a presentation on Space Makers, either alongside the RE Lead Teacher at Eton Wick or on her own.

ACTION: Karen Waller to do a presentation on Space Makers at a future SACRE meeting.

Anne Andrews informed the meeting that Space Makers was a product of the Oxford Diocesan Board of Education and was a project led by Charlie Kerr (the chaplaincy advisor), and that there was also a Space Makers for families which was introduced to multiple Anglican churches. While training for Space Makers was available, Anne Andrews was uncertain on whether it was free or not. She stated that the programme was based on Ignatian Spirituality and had links to Christian mindfulness but could nevertheless be delivered in a way that made it accessible to people from any faith.

Karen Waller informed the meeting that the training fee was £130, which involved a trainer and working with a local reverend to set it up. Despite the price (particularly for small schools), she stated that the benefits were incredible.

(At 5:57pm, Councillor Coe and Ravinder Singh left the meeting, while Thomas Kingsley-Jones entered the meeting.)

In regard to Churchmead CE School, Thomas Kingsley-Jones informed SACRE members that with the end of term approaching, Year 11 pupils were having mock exams. He added that there were some progressive improvements in knowledge, particularly with Islam, and that RE continued to be good at Churchmead. He stated that he was looking forward to promoting the use of the new RBWM audit tool, based on REQM criteria, to help monitor and track the quality of RE in the Borough and possibly linking up with different people across the Borough’s schools to implement this.