Agenda and minutes

Venue: Desborough 4 - Town Hall

Items
No. Item

1.

Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman

Minutes:

Councillor Kellaway nominated Michael Gammage as Chairman of SACRE, this was seconded by Louise Ceska.

 

Karen Butler was nominated as Vice Chairman by Michael Gammage and seconded by Anne Andrews.

 

This was agreed by all SACRE members.

2.

Welcome

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked all members to introduce themselves. The Chairman welcomed Clive Haines as the new LA representative.

3.

Apologies For Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Deborah Firth, Felicity Gunn, Mrs E Jenkins and Gary Homewood, who can no longer attend on Monday evenings. The Chairman suggested alternating the meeting days.

4.

Minutes Of the Meeting held on Thursday 8 June 2016

Minutes:

The following points were raised about the minutes:

 

·         Point 8 – second paragraph, further clarification needed, Anne Andrews was invited to Holyport College for an intersection meeting about Islam and Sikhism.

·         January 2016 meeting not scheduled. SACRE asked clerk to organise a meeting in January 2016 on any other day but a Monday.

·         Ila Gongotra had given apologies for the meeting.

·         Point 8 – Rev. Joan Hicks was given an action at the last meeting which was not recorded in the minutes. The action has been completed.

 

The minutes were unanimously agreed after the changes were made.

 

5.

Membership Update

Minutes:

The membership of SACRE remained the same since the last meeting. The Islam representative, Usman Bhally, had not attended the last two meetings. Anne Andrews advised SACRE that Mr Bhally had moved on to another role and was no longer at the Maidenhead Mosque. Anne Andrews would contact the mosque for another representative.

 

ACTION: Anne Andrews to contact Maidenhead Mosque for another suggestion from the mosque to attend SACRE.

6.

Annual Report

Minutes:

Anne Andrews informed SACRE that the format of the Annual Report had been changed since the previous year. The new format was more formal. The guidelines were given by NASACRE for the new format.

 

Councillor Kellaway commented that the Annual Report was very good and informative.

 

Ila Gongotra inquired why the reference to places of worship in paragraph 1, page 3, was only the synagogue and the mosque. Ila Gongotra was concerned that the borough was only concentrating on Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Anne Andrews explained that currently a trial run was taking place and it included all three trips would be to the mosque since it was in close proximity to the town hall. There had already been visits to the synagogue, gurdwara and the mosque.

 

Karen Butler requested that the NASCRE template and briefing document to be recirculated to SACRE members again. Karen Butler also highlighted that the response from Lord Nash was not attached in the appendix.

 

The Chairman thanked Anne Andrews for the Annual SACRE Report 2014-15.

 

The members of SACRE approved the Annual Report and agreed that it be uploaded to the NASACRE website.

 

ACTION: Anne Andrews to send template and NASACRE briefing to all SACRE

members.

 

ACTION: Clerk to attach Lord Nash response to the Annual Report.

 

ACTION: Anne Andrews to upload the Annual Report to the NASACRE website.

 

 

7.

SACRE Dashboard: a chance to share and discuss the latest data and evidence about what's happening in RE teaching in our area

Minutes:

The Chairman introduced the Agenda item explaining that item 6 and 7 were related where item 6 was asking what’s happening and item 7 asking what can be done about what’s happening.

 

The Chairman thanked Barbara Meaney, Clive Haines and Anne Andrews for information that they had provided and had been circulated.

 

Clive Haines provided an update on the Ofsted comments on RE and SMSC. Clive Haines explained that there had not been much change since the last meeting except in Clewer Green School and also the latest change for Holy Trinity School, Cookham, which has done very well and become an outstanding school. Clive Haines also informed SACRE that Ofsted was now also working on British Values and this would soon be in all new inspections.

 

The following concerns were discussed by SACRE:

·         RE not looked at separately in Ofsted reports.

·         RE not greatly taught in community schools.

·         Difficult to compare schools as RE taught differently in all schools.

·         Ofsted reports not specific to RE.

·         Difficulty in capturing information.

·         Sign up for recent training, mainly from faith schools, not many from community schools.

 

Councillor Kellaway mentioned the 'New Settlement in RE' document at the meeting of SACRE.

 

Technically referred to as a 'pamphlet' (despite being 60+ pages!), this is possibly a seminal contribution to the debate underway about the future of RE and collective worship in schools, and the role of SACREs.

 

Please find attached the full pamphlet, together with the briefing on the pamphlet issued by NASACRE, intended to stimulate discussion at each SACRE. The pamphlet and the NASACRE briefing are part of what is likely to be a three year long consultation process.  There will doubtless be opportunities for discussion at our SACRE, and to provide feedback to others where that seems appropriate. Councillor Kellaway highlighted the suggested change of name from RE to Religious Moral Education.

 

Anne Andrews suggested that all members look at the NASACRE website and read the summary of the report which was very helpful.

 

Members discussed:

·         “Life without Levels” – Barbara Meaney and Louise Ceska discussed that it was very difficult to assess levels. A new solo taxonomy way of working now being introduced where people learn in bits, in building blocks that are not linked to anything and then the blocks would be put together to link and then create and use in new ways.

·         Schools would like the children to visit places of worship but the cost of getting the children to the place of worship. It would be great if SACRE could contribute to the coach hire. Councillor Kellaway suggested a charity but it would only fund children from Maidenhead. Councillor Airey suggested the Corporate Social Responsibility and the Big Society Panel.

 

ACTION: Karen Butler, Mike Gammage, Anne Andrews and Clive Haines to work on these ideas and report back at the next SACRE meeting.

 

Ravinder Singh Zandu suggested that whilst the going to places of worship was being investigated, the places of worship leads could attend the schools  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

RE Teacher Training and Support: what are our plans?, are our actions effective?, what more can we do?

Minutes:

Anne Andrews updated SACRE about the subject leaders meeting and the twilight training. Both events had had a good turn out except from Ascot. Anne Andrews was planning the next meeting in Ascot. The evaluation forms gave very positive feedback which was very useful.

 

Anne Andrews informed SACRE that she had been working with Trevelyan school as an advisor at a cost. Anne Andrews was a helpful intervention.

 

Karen Butler highlighted that there had been no conference last year but Clive Haines advised that a conference was being organised for March 2016.

 

SACRE discussed webinars for factual information and a conference for the actual meeting and greeting. The importance of quality equipment and recording . and the cost of setup would be expensive.

 

SACRE discussed doing a survey monkey to find out what teachers actually want and where they go at present for information.

 

ACTION: Councillor Airey to form a working group with Barbara Meany, Louise Ceska and Clive Haines to form set of six questions for survey monkey.

 

ACTION: Clive Haines to provide an up to date budget report to clerk to send to members with minutes.

 

Anne Andrews informed SACRE that an idea had been floated with Bracknell Forest about holding a day seminar on RE and British Values on the 20 April 2016 at East hampstead Park Conference Centre. Anne Andrews asked if Bracknell Forest declined the offer, whether the borough would be interested in holding the seminar.

 

ACTION: Anne Andrews to send information to Clive Haines to take to a Pan Berkshire Board Meeting on Wednesday 4 November.

9.

Self Evaluation Framework Section 2 - Effectiveness of the Locally Agreed Syllabus

Minutes:

SACRE agreed that discussion on this item was premature and would be better to discuss this item in a meeting in summer 2016.

 

However, the Chairman suggested reaching out to RE educators in 2016 to collect their views and thoughts on the current syllabus to influence the new syllabus in 2017.

10.

Community Cohesion

Minutes:

Councillor Airey informed SACRE that an innovation project had just commenced with army families in Windsor and Muslim families in Maidenhead. The objective was to develop trust, build dialogue and build better relationships with the two communities.

 

Two other borough meetings where community cohesion was on the forefront were Big Society Panel and the One Borough Meeting.

 

 

 

 

11.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

SACRE discussed the Pan Berkshire Hub – crossing the bridges.

 

Anne Andrews talked members through some examples of resources that could be used across SACRE’S. The forms were completed for the six major religions and one blank one for other use.

 

It was agreed that the forms be hosted on the Borough website for free access and also on the Diocese and Discovery sites too.

 

ACTION: Anne Andrews to proof read the examples first.

 

ACTION: Anne Andrews to circulate Pan Berkshire Hub information to SACRE members.

 

 

 

 

12.

Dates Of Future Meetings

Minutes:

ACTION: Clerk to arrange a meeting in January 2016, preferably not on a Monday.