Agenda and minutes

Venue: Desborough Suite - Town Hall

Contact: Nabihah Hassan-Farooq  01628796345

Items
No. Item

125.

Welcome

Minutes:

The Chair began the meeting by welcoming all Members. The meeting was deemed inquorate under the ASC constitution terms, however, Members were in agreement to continue the meeting without any formal recommendations. It was agreed that all recommendations would be made at the next SACRE group meeting which would be held on the 10th June, 2018.

126.

Apologies For Absence

Minutes:

Apologies of absence were received from Reverend Rosie Webb, Cllr Ilyas, Cllr Kellaway, Ravinder Singh Zandu, Ila Gangotra and Sally Lynch.

127.

Minutes Of Meeting on 6th March 2018 pdf icon PDF 67 KB

Minutes:

That the minutes of the previous meeting were approved as an accurate record.

128.

Membership Update

Minutes:

No updates were received.

129.

Review of Proposed Agreed Syllabus from September 2018 pdf icon PDF 322 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the progress which had been made on the draft review of the syllabus. An email from Karen Butler (vice-chair) was read to the group and outlined that there was some work to be carried out with the syllabus draft and that there had been good representation, changes to non-religious world views had been welcomed and that Teachers had been enthusiastic to revisions.

 

Anne Andrews (RE adviser) informed the group that she had sent the sixth draft version of the agreed syllabus to all of the Church of England Schools in Berkshire. Members of the group were updated on the conversations that had occurred at the hub group meeting earlier in the month at Wokingham Borough Council. It was raised that use of the word “how” within Key stage questions could be adapted or combined as long as the context was maintained. Members were reminded that the final deadline for comments was the 20th May 2018 and that these should be forwarded directly to Jan Lever. Members agreed that the length and format of the agreed syllabus document was good for KS1 and KS2 teachers. Members discussed that there had been no radical changes to the syllabus and that this made it easier for teachers to create or amend existing teaching materials. The expected outcomes referenced throughout the document were welcomed for schools that currently had discovery or diocesan values.

 

Members discussed whether the inclusion of “for e.g. humanism, atheism, secularism” as an alternative to wording throughout the document should be used. It was felt that the original wording could encourage teachers to use humanism as a secondary option, which was not seen as negative but limited teachers to  teaching a particular non-religious world view and that it was important to allow teachers to have freedom to teach other specialist world views. It was agreed that this would be raised with Jan Lever and that particular attention to alternate non-religious world views would be dealt with in the foreword or glossary of the document. It was also highlighted that as this is a pan-Berkshire document not all of the recommendations from RBWM would necessarily be taken into account.

 

Funding for the implementation of the syllabus, online guidance and hosting of any website were discussed. It was noted that the Berkshire SACRE budgets differed and that there would be a proposed fee of £900 per SACRE to maintain and host the syllabus, its framework and online guidance. Clive Haines, Schools Leadership Development Manager confirmed that the annual SACRE budget was £6000 and that after the launch of the syllabus conference that the budget would be approximately £3000. Members were informed that there had been some guidance around funding given at the hub meeting and that there was still some consultation with the Berkshire SACRE groups to be carried out. It was discussed that further guidance on costs were needed and that Anne Andrews would liaise with Jan Lever and deliver an update to the next SACRE Group meeting  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129.

130.

Syllabus Launch

Minutes:

Anne Andrews informed the forum that the syllabus launch would take place on the 9th July at Moor Hall. The session would aim to introduce the syllabus and host relevant workshops in the afternoon. Members discussed that the event would be better utilised by providing more time for teachers as they would have dispensations to attend. Different ideas of how the day could be organised were discussed and it was agreed that the relevant leads would meet to discuss the arrangements in more detail and update the group in due course.  

131.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

No further matters were raised.

132.

Dates Of Future Meetings

Wednesday 6th June at 7.30pm in Council Chamber, Town Hall, Maidenhead.

Minutes:

The date of the next SACRE group was confirmed as the 10th June at 6pm, which would be followed by an Agreed Syllabus Conference at 7.30pm.