The Chairman welcomed those present to the meeting.

Ravinder Singh gave a short reflection to SACRE.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Stimson, Sally Lynch, Anthony Lewis, Chris Sayers, Barbara Meaney and Deborah Firth.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY; That the minutes of the meeting held on 9^th September 2020 be approved.

Mark Beeley, Democratic Services Officer, gave an update on the SACRE membership changes since the last meeting. Sarah Bradley had joined and would be filling the KS4 vacancy in Group C. In Group D, the local authority had appointed two RBWM Councillors; Councillor Sharpe and Councillor Shelim. They would fill the two vacancies in the group and joined Councillor Stimson in being RBWM representatives on SACRE.

Kings Church International had been contacted for an update on their progress to appoint a representative to the vacant position in Group A.

Karen Butler asked if all schools were now receiving the SACRE newsletter.

Anne Andrews said that she had checked with the person responsible for sending out the newsletters and they had an accurate list. However, some may be sent to the schools office so it was important to have the right email address so that it was received by the right people.

Anne Andrews said that the annual report was approved subject to exam results. The exams had been graded using centre assessed grades and therefore they were not publically reported.

Anne Andrews said that the main focus of the NASACRE meeting was the appointment of a new Chairman. The previous Chairman had stepped down after one term due to personal reasons, with the previous Vice Chairman, Linda Rudge, being appointed. She had been involved with RE for a long time so was very qualified for the role. While NASACRE did not have a right to speak on behalf of SACREs, it was clear from the meeting that they wanted to improve communication with SACREs across the country.

Karen Butler also attended the meeting and she said that it was interesting to see who was involved with the organisation. There was a presentation from two SACREs, Cumbria and Lambeth, on what they had been up to and what they did with the Westhill award money. Lambeth had been making use of places of worship, which was similar to the Westhill project that RBWM SACRE was currently undertaking.

Clive Haines, Schools Leadership Development Manager, said that there was £6,000 in total in the SACRE budget. Subscriptions to NASACRE and to have the RE Advisor had been paid, which left £1,200 to be carried forward to next year.

Karen Butler suggested that the remaining money could be used to support the development work on the Westhill films.

Anne Andrews said that there was still budget left from the Hub, but it would likely be the summer before extra material for the films could be produced. More films could be made, but this would depend on the filmmaker. Strictly RE was still available for teachers to book onto, Anne Andrews suggested that this could be paid for by SACRE.

The Chairman said that there was a bursary but this usually went towards travel, the training would be happening online this year due to the pandemic. If it was not possible to enhance the Westhill films any further then this would be a good way to spend the money.

ACTION – Anne Andrews to work with Clive Haines to investigate how many places could be offered to RE teachers.

Anne Andrews explained that the secondary teachers network had been launched, she had met with Thomas Kingsley-Jones and Barbara Meaney to work out what teachers would want from the network. A flyer had been put together and there were representatives from four middle schools in RBWM. However, it was important to discover if teachers were willing and had a need for the network, it was hard to gauge what teachers wanted and would benefit them best. A survey may be the best way forward which could be sent out to teachers across the borough.

Looking at the forward plan for SACRE more generally, Anne Andrews said that it was two years until the local RE syllabus needed to be agreed. The newsletter, primary network and researching the network for secondary teachers and providing support materials for the Westhill films were all things that would need to be considered.

Thomas Kingsley-Jones passed on his thanks to Anne Andrews for the meeting and thought that the survey was a good idea. Something extra for teachers this term would probably have been too much but there may be more interest in the new year.

Ravinder Singh left the meeting.

The Chairman said that it was a difficult time to launch anything new.

ACTION – Anne Andrews and Clive Haines to discuss and put the survey together after the meeting.

This was discussed as part of the previous item – the SACRE Forward Plan.

Anne Andrews explained that the primary RE network meeting was much better attended than the secondary equivalent. 16 people had signed up to the meeting, with 12 attending. The network looked at the PAN Berkshire agreed syllabus and considered how it could be used to help children during lockdown. It was a really positive meeting and resources were also shared amongst the teachers present.

Louise Ceska said that her school had been pretty stretched at a busy time of year. Everything needed to be done in a Covid secure way and this added to the workload. Collective worship was being done remotely along with assemblies. RE teaching had continued but there had been positive cases in some classes.

Richard Rhodes said that it was ‘business as normal’ in a Covid world. There was a strong emphasis currently on PHSE, while RE lessons were happening as normal. Each year group was in a bubble and so they were all brought together virtually rather than in person.

Thomas Kingsley-Jones said that there were two opportunities for worship, at tutor time and live worship within the year group bubble.

Sarah Bradley said that the level of disruption depended on the individual, sometimes half a class could be out which could be challenging as work would need to be set remotely too as well as taught in person.

Hilary Harris believed that there were some positives to online teaching. She was interviewed and the video could then be shared out to schools.

Margaret Dudley said that schools were not currently having any external visitors due to the situation, so she was not currently going into schools.

Darcy Chesterfield-Terry said that things could be recorded and then the school could choose what they did with it, which had been working well.

Anne Andrews said that in a secondary school meeting, it had been asked if faith leaders could produce a virtual tour of their places of worship. Some money could be given to faith groups to make a virtual tour if it was needed and it would be cheaper and easier to do than getting a school to come to the place of worship.

Darcy Chesterfield-Terry said that he was happy to do a virtual tour but would need to know what information would be relevant or needed for the video.

Anne Andrews thanked Darcy Chesterfield-Terry and said that this was something that could be explored in the spring.

ACTION – To explore the idea of virtual tours in a range of venues from different faiths.

Anne Andrews gave an update on the Westhill project. All six films were now complete but she was still waiting to see the ones from the Gurdwara and the Baptist Church. True Tube had wanted to cut and edit the videos how they saw fit so it had been decided to go with a different provider. NATRE (National Association of Teachers of RE) had offered to host the films in their current form while conversations were also happening with RE Online. Permission would need to be gained from the places of worship and also the people appearing in the films. Another advisor had made some films on anti-bullying which were hosted on the NATRE website along with all the resources. The films would be free to view and notes would be written for Key Stage 1, 2 and 3.

Karen Butler said that they were unhappy with the True Tube deal as they were SACREs films and they did not want them to be angled differently. She was hopeful that the films would be a comprehensive resource for teachers.

Anne Andrews said that she had showed three of the films in the recent RE network meeting and the teachers had seemed very keen.

The Chairman passed on his thanks to Anne Andrews for all her work in making the films a reality.

ACTION – Hilary Harris to check permission with the Synagogue for use of the films on the NATRE website.

Clive Haines explained that the Freedom of Information request received by RBWM from NASACRE had now been sent back.

The Chairman said that he had received an email from the Accord Coalition about the Inclusivity Award, where SACRE could nominate a school for its inclusive work. Reference to the award could be made in the newsletter.

Anne Andrews said that she would read the email and see how it would be best to advertise. In previous years, information about it had been put in the newsletter, which would next be going out in January 2021.

Thomas Kingsley-Jones said that Churchmead School was awarded the ‘inclusion mark’ but did not know if this was different to the award being discussed. Clive Haines confirmed that the mark and the award were two different things.

Anne Andrews explained that the award was not just about the quality of the RE, but also of the curriculum. Nominations did not have to go through SACRE and the deadline for entries was February 2021.

The Chairman suggested that SACRE could review any nominations.

ACTION – Anne Andrews to investigate how best to advertise the award to schools in RBWM.

·         Tuesday 9th March 2021 at 6pm

·         June 2021 TBC

·         September 2021 TBC

·         December 2021 TBC

Members of SACRE noted the date of the next meeting, which was on Tuesday 9^th March 2021, starting at 6pm.