Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minute of the meeting of SACRE held on 14 October 2015.

It was agreed that the Minutes were a true reflection of the previous meeting.

Annual SACRE report, secondary network, R.E. Trails update, COINS involvement in SACRE

A primary R.E. Co-ordinators’ meeting took place earlier this term. The meeting discussed the Crossing the Bridges project that was discussed later in the agenda. The SACRE has not as yet received R.E. GCSE results and therefore the SACRE report cannot yet be completed. KH will contact West Berkshire to obtain the results. JF has been trying to establish a contact within the R.E. secondary network. JF has done some work on the North Newbury R.E. trail. JF will contact David Wylie regarding this.

The SACRE is currently short of Group A involvement (no one present at current meeting and therefore meeting officially not quorate). The Catholic Church is currently looking for a representative.

KH will investigate the Hindu community to attempt to find a representative. JF will contact the synagogue again to attempt to find a replacement for ZS.

MH, JF and RS met and produced a draft response. SE felt that the response was a realistic one. JF said that it was short but to the point. BE asked what was meant by depoliticising. He questioned why both options were vulnerable. The response was that we have no solutions, only comments.

Action: Change ‘is’ in para 1 to ‘would be.’ Change ‘DfE’ to ‘curriculum developments.’ The SACRE would then be happy for the response to be sent to NASACRE.

A joint project was started last year with the Berkshire SACREs, the ‘Crossing the Bridge’ project. The aim of the project is to help schools and places of worship make the most of visit. Planning sheets have been put together and some places of worship have already begun to use these. A booking form, feedback form and workbook for children are also available.

The SACRE discussed whether this project should continue and there was an overwhelming feeling that this would be a positive thing to do. The SACRE (along with the other Berkshire SACREs) have been asked whether a coordinator should be appointed. Funding would be needed for continued meetings and for the coordinator to undertake their role. The coordinator would develop resources that could be used across the six SACREs. All of the Berkshire SACREs are positive about the proposal and a decision now needs to be made. It has been proposed that Jan Lever’s company takes on the coordinator role as well as the syllabus review in 2017. The possible amount of funding needed would be £1,000 in 2016/17 and potentially up to £3,000 in 2017/18 for the syllabus review. KH said that the SACRE has effectively three options:

1.               To join the hub;

2.               To review the syllabus alone; and

3.               To keep the current syllabus.

JF said that the current syllabus might be kept but that it would probably need more resourcing. The feeling of the meeting was that the syllabus currently meets needs well.

Decisions were taken by the SACRE (in principle). There was an agreement that the six Berkshire SACREs should be working together. There was agreement that there should be a hub coordinator and that this person should be the same person for the syllabus review and the Crossing the Bridge project. There was agreement that the correct person to do this would be Jan Lever, as she has good local knowledge and experience. SE asked whether the SACRE should go out to tender. The general feeling was that we would not need to do this as the sum of money is relatively small. There was agreement to hold future SACRE meetings on the 2nd or 3rd week after each half term break. This would enable coordinated working.

JM to email all members (particularly group A) to establish if there is agreement by all groups to these proposals.

Nothing further to report.

JF said that she is prepared to continue to support the SACRE for one further year but would not be prepared to continue after this point. Therefore, the SACRE will need to decide during the course of the current year what option will be chosen for future support.

This is a key item for the next agenda.

There was no other business.

24th June 2016 at 4pm at The Willows School.