Agenda item
Feedback from Hub meeting held on 16th January 2018
Minutes:
The Reverend David Taylor reported that he had attended the Hub meeting on 16th January 2018 in his capacity as the Chairman of the West Berkshire SACRE. It was noted that all the Berkshire SACREs had been represented at this meeting and the main focus had been the Pan Berkshire Agreed Syllabus Review 2018.
Alison Harris gave a short presentation which summarised the key points and changes to the new draft syllabus. The main points were:
· To remove the divide between Key Stages 1 and 2 to give the syllabus a Primary Section and give teachers more flexibility as to which religions to teach alongside Christianity and how to group them.
· It was now mandatory to teach Islam by the end of Key Stage 2. Previously it was optional to teach Islam at this stage but it had been agreed that it should be compulsory. The committee noted that this fitted with a lot of other local syllabi and agreed it was very good practice.
· Key Stage 3 now had to include a secular worldview, probably Humanism.
· The new syllabus strongly encouraged the aim that all students should have access to RE teaching at GCSE level.
· Whilst the detail of assessment still needed to be considered, Alison Harris reported that the AT1 and AT2 structure would essentially remain but the language would acknowledge that used in the national framework.
· Each of the Berkshire SACREs would be looking at the draft syllabus and had been asked to give feedback before the next Hub meeting on 24th April 2018. The Hub would then ratify the draft syllabus at this meeting.
· Each SACRE would need to write their own Foreword for the revised syllabus and this would need to be signed off by the Chief Executive/Education Director of each Council and be sent to Jan Lever by email by 15th June 2018.
· The final version of the syllabus would then be available by the end of June 2018.
Having looked at the draft syllabus, the Committee was encouraged to give feedback. Mr Mushtaq said that under the ‘Concepts’ section on page 7 of the draft syllabus, the spelling of ‘Din’ in the Islam column was incorrect and should have been ‘Deen’.
Action: Jo Watt to report the correct spelling of ‘Deen’ back to Jan Lever in order for the draft document to be corrected.
The Committee then gave consideration to a launch event for the new syllabus. The Committee agreed that a local West Berkshire launch was the best approach. It was agreed that the launch should be multi-faceted and in addition to providing a platform to launch the new syllabus it would be an ideal networking occasion and a chance to share good practice.
Having considered the timetable for the production of the final syllabus, the Committee agreed that the launch should take place on Tuesday 3rd July 2018 and be a twilight session held between 4.15 – 5.30 pm. The Reverend David Taylor very kindly offered the use of the Thatcham Baptist Church, free of charge for the event. The Committee thanked David and agreed this was an excellent venue as it was central to the District and had good parking facilities. Consideration would need to be given as to how to disseminate the new syllabus to the schools. It was felt that emailing a link to the new syllabus would provide the most cost effective solution.
On a separate matter, David Taylor reported that the ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource (produced by the Oxford Diocese) was now available for £30 rather than the usual price of £250.
Action: Jo Watt to email the details of the ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource to all West Berkshire Primary Schools.