Agenda and draft minutes

The Chairman will welcome members, guests and new members.  The clerk will extend apologies received.    Stephen/Luciane (2mins)

The Chairman welcomed members to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Nick Barnett, Julie Easton, Kiran Hunjan and Becky Medlicott.

Angela Hill, RE Advisor shared a presentation to provide context for the discussion about the draft new syllabus.

Some of the points highlighted are listed below:

·           The document was still under review and feedback was being sought to shape the final iteration of the syllabus;

·           The proposed new syllabus was being developed by three RE Advisors, representing six local authorities.  They had taken into account the feedback received from the extensive consultation that had taken  place with stakeholders, involving SACRE members who had attended workshops, and teachers;

·           Commercial models had been  considered but were rejected by all six SACREs  in favour of developing a bespoke syllabus for Berkshire;

·           Consideration was being given to Ofsted’s recent publications on RE;

·           The current syllabus was from 2018 and it no longer reflected current thinking about the teaching of RE, it was important to develop a syllabus that would support schools in achieving a positive Ofsted outcome in RE;

·           The desire was to develop a syllabus that was academically rigorous and knowledge rich;

·           A syllabus was not a curriculum.  It was a framework upon which teachers and leader of RE would build their own curriculum;

·           Syllabus writers must make difficult choices as it was not possible to include everything of value.  It was important to reach a balance that would prepare children and young people for life in a multi-religious and multi-secular world;

·           The proposed draft had to take into account certain legal requirements;

·           Some autonomy for teachers to include the local community context in their curriculum;

·           Curriculum time and allocation of resources – in view of the fact that RE often gets less than 5% curriculum time;

·           teacher expertise – RE was often taught by non-specialist teachers (more than any other subject);

·           The proposed model drew on elements of a religion and worldviews approach, whilst retaining some more traditional systematic study of religions as well;

·           The RE Council for England and Wales Handbook/Toolkit for developing a Religion and Worldview approach in RE attempted to address some of the concerns about RE teaching raised by Ofsted.  This handbook was available online;

·           RE was a locally determined subject.  There was a National Content Standard which the Religion and Worldviews Toolkit was based on.  The National Content Standard aimed to address some of the criticisms levelled by Ofsted in relation to inconsistent or weak RE provision;

·           The three elements of the National Statement of Entitlement were:

·         Content – substantive knowledge

·         Engagement – ways of knowing

·         Position – personal knowledge

·           Angela Hill emphasized that Religion and Worldviews was an approach to RE – it did not replace RE.  There was no legal requirement that RE should be taught with a Religion and Worldviews approach, but it reflected the latest academic thinking on RE;

·           The feedback received from members would inform further development of the syllabus.

Emily Waddilove, LA Link, confirmed that the presentation slides would be circulated with the minutes, and within the slides there was a link to the handbook.  It was acknowledged that much  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 6 November 2023.

The minutes of the last meeting held on 6 November 2023 were approved, subject to the amendment below.

That mentions of Shira Solomon be correct to Shira Solomons.

·           Responses to survey sent to secondary HTs – EW

·           Member school visits

·           Spirited arts competition entries – Sam Lawless presentation

·           Feedback re Interfaith group - EW

·           Competitions flyer - EW

·           Letter to Ofsted from our SACRE

·           Amendments to constitution – EW

Due to time constraints, it was agreed that most items contained in the agenda could be deferred to the next meeting.

The following matters arising listed in the agenda were discussed:

Responses to survey sent to secondary schools Headteachers

Following the agenda publication, three more responses had been received from schools.  Seven out of ten secondary schools had responded, which was positive.  Copies of the responses received would be circulated to SACRE members.

Amendments to the SACRE’s constitution

An initial review of the constitution had been undertaken by Stephen Vegh as SACRE’s Chairman, Beth Rowland as SACRE’s Vice-Chairman, Emily Waddilove as LA SACRE Link and Angela Hill as RE Advisor.

It was recognised that the constitution had not been reviewed for a number of years and was due a refresh.  NASACRE’s guidance suggested that the constitution should include more detail.

The legislation required that the local authority’s Legal department be consulted on the SACRE’s constitution.  The proposed amendments had been submitted to the Legal department, they had accepted the proposed amendments and had also made many additional suggestions for consideration.  However, there had been insufficient time to consider all the suggestions made by the Legal team and present a report to this SACRE meeting about the constitution changes being considered.

The proposed updated constitution would be circulated to SACRE for further discussion at the next meeting.

With regards to SACRE’s membership, Emily Waddilove apologised that there had been a lack of clarity in relation to the process for adding members to SACRE.   She explained that, while the co-opting of members was a matter for SACRE members, it was the local authority’s responsibility to make decisions about SACRE membership in terms of appointing full members.  However, she had been keen to check the views of SACRE members and to take this into account in the decision about including a full Humanist member - hence the informal vote that had taken place at the previous meeting.  A majority had voted in favour of having a full Humanist member.

Before the decision was taken to co-opt a Humanist member last February, there had been discussion amongst members, and all members at the February meeting had voted in favour of co-opting a Humanist member to the SACRE.  When the informal vote took place at the November meeting, SACRE had had a co-opted Humanist member since February 2023, and no concerns about this had been raised.  Consequently, the local authority had no reason to think that SACRE members would be opposed to moving from having a co-opted Humanist member to having a full Humanist member.  If it had been anticipated that members might be opposed to this decision, the check on SACRE members’ views may have been approached differently.

Emily Waddilove added that there had been a court ruling that if a Humanist asked to join SACRE, this had to be considered in the same way as membership of those who represent religious beliefs were considered; not doing so was against Equality Rights legislation.

Much  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3a

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

This item was deferred to the next meeting.

Angela Hill informed that a possible launch date for the new syllabus was being discussed by hubs.  The idea was to hold an afternoon/evening for teachers to attend.  The feedback from teachers in the meeting was that around March time or earlier was a good time to hold such an event, it was better to avoid the summer due to it being the exam season.  

It was suggested that holding two possible dates would enable more people to attend.

It was clarified that although the new syllabus would be launched in September 2025, teachers would have one year to fully implement it. 

Angela Hill informed that the implementation project would be ongoing, with teachers’ engagement.  Current resources would be adapted for use with the new syllabus, as much as possible.

Possible additional meeting about the syllabus on Wednesday 3 July 2024 (via Teams).

The dates of the next two meetings were confirmed:

11 November 2024 – in person at the Councill offices in Shute End, Wokingham

3 March 2025 – in person or online (to be confirmed)