Agenda item

(Angela / Emily)

The draft development plan for April 21 to March 22 includes our standard SACRE activities.

Page 13 of the agenda pack

Point 3 – visits to schools by SACRE members: due to current situation, delay this by one term and change to ‘No visits until Spring 2022’. Before then, contact can continue to be made virtually.

Page 15 of the agenda pack

Provision of CPD for secondary RE teachers and Heads of RE. There is no secondary federation INSET day again this year, so we need to think about alternative ways of supporting secondary schools. Secondary colleagues have been attending recent primary network meetings and will be encouraged to attend this term’s meeting.

We already have a plan for the Autumn term Primary RE Network meeting on 30^th November 2021 with a colleague from RE today, an Early Years expert, who will be providing training in this specific area.

Emily pointed out the two budget documents in the agenda pack – one for the end of the last financial year, and the other a draft budget plan for this current year.

We mentioned at the last meeting that we had an amount of money left over from the last financial year which we thought we had to spend in a hurry. The good news is that we have been allowed to carry this over into this financial year. General discussion took place around how we can use these additional funds of around £3000. (The hub has just invoiced us for £500, rather than £900. We should keep a little more in reserve in case further funds are needed but we have a little more to play with than indicated in the draft budget plan. We can also factor in the £250 allocated to secondary twilight training.)

Emily put forward various ideas including physical resources which could be posted to the schools and a Wokingham Festival of RE, consisting of live and pre-recorded twilight sessions which would take place over several weeks. If both resources and training are provided, the training could be linked to the resources, which would encourage teachers to use them. Angela has worked with her colleagues at RE Today to put together suggestions for resources and training at reduced costs. (Stephen noted that Angela has been keen to point out that the SACRE is of course free to work with other organisations.)

The physical resources suggested were

‘Picturing Islam Picturing Muslims’ for Key stage 3&4 students

Picturing Islam, Picturing Muslims 9781910261545 - NATRE

‘What happens in…’ for Primary schools

What happens in ...? 9781910261309 - NATRE

These resources could be tied in with training that we can offer and ‘What happens in…’ fits in well with the ‘Real People Real Faith’ materials.

The SACRE meeting attendees voted in favour of spending the money on a combination of training resources and training. The resources will be sent out with an accompanying letter explaining that they are a gift from SACRE and detailing the training on offer. This letter will be sent from Stephen as chair. Stephen is happy for any other members who would like to, to be involved in the letter. David suggested that he would also be happy to sign it to show councillor support.