Minutes:
Neither Angela nor Stephen were able to attend the SACRE Hub meeting but the focus of the meeting was the syllabus development. Those of you who are in Group A or Group B will have received an email recently asking for feedback on what you feel are the most important aspects of your faith for inclusion in the new syllabus.
The ‘Real
people, real faith’ a project is still ongoing. Further
funding has been made available meaning additional filming has been
gone ahead to include different faith communities showing the
diversity across communities with notes being prepared to accompany
those films. Feedback from teachers indicates that they are finding
the films very useful.
As the syllabus review has been postponed, allowing schools to recover from the Covid pandemic, Stephen asked whether there is any time constraint on funding. Emily confirmed that our Finance department are happy to make the funding available whenever we need it. The amount agreed is the same as for the previous review. Stephen pointed out that we are, as always, very grateful to Wokingham for making this funding available.
ACTION from previous meeting:
Stephen to discuss relaunching the ‘Crossing the bridges’ directory at the hub and raise the issue of whether places of worship are set up for online visits - ACTION ONGOING
10 National updates relating to education and RE
There are a lot of updates, so we recommend you read the National updates for further details but here are some highlights.
Nationally we are seeing a rise in the number of pupils who are taking a GCSE full or short course in religious studies but, conversely, we are also seeing a fall in numbers for A levels. The National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE) are looking into the reasons why that might be. RE is still very much the poor subject in terms of national spending. There has been some campaigning about this and last week there was a parliamentary debate - a link can be sent to you if you would like to take a look.
There is a
proposal in Wales that the GCSE qualification will be constituted
of 30% coursework and 70% exam
and they will no
longer offer the short course. Very often what happens in Wales has
a knock-on effect in England, and vice-versa, so it would be good
to be involved with the consultation.
The ‘In conversation’ series from Culham St Gabriel’s is a series of conversations with people who are experts in a particular area of religion or worldviews. There is a programme of these events and you can go as a SACRE member. They are all free, online and last about 45 minutes. There are recordings available as well.
There are lots of new resources coming out. One very good example is the Jewish Museum in London. They have an inclusive Judaism package that really engages with Judaism and diversity within Jewish traditions.
‘Strictly RE’ is national conference for RE teachers. There could be an opportunity if any SACRE members wish to attend, please contact Emily and she will look into arranging this. This is a huge conference with keynote speakers and 21 workshops about many different aspects across all key stages. Most of the workshops are run by teachers who are in the classroom and are intended to not only help other teachers but foster understanding of what goes on in the RE classroom.
‘Spirited Arts’ continues and is NATRE’s national competition for pupils to express their creativity and produce a piece of art.
ACTION from previous meeting
Angela to share Spirited Arts entries from Wokingham Schools at next meeting - ONGOING