Archived decisions

Contact: Clive Erricker - County Inspector - RE (02392 441459)

[email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 This report summarises the activities of the national conference: Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACREs) and self-evaluation held in Bristol on 6 December 2005.

1.2 This paper supports Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities) and Aim 4 of the Corporate Strategy (building strong and safe communities). The conference addressed the contribution of SACREs to evaluating their effectiveness and monitoring the effectiveness of RE provision in schools. It also addressed the contribution of schools in self-evaluating their provision in RE and how strategies for improvement can be effective.

2. Background

2.1 The Chair of the SACRE monitoring and self-evaluation sub-committees and the County Inspector for RE attended the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (NASACRE) conference on self-evaluation on 6 December 2005. The agenda items for the day are reported on below.

2.2 The new Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) Framework and SACREs

Barabara Wintersgill, Ofsted Chief Inspector for RE, presented a report on how the new inspection framework will impact on the work of SACREs.

2.2.1 Changes in inspection. Schools will be inspected every three years, notice will be short and judgements will be based mainly on performance data gained from the Performance and Assessment (PANDA). The quality of leadership and management and the capacity to improve will be the focus of inspections. Subjects and SACREs will no longer be inspected.

2.2.2 How will SACREs be informed? New reports will make judgements on Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC) but not subjects. Subjects will be inspected in 30 primary and 30 secondary schools per year but on a regional basis with a specific focus for these inspections; eg boy's achievement, the impact of non-specialist teachers. HMI will continue to report on subjects using this evidence. This will be communicated through the Ofsted website and in published articles in journals such as RE Today. Local Authorities (LAs) will continue to hold data on schools' performance in the form of examination results and residuals. There will be a dearth of Ofsted data on primary schools.

2.2.3 Schools self-evaluation. The secondary self-evaluation form (SEF) will be a means by which schools conduct self-evaluation. It will provide evidence of standards and procedures through `How do you know? Questions and identify issues and barriers to raising performance.

2.2.4 RE self-evaluation. This should be done through the LA not SACRE. It was suggested that the LA inspector request specific headteachers to provide a sample in each year. The Association of RE Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (AREIAC) toolkit for RE self-evaluation was recommended as an instrument for RE self-evaluation. A strategy for reporting on local schools should be put in place by January 2006 and included in the SACRE Annual Report.

2.3 SACRE self-evaluation

Julie Grove, deputing for Denise Chaplin, presented an example from Lewisham SACRE of the use of the Ofsted model for SACRE self-evaluation.

2.3.1 Lewisham used the Ofsted model and conducted their self-evaluation through five different working groups each working on a different area of the five areas for self-evaluation and reporting back to the full SACRE every six months. The final report was included within the Ofsted model by showing exemplars of good practice as evidence and action points within the Exemplar column to indicate the development plan to be constructed by SACRE, which should reflect the Every Child Matters agenda in relation to its five outcomes. Lewisham's document will go on the NASACRE website. Julie Grove also suggested that an annual meeting between the Chair of SACRE and the Director of Children's Services, as happened with her LA, would be a further example of good practice to ensure the development plan of SACRE was enabled in its implementation.

2.4 Self-evaluation of RE in schools

Julie Grove again led this session.

2.4.1 The AREIAC toolkit for self-evaluation was commended to schools and SACREs for their monitoring of RE in schools. It reflects changes in the Ofsted framework and emphasises the need for leadership at all levels. The focus of the presentation was on the structure of the document and ways of providing evidence. Emphasis was placed on the importance of identifying evidence for making judgements that would lead to an improvement strategy. It was suggested that an Advanced Skills Teacher (AST) might present an example of a good self-evaluation to SACRE and that 10 schools be asked to return a SEF to SACRE through the LA to establish a database.

2.5 Helping SACREs to make use of self-evaluation data in schools to create a national overview

Tony Parfitt of the Culham Institute, which had financed the creation of the self-evaluation in RE toolkit, spoke to this item.

2.5.1 He emphasised the need to create a national overview of the quality of RE through self-evaluation and the sharing of the information produced by SACREs to do this. This could be done by schools termly sending data to the LA and SACRE that could then be passed on to NASACRE for evaluation and dissemination. This exercise was costed at £5,000 to set up the system and £5,000 per annum to sustain it reflecting an LA subscription of £50 per annum. This could be active by the summer term 2006. This presentation was critically received based on questioning the value of a national overview for local SACREs and a lack of correlation between the partial nature of the data received from each SACRE and the evidence for a national picture created during any particular year.

3. Recommendation

That SACRE note the report and consider how initiatives reported on from the conference could contribute to its development plan in relation to self-evaluation of SACRE, a SACRE development plan and the monitoring of self-evaluation of RE provision in schools.

4. Background Papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.