Archived decisions

Item 3

AT A MEETING of the STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (SACRE) held at The Castle, Winchester on Tuesday 28 February 2006.

Chairman:

p Hon Alderman S.W. Juniper (Hampshire County Council)

Vice Chairman:

p Councillor D.A. Kirk (Hampshire County Council)

Members:

Also present: Councillor J.K. West - Chairman of the County Council.

22. APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Mr D. Hill, Mr J. Klein, Mrs C. Macdonald, Mrs S. Thatcher and Mrs L. Weatherley.

23. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should, normally at the time of the debate, declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

24. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2005 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Matters arising:

Minute 17 - SACRE Self Evaluation Sub-Group

It was confirmed that the meeting of SACRE on 3 June 2006 would be taking place at the Medina Mosque in Southampton. The Chairman expressed his thanks to Mr Benzie and other members of the sub-group for completing the task of performing a self evaluation.

Minute 18 - DfES Incentives to Recruit New RE Teachers

The Council was advised that monitoring of the effectiveness of recruitment incentives would take place through providers of training courses for RE Teachers.

Minute 19 - SACRE Annual Report

It was explained that the Local Authority and Schools were awaiting confirmation of the definition of `Excellent Teachers' from the government and therefore, no nominations could yet be made.

CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman welcomed Councillor West, Chairman of the County Council, to the meeting as an observer.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Post for giving a presentation to SACRE Members prior to the opening of the meeting on the implementation and impact of the Agreed Syllabus in her school, Manor Infant School.

It was reported that the University of Winchester had been advertising its new flexible PGCE course for Religious Education (RE) Teachers and had received a reasonable amount of interest from potential students.

The Council was informed that the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) had arranged two roadshows during February to discuss the Non-Statutory National Framework for RE. The Director of Children's Services had written to QCA to express his regret that little prior notice had been given for these roadshows, and the Chairman was concerned that the Local Authority should be involved in such discourse.

The Council was advised of two open days being advertised by the Medina Mosque in Southampton on `Towards Understanding Jihad' and `Liberation of Women in Islam' on 17 September and 10 December respectively. The invitation to these Islamic awareness days was extended to all Members of SACRE.

The Council was informed about the outcomes of the preliminary meeting of the Hampshire Inter-Faith Forum which had been arranged under the portfolio of the Executive Member for Community Development and External Affairs - Councillor R.J. Perry - who had responsibility on the Cabinet for issues of diversity. It had been a positive meeting with a good level of attendance and it was hoped that this Forum would help to set the context for a Youth Inter-Faith Forum.

The Chairman informed the Council that notice had been given for the Annual General Meeting of NASACRE on Thursday 4 May 2006. He offered to attend the meeting, unless any other Member wished to attend to represent Hampshire SACRE.

25. DEPUTATIONS

There were no deputations to this meeting.

26. YOUNG PEOPLE'S INTER-FAITH PROJECT

The Council considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 6 in the Minute Book) on the development of plans to initiate a Youth Inter-Faith Forum. The steering group for these plans had been informed by a group of inter-departmental officers from areas of diversity and equality, education and youth. The Youth Inter-Faith Forum would work closely with and under Hampshire County Youth Council (HCYC), and could provide a link between HCYC and SACRE. It would be for the HCYC Members to decide what material form the project would take which would give the young people ownership of the result.

It was felt that young people from all faith backgrounds, including those of no faith, should be encouraged and welcomed to take part in the Forum. SACRE Members were invited to encourage members of their own communities to get involved in the project. The importance of social cohesion and developing a greater degree of understanding between faith groups was emphasised. It was viewed as a possibility that the Youth Inter-Faith Forum could be represented by Members on SACRE in the future.

The bid for funding from the National Association of SACREs (NASACRE) was in final drafting stage and SACRE asked the steering group to agree the proposed bid to be submitted to NASACRE. Members would receive a copy of the final document.

27. NATIONAL NASACRE CONFERENCE: SACRES AND SELF EVALUATION

The Council considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 7 in the Minute Book) summarising the topics and discussions of the annual conference. There were concerns over the suggestion from some participants at the conference that all SACREs should be forced to subscribe to a central and separate agency which compared all self evaluation data from around the country. While Members felt it would be important to make comparisons between self evaluation data, it was considered restrictive to force SACREs to do so through a particular agency. The Church of England representative assured SACRE that the Diocese would be willing to share its data on self evaluation.

28. SACRE DEVELOPMENT PLAN

The Council considered and noted the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 7 in the Minute Book) outlining the SACRE Development Plan. This plan had been formulated in order to rationalise the outcomes and resolutions from previous meetings, in particular from the SACRE Self Evaluation process. The Council was informed that publication of the RE Handbook had been postponed further and that a re-costing exercise would be taking place. It was anticipated that the handbook would be published within one month. The evaluation of the implementation of the Agreed Syllabus had commenced as the syllabus would have been in place for 2 years by September 2006. It was felt important that questionnaires sent to schools should be simple in order to encourage a high response rate.

Inspectors were able to gain schools' self evaluations through various means and it was hoped that all schools would eventually be covered through these avenues. The quality of the self evaluation form was often as informative as the evaluation itself. It would be preferable for schools to have an ongoing relationship with the RE Inspector/Advisers, but some schools would not be able or willing to pay for these services. This could impact on the quality of self evaluations and information available to SACRE as a result. The importance of honesty in the process and of discussing the self evaluation was emphasised by Members. However, it was acknowledged that the pressure of the paperwork would have a significant impact upon smaller schools.

It was confirmed that the summer meeting of SACRE would take place at Medina Mosque in Southampton as a result of the suggestion of the self evaluation sub group. Speakers had already addressed Members at two meetings, and a further speaker had been arranged for the next meeting. The Chief Executive confirmed that a pack of information had been compiled for new and existing Members.

RESOLVED:

That the SACRE Development Plan be approved.

29. DATE OF NEXT MEETING

It was noted that the next SACRE meeting would be held at 2.00 pm on Tuesday 6 June 2006 at the Medina Mosque in Southampton.