Archived decisions
Hampshire County Council SACRE 6 June 2006 Report of the NASACRE Annual General Meeting Report of the Director of Children's Services |
ITEM 6 |
Contact: Judith Lowndes - General Inspector - RE (02392 441518)
1. Summary
1.1 This report provides an overview of the events and discussions of the annual general meeting of the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education held in London on 4 May 2006. It relates to points 3 and 4 of the SACRE Development Plan.
This paper supports Aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities) and Aim 4 of the Corporate Strategy (building strong and safe communities).
2. Background
2.1 The NASACRE (National Association of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education) held their annual general meeting on 4 May 2006 at Hamilton House in London.
Chair's report: Salient points
· The Chair of NASACRE announced that a member of the NASACRE executive is available to visit SACREs to talk about NASACRE's work.
· A NASACRE website has been established (www.nasacre.org.uk). Contributions are welcome.
· NASACRE held a national forum in December which focused on the self evaluation toolkit available on line for schools to use. The NASACRE executive would be pleased to offer the forum for self evaluation in other areas.
3.1 Schools' self evaluation
Schools are now requested to complete SEFs (self evaluation forms) in order to monitor their own provision. At the last NASACRE meeting there was a proposal from Culham Institute that a database is established to enable SACREs to send information gathered from schools' SEFs to a national database. Findings would be analysed and the results returned to SACREs. The cost would be £15,000 overall and has been offered to NASACRE rather than individual SACREs.
3.2 |
A National RE Strategy is to be established by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in consultation with the RE Council to support the establishment of the non statutory framework for RE. £60,000 will be provided for the RE Council to produce a business plan for implementing the National Strategy for RE. This should include suggestions about how SACRE could monitor RE performance in schools. | ||
4.1 |
Young People's Faith Forum Project | ||
SACRE representatives from Bristol and Hull who received funding from the Westhill Trustees in 2005, presented ways in which the project has developed in their local authorities. | |||
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Bristol | ||
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Aim: To improve racial and cultural harmony. | ||
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Held an interfaith convention involving all year 10 students and RE staff from four schools. | ||
Day of music, discussion groups, tree planting ceremony and drum workshop. | |||
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Hull | ||
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Students produced a video of music and images to express their ideas and questions. They are planning a conference in November. | ||
4.2 |
The winning bids for 2006/2007 were announced. They are Blackburn Kirklees Newham Surrey Thameside | ||
5.1 |
Mark Chater is newly appointed to lead RE for QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority). His address included the following:- | ||
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KS3 strategy for the curriculum is under revision and will take into account issues about RE and spirituality. | ||
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The national non statutory framework for RE will have some additions made to engage pupils with "big ideas" (eg What is RE about?) | ||
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14-19 curriculum will be re-evaluated in relation to A level provision. | ||
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Communication. QCA will focus on pedagogue and aims to dialogue more with other agencies and teachers. | ||
6.1 |
HMI (Her Majesty's Inspectors) subject inspections A paper was provided by Barbara Wintersgill (HMI for RE). Appendix 1 | ||
6.2 |
A report was received from a Head of Department for RE who shared his experiences of completing a SEF (self evaluation form) and of a subject inspection for RE followed by a general Ofsted inspection of the whole school. | ||
7.1 |
There were discussion groups which focused on the questions provided. (Appendix 2) Responses to the questions would be welcomed. Please send them to the secretary to NASACRE ([email protected]). | ||
8.1 |
Mick Waters, the Director of Curriculum at QCA gave an inspiring presentation about his plans for the curriculum. Salient points: | ||
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Fundamentals in life should be the focus of pupils' experiences. He spoke about seeing the sun rise at dawn, watching a flower opening, the power of the weather. | ||
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The curriculum should be supported by "contagious professionalism" whereby teachers see their role as developmental. | ||
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SACREs' responsibilities are: | ||
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monitoring and improving standards | ||
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partnership with local authority and other agencies | ||
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effectiveness of the local syllabus | ||
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quality of collective worship | ||
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contribution to social and racial harmony. | ||
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In order to raise the profile of SACREs and their work they could: | ||
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go to headteacher conferences | ||
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talk to governor conferences | ||
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talk to local community leaders | ||
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talk to parent conferences | ||
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talk to employers' organisations | ||
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encourage involvement in other subject communities | ||
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send the annual report to SACRE | ||
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grapple with the `big issues'. | ||
9. 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.
10. 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.
None