Archived decisions
Hampshire County Council SACRE Item 10 27 February 2007 Report on Strong SACREs, Good RE National Workshop Report of the Director of Children's Services |
Contact: Clive Erricker, County Inspector for RE (02392 441459)
1 |
Summary |
1.1 |
This report summarises the activities of the national workshop: Strong SACREs, Good RE sponsored by Qualifications and Curriculum Authority(QCA), the RE Council and the National Association of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (NASACRE) and was held in London on 1 November 2006. It relates to points 1 -7 of the SACRE development plan. |
1.2 |
This paper supports the Corporate Strategy in terms of maximising well being. |
2 |
Background |
2.1 |
The Chair of SACRE and the County Inspector for RE attended the above national workshop on 1 November 2006. 62 delegates attended. The programme and procedures of the day are reported below. |
2.2 |
Mark Chater of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) welcomed delegates and spoke of the good work done by SACREs that he had already witnessed since taking up his post. |
2.3 |
John Keast reported on the National Framework for RE and gave the following key messages: · It is non-statutory · It does not change the current law in relation to RE whereby the local Agreed Syllabus is the statutory document · It plays an important role in the way RE is developing through informing Local Authorities reviews of their Agreed Syllabuses · It contributes to faith community reviews of RE programmes in faith schools · It underpins the partnership established between the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Religious Education Council (REC) in creating a proposal for a national strategy for RE which involves both professional associations and faith communities. This strategy should strengthen SACREs, commission RE teacher training, address RE in the 14-19 curriculum developments now being undertaken and provide a new website through which SACREs can be informed of developments. It was not yet clear when this strategy would come into operation. |
2.4 |
Denise Chaplin, deputy chair of the National Association of SACREs (NASACRE), reported on proposals NASACRE had submitted, but which have not yet been published, on how to strengthen SACREs. They included guidance on: · Recruitment and training of new SACRE members · Good partnership with Local Authorities · NASACRE partnership with the RE Council · SACRE self-evaluation and RE specific school self-evaluation and the sharing of self-evaluation judgements Denise also reported that updates on this will be posted on the NASACRE and RE Council websites and that opportunities for regional SACRE meetings will be promoted for SACREs to share information and good practice. |
2.5 |
Julie Grove reported on a pilot project to improve recruitment and training of SACRE members. She explained its rationale and structure: · The Home Office had invited projects to assist with the integration of faith communities. The RE Council had made a successful bid based on the development of SACREs · Julie was responsible for training on the pilot project which focused on recruitment and training for committee A members of SACRE (representatives of faith communities) · Initial efforts will be focused in the North-West (Greater Manchester) and Muslim community recruitment and the South-East (London) through a wider range of faith representation. These pilots will be evaluated and the results disseminated to SACREs through the RE Council National Strategy · The project will consist of two training days and linked field work experience through observing RE lessons, talking to teachers, experiencing SACRE meetings, observing collective worship and being accompanied by a SACRE `buddy' · The first training day will focus on raising awareness as to the role of RE, SACREs and Agreed Syllabus Conferences and how representatives of faith communities fulfil their role effectively. |
2.6 |
Lat Blaylock of the Professional Council for Religious Education (PCfRE) spoke on what constitutes a good SACRE and presented a handout on 30 things a good SACRE can do. His emphasis was on how SACREs can continue to innovate and be pro-active as opposed to just seeing themselves as established (fulfilling their basic statutory duties). He gave examples of how SACREs can collaborate better with schools, their Local Authorities and County Councils. |
2.7 |
Alan Brine, lead RE inspector for Ofsted, spoke on how SACREs can develop. He focused on the differing potential of different SACREs in relation to the size of the authority they serve and the Local Authority support they receive. He emphasised the need for SACREs to recognise their importance in relation to the social cohesion agenda and how they can support their Local Authorities in fulfilling responsibilities. |
2.8 |
Deborah Weston, an RE teacher and SACRE member, gave examples of how SACREs can fulfil their monitoring role given the new Ofsted Framework for Inspection that does not provide regular subject reports. She gave examples of websites that can be useful for gaining helpful information on school policies, syllabuses they follow, schemes of work, attainment at key stages, and national GCSE data for RE. These included: www.ico.gov.uk; www.jcq.org.uk; and www.pcfre.org.uk for further teacher support. |
2.9 |
Three workshops based on how SACREs can develop from the "established" category of self-evaluative judgement through to "developing" and then "advanced" in their self-evaluation focused on the following issues and examples of good practice: · Difficulties in acquiring self-evaluating data from schools in order to monitor school provision in RE. It was suggested that advisers and Advanced Skills Teachers (ASTs) could be pro-active in this role through their interventions in schools and their monitoring of schools' performance · Problems for smaller authorities where SACREs have a marginalised role and where specialist RE advisers do not exist. It was suggested that RE is often not seen as having high importance within school self-evaluation, but examples were provided by Newham and Tyneside of how effective partnership between SACREs, Local Authorities and local councils could facilitate effective monitoring and structures that allow SACRE do be effectively involved in social cohesion · It was suggested that within the Agreed Syllabus a requirement could be included that schools report to SACREs on their Ofsted inspections in relation to RE provision and that this could be done by providing a short pro-forma that SACRE provide and schools could use · It was suggested that SACREs could promote closer relationships with their Local Authorities and Councils by ensuring that their work is presented within yearly reports to Children's Services and meetings with Head Teacher panels to ensure that there was greater visibility of SACREs role and contribution. Also, it was suggested that senior officers within the local Council be appointed to SACREs to establish SACREs involvement within the overall remit of the Council · The importance of SACREs recognising their new role in promoting social cohesion was emphasised in relation to promoting the importance of SACREs and this needed to be advertised to Local Authorities and local Councils. In order for this to be recognised it was suggested that SACREs must address the overall representative nature of its faith community membership · It was agreed that the most difficult areas for SACREs to perform according to the Advanced category were those of monitoring provision in schools and compliance with provision for collective worship. In respect of the latter it was agreed that, within secondary schools, the lack of compliance required SACREs to consider its position on the legal expectations for collective worship. NASACRE, Ofsted and the Association of RE Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (AREIAC) had all lobbied for a change in the interpretation of the law on collective worship given in Circular 1/94 produced by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). Hampshire SACRE may wish to consider their position on this matter when addressing point 4 in their own development plan. |