Item 3

AT A MEETING of the STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (SACRE) held at The Castle, Winchester on Tuesday, 26 February 2008.

PRESENT

Chairman:

p Councillor Mrs Anna McNair Scott (Hampshire County Council)

Vice-Chairman

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

p Ms Maggie Allder - Society of Friends (Quakers)

p Mrs Elaine Bellchambers - Higher Education - Co-opted
p Mr Hugh Benzie - Methodist Church

p Mr Tony Blackshaw - Church of England

a Ms Jackie McGregor - Salvation Army

p Councillor Mrs A Buckley - Hampshire County Council

a Ms Rebecca Costambeys - Secondary Education - Co-opted

Vacancy - Assemblies of God

Mr Ameek Singh Digpal - Sikism

a Mr Brian Hay - Church of England

Mr David Hill - Roman Catholic Church

p Mr Chris A R Hughes - Fellowship of Independent

Evangelical Churches

a Mrs Maeve Gordon James - Buddhism Deputy

a Mr Julius Klein - Judaism

a Mrs Julie Lemon - Special Education- Co-opted

p Mrs Jean O'Reilly - Humanism - Co-opted

p Councillor Sam Payne - Hampshire County Council

Mrs Amanda J. Post - Primary Education - Co-opted

a Revd Ganshin E Rock - Buddhism

p Mr J.A. Schofield - Teachers' Association

Mr Mohammed Ansar - Sunni Islam

Mr Jagdish' L. Sharma - Hinduism

p Mr Mahmood Nurmohammed - Shia Islam

Mrs P Smith - Teachers' Association

Vacancy - Teachers' Association

p Mr Paul Tipple - Baptist Union

Vacancy - United Reformed Church

a Canon John Turpin - Church of England

a Mr Nigel Utton - Teachers' Association

a Mrs Lilian Wetherley - Church of England

Also present, Darryl Sheppard from Hampshire County Council for the Young People's Interfaith Forum.

86 APOLOGIES

Apologies were received from Amanda Post, Rebecca Costambeys, Jackie McGregor, Julius Klien, Ganshin Rock, Maeve Gordon James, Brian Hay, John Turpin and Lillian Whetherley.

87 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, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with paragraph 12 of the Code.

There were no declarations of interest made by Members.

88 MINUTES

The Minutes of the meetings held on 5 June 2007 and 6 November 2006 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

89 CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

The Chairman led the Members in welcoming Mohammed Ansar to his first meeting as Sunni Muslim representative and Mahmood Nurmohammed to his first meeting as Shia Muslim representative.

The Chairman informed Members of a recent email received from the London School of Islamics relating to Honour Killing. It was agreed that there would not be a response by Hampshire County Council to this email.

The Committee noted with concern that the levels of attendance at SACRE meetings were poor, and agreed that it was important that SACRE reflected and was representative of the faith communities within Hampshire, and that a lack of attendance impacted on this. Members asked that Chairman to write to Members, and copy to their organisations, who had not attended or given apologies for a significant period, to ask them to consider their commitment to SACRE.

Members discussed the SACRE constitution and terms of reference, with particular reference to the broader aspects of social cohesion. The Committee asked the Chairman and Officers to take legal advice on how to proceed with the amending the Committee's constitution and terms of reference.

90 DEPUTATIONS

There were no deputations received under this item.

91 JOINT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SACREs (NASACRE) AND QUALIFICATIONS AND CURRICULUM AUTHORITY MEETING (QCA)

The Council considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 6 in the Minute Book) summarising the recent joint meeting of NASACRE and QCA on 17 January 2008. The keynote speaker at the meeting was Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learning Development for Children, Schools and Families.

Members discussed several of the points raised at the conference, with discussions focussed on the proposals to review Circular 1/94, although it was noted that this review related only to the Religious Education aspect, rather than to the collective worship element.

Members noted the consideration given to the involvement of young people, but felt that a "Young People's SACRE" would not be the most suitable model for young people to engage with these issues.

RESOLVED:


That the report be noted.

92 MONITORING SUBGROUP

The Council considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 7 in the Minute Book) on the conclusions of the recent meetings of the monitoring subgroup. The subgroup had scrutinised several of the RE Self Evaluation Forms returned by Primary and Secondary schools, and had highlighted some inconsistencies in the quality of the completed forms, and several forms were returned not fully completed.

Members were informed that the application for matched funding from the Westhill Trust to carry out qualitative research into the effect of Living Difference had not been successful, and that alternative funding sources would be sought.

RESOLVED:


That the report be noted.

93 SOCIAL COHESION

The Council considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 8 in the Minute Book), summarising the progress of the social cohesion project. Invitations had been sent to Members inviting them to the conference on 27 March, which would be recorded by Hampshire Records Office. Following the conference, a report was to be prepared and received by the County Council via SACRE.

Members agreed that impressive progress had been made on the project, and looked forward to the conference.

RESOLVED:


That the report be noted and the continued developments of the Social Cohesion project and conference be endorsed.

94 YOUNG PEOPLE'S INTER-FAITH PROJECT

The Council considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 9 in the Minute Book) on the progress of the Young People's Inter-Faith Project. A group of six young people had been meeting separately from Hampshire County Youth Council. A Youth Interfaith Event was planned for Saturday 12 July to be held at the Winchester Discovery Centre, and an Interfaith calendar, with artwork from young people would be prepared. The primary challenge that had arisen was to increase the number of young people involved in the project and the level of involvement by the faith communities.

Members discussed extensively the need to attract more young people to take part in the Project, and agreed that a fundamental aspect of this was to ensure that the project was of such a form, and operated in such a way, that young people and their communities would want to engage with it. Members highlighted the use of alternative forms of media, such as television and the internet, such as social networking sites, as a possible method of generating greater awareness of the Project.

RESOLVED:


That the report be noted and the continued work of the project be endorsed.

95 LINKS TO LOCAL SACREs INCLUDING PORTSMOUTH AND SOUTHAMPTON

The Council considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 10 in the Minute Book) summarising a meeting to discuss opportunities for future joint working and collaboration between local SACREs. A further meeting had been arranged to be held in March.

Members agreed that a number of positive suggestions had emerged from the meeting, and that these should be developed.


RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and that continued meeting with members of local SACREs to seek collaboration and joint activities be endorsed.

96 REVIEW OF HAMPSHIRE'S RE HANDBOOKS

The Council considered the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 11 in the Minute Book) on reviews of Primary and Secondary Handbooks Living Difference, published in The British Journal of Religious Education in January 2008.

Members were pleased to note the very positive reviews, and congratulated the officers involved in preparing the handbooks.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

97 DATE OF NEXT MEETING

Members noted that the next meeting would be held at 2.00 pm on Tuesday 10 June 2008 at an outside venue.