Archived decisions

AT A MEETING of the STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (SACRE) held in the Wellington Room, The Castle, Winchester, on 3 November 2009.

PRESENT

Chairman

p Councillor Anna McNair Scott ( Hampshire County Council)

Vice-Chairman

p Councillor P. Mutton (Hampshire County Council)

a Ms. Maggie Allder - Society of Friends (Quakers)

p Mr. Mohammed Ansar - Sunni Muslim

p Councillor Mrs C. Bailey - Hampshire County County

a Mrs. Elaine Bellchambers - Higher Education - Co-opted

Mr. Hugh Benzie - Methodist Church

Mr. Tony Blackshaw - Church of England

Mrs. Dawn Casson - Teachers Association

p Mrs J. Chong - Roman Catholic

Ms. Rebecca Costambeys - Secondary Education - Co-opted

Mr. Ameek Singh Digpal - Sikhism

a Mrs Maeve Gordon-James - Buddhist

p Ms Patricia Hannam - Hampshire County Council

p Mr. Chris Hughes - Fellowship of Independent

p Mrs. Elizabeth Jenkerson - Baha'I

p Councillor Andrew Joy - Hampshire County Council

p Mrs. Julie Lemon - Special Education - Co-opted

p Judith Lowndes - Hampshire County Council

Ms Jackie McGregor - Salvation Army

Ms Liz Muir - Teachers Association

Mr. Mahmood Nurmohammed - Shia Islam

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

p Councillor S. Payne - Hampshire County Council

Mrs. Amanda Post - Primary Education - Co-opted

Mr J. Schofield - Teachers Association

p Mr. Paul Tipple - Baptist Union

a Canon John Turpin - Church of England

p Major Suryaparsad Upadhya - Hindu

p Mrs. Lillian Wetherley - Church of England

    1. WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS

    Patricia Hannam was welcomed to the meeting as Clive Erriker's replacement. Suryaparsad Upadhya was also welcomed as the new Hindu representative.

    2. APOLOGIES

    Apologies were received from Cllr David Kirk, Mrs E. Bellchambers, Canon John Turpin, Maeve Gordon James and Maggie Allder.

    3. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

    Members were mindful that, where they believed that they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest 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 .

    No declarations of interest were made.

    4. MINUTES

    The Minutes of the meeting of the Standing Advisory Council held on 24 February 2009 were confirmed as a correct record and, subsequently signed by the Chairman, subject to a few minor alterations:

    1. Mrs J. Pridmore was noted as giving apologise for the 9 July meeting.

    2. The extra `n' was removed from `Cannon' in the list of members on page 1.

    The Chairman confirmed that the letter mentioned in the Item 6 of the minutes (Monitoring Sub Group) was sent out to Head teachers and Governors of primary phase schools.

    Mr. M. Ansar confirmed that contact had made contact with Hampshire County Council regarding the Community Cohesion project (Item 8 of the minute book). Unfortunately an upcoming meeting regarding the subject had been postponed and there are few Muslim representatives, however, there is a meeting scheduled for the 18 November, which Mr. M. Ansar is attending.

    5. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

    The Chairman confirmed to the Council that proposed changes put forward for the Constitution (Item 11 of the minute book) had not been successful. It had been suggested that in paragraph 6b of the Constitution, the line "A member of the Council may be removed from membership..." be altered to "A member of the council will be removed from membership...", however, after putting forward to the Solicitor, it was said that it had to remain as it was and any such circumstance would be left to discretion of Hampshire County Council.

    6. DEPUTATIONS

    There were no deputations

    7. SACRE's ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2008/09:

    The Council received the report of the Director of Children's Services (Item 7 in the Minute Book) informing SACRE of the activities of SACRE during the past academic year.

    Concerns were raised with regards to Page 6 and the monitoring of complaints and it was questioned whether receiving `0' complaints was an accurate representation. It was confirmed that this was the case, and that any complaints that may have been received had all been dealt with at local level by the schools concerned. It was proposed that SACRE could obtain records from schools that showed how many complaints they themselves had dealt with, but as this is not something the schools have to keep, this was felt to be too intrusive and could raise questions as to why it was not being done for other subjects.

    Questions were also raised as to how aware schools were of SACRE and the route to passing on complaints. It was agreed that the subject would put on the agenda for the next SACRE meeting so the Council can decide the best route to getting the information out to schools.

    It was agreed that "Committee A" would be added to 2b on page 15 to prevent confusion over membership.

    It was also agreed that it would be beneficial for a paper on the representation of SACRE and historical background to be presented at the next SACRE meeting. Mohammed Ansar and Patricia Hannam agreed to work on this jointly.

    Item 2c (page 18) of the report refers to the Hampshire RE website. Judith Lowndes confirmed the access details for this site to be:

    ID: sacre

    Password: religion

    Item 2e on page 23 focused on collective worship and the question was raised as to how many children are withdrawn from assemblies/collective worship? Again, blanket research into this area in schools could be seen as intrusive but it could be something that is asked on a more casual basis when schools are visited. It was noted that this area is not a main focus of the Council but it was agreed that this subject and the idea of introducing a Jehovah's Witness representative would be picked up in a future SACRE meeting.

    It was agreed that Judith Lowndes would make some small changes to the wording in 2f, page 24, as it was felt that the question implied that SACRE had provided the courses. The joint course done by the Diocese and SACRE - self evaluation in Church schools - was also to be included.

    RESOLVED:

      i) That the report of the Director of Children's Services be approved and sent to the appropriate bodies, pending the small changes listed above.

    8. MONITORING SUB GROUP

    9. GCSE RESULTS

    10. NETWORKING WITH LOCAL SACRE's

    RESOLVED:

      i) That SACRE note the report of the Director of Children's Services

    11. THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATE OF SACRE's (NASACRE) CONFERENCE

    RESOLVED:

      i) That SACRE note the report and agree to submit vacancies to NASACRE with a view to recruitment and training of new members.

    12. COMMUNITY COHESION PROJECT AND THE PREVENT STRATEGY

    RESOLVED:

      i) That SACRE note the report of the Director of Children's Services and endorse the continued developments of the Community Cohesion project led by the Hampshire Museum Service.

    13. GCSE STUDENTS CONFERENCE WITH HAMPSHIRE AND PORTSMOUTH SCHOOLS

    RESOLVED:

      i) That SACRE endorse the continued provision of the annual conference for Hampshire secondary schools.

    At the end of the meeting, Mark Chater from QCDA did a presentation to the Council. He emphasised the need to improve the National Curriculum so it was more context based, rather than focused on content.

    He invited Hampshire SACRE to join in adding consistency to the Agreed Syllabus, without being restrictive and still allowing flexibility and local input.

    It was agreed that this would be a good opportunity for other local authorities to see what work Hampshire have done in this area and vice versa.

    Patricia Hannam and Judith Lowndes are due to attend the conference on the 9 December 2009 where the principals shall be agreed.