Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed Denise Angell, Rev Alan Mustoe and Julia Waldman to the meeting.

Councillor Phillips had previously sent apologies for her late arrival.

Councillor Brooks, Councillor Phillips, Samantha Barnett, Patricia Colling and Julia Waldman apologised for having to leave the meeting early due to other commitments.

Apologies for absence were received from Hannah Arnold, Sanjay Gupta,

Ray Hagley and Edlene Whitman.

None.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 2^nd December 2014 be confirmed as a correct record subject to the following amendment:

Minute 5(e) Islamic Competition.  After the first paragraph add:

The prizes were presented by Mr Stephen Lloyd MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Religious Education.

B) MATTERS ARISING:

Minute 5(c) The Trojan Horse Conference.

The Chairman and RE Consultant would be attending the conference which was being held on Friday 20^th March 2015 in St Albans. They would report back at the next meeting.

a) SACRE Annual Report 2013-2014

b) NASACRE AGM

c) Islamic Competition

d) Discovery RE

a)  SACRE Annual Report 2013-2014

This had been completed and distributed to SACRE Members, the Director and Assistant Director of Education, the Education Portfolio Holder, Members of the Education Policy Development and Scrutiny Committee, libraries, schools and NASACRE. A copy had also been sent to Nicky Morgan, the Secretary of State for Education. This had been acknowledged by the Ministerial and Public Communications Division at the Department of Education.

b)  NASACRE Conference and AGM

The Chairman and RE Consultant would be attending the NASACRE Conference and AGM which was being held on Thursday 21^st May  2015 in Birmingham. They would report back at the next meeting.

c)  Islamic Competition

The prize giving for the Islamic Competition would take place at Darul Uloom on Thursday 12^th November 2015. Entries from schools needed to be received by the end of September 2015. The RE Consultant confirmed that details of the competition were available to schools on “Fronter”.

d)  Discovery RE

A number of SACREs and schools had received mailings from commercial providers of RE Resources making the claim that their products can help schools deliver the relevant locally agreed syllabus by mapping the syllabus to their specific product for primary schools. (A charge is made for their services.) NASACRE had given guidance to SACREs on how to respond to these approaches. The Chairman reported that he and the RE Consultant had received a communication from such a provider; “Discovery RE”, which had used the new agreed Bromley RE syllabus as a basis for their product. The RE Consultant commented that in addition to the statutory requirements for RE, the Bromley syllabus also has suggested questions, activities and resources for schools, and she was available to support them in delivering the syllabus. Following discussion SACRE Members were of the opinion that Bromley’s locally agreed RE syllabus was a comprehensive and up to date resource which should be adequate for the needs of Bromley children and asked the RE Consultant to advise schools accordingly.  ACTION PSO

Item ED15170315

A) LETTER FROM LORD NASH

Lord Nash, the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Schools, had sent a letter to all local authorities outlining the workings of SACRE and discussing a number of items regarding Religious Education. SACRE Members considered the letter and noted that it had been forwarded to all schools in Bromley. NASACRE had suggested that SACREs respond to the letter and had issued guidance for doing so. It was also suggested that Lord Nash’s letter and SACREs response be copied to the Director of Children’s Services and the appropriate Portfolio Holder.

The various points raised in Lord Nash’s letter were discussed. Whilst some SACRE members considered it was not necessary to respond to the letter, it was agreed by a majority that a reply should be sent. The Chairman and RE Consultant agreed to prepare an appropriate response.

RESOLVED that the Chairman send a response to Lord Nash’s letter on behalf of Bromley SACRE.

B) SACRE SELF EVALUATION

(This item was considered at the beginning of the meeting when all SACRE Members were present.)

  The Annual Report of Bromley SACRE contains a self-evaluation of SACRE which is updated each year. Previously it was agreed that the RE Consultant should carry out the self-evaluation and report as necessary. However, this means that the members do not have an input into the document and might not have knowledge of the categories which lead to a successful SACRE committee.

SACRE Members were asked to consider the top 3 priorities decided for Bromley SACRE in response to the NASACRE survey carried out in December 2014 (see minute 7 of minutes dated 2^nd December 2014), and to discuss the self-evaluation of Bromley SACRE.

The SACRE Reporting & Evaluation Toolkit was used and SACRE Members spent time at the meeting within their groups discussing the self-evaluation.

Teachers were asked to focus on Section 1

(Standards and Quality of Provision of RE)

Representatives from the Church of England were asked to focus on Section 3 (Collective Worship) (They had also met prior to the meeting.)

Councillors were asked to focus on Section 4

(Management of SACRE)

Other faiths were asked to focus on Section 5

(Contribution of SACRE to promoting cohesion across the community).

Members could comment on other sections if they wished.

The RE Consultant would complete Section 2 (The effectiveness of the locally agreed syllabus).

Results of the self-evaluation can be seen in the table appended to these minutes. Members commented on the reasons for making their decisions.

Additional points arising from the discussions are listed below.

Section 1 - Standards and Quality of Provision of RE

The teaching group on SACRE considered it was a good idea for schools to “cluster” and commented that more input from different faith groups would be greatly appreciated. The RE Consultant referred to the support given through the RE Advisers network meetings which were organised for non-specialist primary school co-ordinators. The teaching group said it would be useful for them to be able to share  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Communication

The Chairman informed SACRE members that

i) He had opened two social media accounts; a SACRE Facebook page (mentioned above) and a twitter account – tweet @Rev_Roger He had also asked the Local Authority if it would be possible for a Bromley email address to be set up for him as SACRE Chair. In the meantime he could be contacted via email on vicar@htc-bc.org.uk

ii) A new series of 5 Religious Education programmes for Key Stage 2 pupils was due to start the following week on BBC2. These would cover Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Judaism and Hinduism.

The RE Adviser also urged SACRE Members to listen to a very informative Radio 4 programme, “Beyond Belief” which had been aired the previous day.

Expansion of new Muslim Centre in Croydon Road, Keston

The Chairman informed SACRE Members that a planning application had been submitted to the Council to expand the Al-Emaan Muslim Centre in Croydon Road, Keston and to increase the number of parking spaces.  The Centre is on the site of a former Methodist Church. It was noted that permission was not needed to convert the church into a mosque as both are designated places of worship. It was understood that there was concern locally about traffic issues and parking at the premises which was near a busy road junction.The Chairman noted that communication between the Centre and local groups / residents had not been as good as it might be and expressed the hope that this might improve. Amongst activities proposed at the Centre is a school of Islamic studies and this could potentially become a valuable resource for SACRE and for local schools.

(NB:  Since this meeting the Council had rejected the application for planning permission.  It is understood that the Centre managers do not intend to appeal this decision.)

Wednesday 1^st July 2015

Tuesday 17^th November 2015

Wednesday 9^th March 2016

Wednesday 29^th June 2016

All meetings to start at 6pm

Wednesday 1^st July 2015

 Tuesday 17^th November 2015

Wednesday 9^th March 2016

Wednesday 29^th June 2016

All meetings to start at 6pm