a) The Future of RE
b) London SACREs event
c) Islamic Competition
d) Progress on Bromley Agreed Syllabus
e) Sikh Open Day 5th June 2011
f) SACRE Annual Report for 2010-2011
Minutes:
a) The Future of RE
The RE Adviser informed the meeting that it had been confirmed RE was not included in the English Baccalaureate. The Minister for Education had commented that “all schools were doing RE anyway”, although it was known that this was actually not the case. The Association of RE Advisers had asked a representative of the Department of Education if all Head Teachers and Governing Bodies could be written to, confirming that the teaching of RE is statutory. However, at the Annual London SACRE’s meeting the previous week John Keast, Chair of the Religious Education Council had commented that the Government would not write to schools to tell them what to do. The RE Adviser had recently attended a weekend event with teachers and others involved in RE. It had been suggested that there should be “one voice” talking to the Government about the future of RE, and that this should be the RE Council who represent the collectiveinterests of a wide variety of professional associations and faith communities. The synopsis of the weekend event was awaited. The RE Adviser commented that when attending the weekend she was surprised to discover that there were a lot of teachers who had not heard of SACREs and who did not know about the RE Council. (This might be due to the fact that their Local Authorities did not have an RE Adviser.) However, this was not the case with LB Bromley as all RE teachers were aware of Bromley SACRE.
Councillor Manning suggested that if the Government are unwilling to write to schools confirming that RE is a statutory function, perhaps this was something that the Children and Young People Portfolio Holder or Director of Children and Young People Services at LB Bromley should do.
b) London SACREs Event -
Annual Meeting of the London and South East SACREs
This had taken place on 13th October 2011 at the Lewisham Sri Lankan Hindu Temple. The Rev Canon Michael Camp, Mrs Colling and Mr Riat had attended, together with the Chairman and RE Adviser. The Chairman commented that it had been emphasised children were experiencing more diversity than at any other time. It was essential that each child was taken beyond their tolerance level to one which respected the beliefs of others. (See the report of the meeting appended to these minutes.) Education was changing dynamically and it was important for SACREs to think proactively.
Reverend Canon Michael Camp remarked that one of the important things arising from the meeting was the challenge that it was up to the RE community to ensure the promotion of good Religious Education. Jackie Tranchina commented that there was a lot of “clustering” going on with schools being encouraged to join and work together. She had recently been appointed as Head Teacher at Cudham C of E Primary School and worked closely with other primary schools and the secondary school in her locality.
Councillor Charsley asked if the Archbishops were concerned about the teaching of RE. Reverend Canon Camp said that the Archbishop of Canterbury was very much aware but unfortunately was unable to affect Government Policy.
c) Islamic Competition 2011
Members were reminded that the next Islamic Competition would be held at Darul Uloom between 7–9pm on 24th November 2011. All Members were invited and if they wished to attend were asked to email Mr Mahmood to let him know and he would let them have details of the dress code. Mr Mahmood said that an enormous amount of effort was being put into the event. There were three schools attending: Coopers Technology College, Bullers Wood and Langley Park School for Boys. It was noted that Bishop Justus School had expressed an interest in attending the Islamic Competition in future.
The RE Adviser remarked that it would be an excellent evening and it was well worth hearing and seeing what the children had done. Mr Stone said that he had had positive feedback from parents following previous Islamic Competitions and they had been very appreciative. The Chairman thanked Mr Mahmood for organising the event which was much appreciated and valued.
(Mrs Polydorou left after consideration of this item.)
d) Progress on Bromley Agreed Syllabus
Unfortunately it had not yet been possible to set up the working group to discuss the process of the forthcoming review of the Bromley Agreed Syllabus. The RE Adviser asked if there was any budget available for a syllabus review and was told by the Head of Education Commissioning and Business Services that there was no specific budget for SACRE but it came within her overall budget and was approximately £14,000 - £15,000 (this included the 35 days RE Adviser support). Beverley Johnston suggested that she liaise with the Chairman and RE Adviser to ensure that the SACRE Development Plan met with the budget. It was pointed out that the SACRE Development Plan did not coincide with the financial year, as it ran from January to December. Councillor Adams suggested that perhaps it might be helpful to have a fifteen month Development Plan ending in March 2013.
RESOLVED that the Chairman and RE Adviser meet with the Head of Education Commissioning and Business Services to discuss the SACRE Development Plan and budget.
(Reverend Varney left after consideration of this item)
e) Sikh Open Day 5th June 2011
At the previous meeting Mr Riat had invited members of SACRE to an open day at the Sikh Gurdwara on the 5th June 2011. Unfortunately Mr Riat was unable to attend the SACRE meeting to give an update on the event.
f) SACRE Annual Report for 2010-2011
The RE Adviser had requested details of the GCSE results and when these were received would incorporate them into the SACRE Annual Report for 2010-2011. In previous years the annual report had been sent to the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency but this had now been disbanded. The QCDA used to provide a national analysis of SACRE reports, and was a way of helping SACREs to evaluate themselves. The RE Adviser commented that NASACRE had asked for the annual reports to be sent to them in future and they hoped to be able to find someone to analyse these. It was noted that once the SACRE annual report had been completed it would be cleared by the Chairman before being circulated to the Department of Education, Bromley Schools and SACRE Members.