Agenda item

Mr Kieran Osborne informed members that he had been asked by Jane Bailey, LBB Director of Education, to act as an Educational Advisor for a number of areas including the Schools Partnership Board and SACRE. He had been an RE teacher throughout his career and up until September 2016 had been Principal at Hayes School, where he was now acting as CEO. It was noted that the SACRE no longer had the budget and post associated with an RE Advisor, whose role would be more involved with aspects of the RE syllabus, but there was a commitment that funds needed by the SACRE would be met if justified.

Prior to the meeting, the Educational Advisor had met with Councillors and the SACRE Chairman. They had passed on concerns and questions raised at an additional meeting of the SACRE on 27^th September 2016, where some members had met to consider further the priorities and potential for Bromley SACRE’s future. The Educational Advisor had responded with his thoughts and observations and these had been distributed to members with his introductory letter. Councillor representatives confirmed that as a result of the internal meeting members were less anxious about the continuation of support for SACRE. They also agreed that they had found the letter from the Education Advisor to be reassuring.

A discussion took place to consider what the role of the SACRE should be with all schools. Academies were not required to deliver the agreed syllabus, but an understanding with the schools needed to be re-established to allow the SACRE to meet its remit to enhance and develop collective worship and spirituality. Members agreed that the activities of the SACRE should continue as the message coming from Central Government was for ‘business as usual’, but that it needed to take a step back and consider its prime aim and how that was to be fulfilled.

Members felt the main aim of the SACRE was to spread good practice, but appreciated that its approach needed to recognise academisation. It was believed that most primary and secondary schools in the borough would be delivering RE, but not necessarily collective worship. Some members felt that schools saw the SACRE as holding them to account, and if they were not delivering certain aspects would avoid interaction by putting up barriers to external groups. The schools that wanted to engage with the SACRE were likely to be those that were proud and active in delivering RE and collective worship, and were the schools that tended to request visits.

A member enquired whether the SACRE could find out what Academy Trusts were doing to support RE, as it was noted that they tended to all vary. The Education Advisor suggested that it would be a useful project to produce a map of RE provision across the schools in the borough. This could include what the schools did in regards to dedicated time, the use of specialists in the school, the delivery of collective worship and / or moral values and their PSHE programmes. It was highlighted that it would take time to obtain this information, and that people would question why the SACRE was requesting it, but it was a way of reassuring schools that the aim was to encourage them and capture good practice. Members agreed that they considered the mapping work to be a good idea, however if there were too many questions, schools may not respond.

Another member expressed the opinion that as an authority, Bromley had said they were not interested in the schools and it would now feel that they were reversing that decision. The Education Advisor agreed that the schools may presume that this work was being undertaken due to Ofsted’s inadequate judgement. He suggested that he could talk to secondary and primary Headteachers face to face at the Schools Partnership Board, and could invite the SACRE Chairman to attend the meeting. This would allow the Chairman to introduce the SACRE to the schools and emphasis that it was in place to help them in an advisory role. Members agreed that it would be a good opportunity to speak to Headteachers through the Board as it would bring together a much wider audience.

(Councillor Jefferys and Councillor Onslow left the meeting at 7.00pm.)

Reverend Varney said that communication had always been a challenge for the SACRE and it was now even more difficult to engage with the schools. They would need to work hard to ensure that it was done in an effective way, but the key question was who would be doing this work as there was no longer a paid RE Advisor. It was noted that members had knowledge and expertise, but were limited on time to fulfil this and offer advice and guidance around collective worship. The Education Advisor responded that if the SACRE advised him of what they would like in terms of communication with the schools, he would be happy to facilitate this as part of his role. It was felt that schools would be less likely to dismiss his request as he had recently been a Headteacher, but suggested that it would be better that any communication went via the SACRE and not the Local Authority. The Educational Advisor would be able to do the background work, but the biggest task would be getting the information back from the schools. It was agreed that he would need to ensure that the questions asked were the right ones, and that the Headteachers on the Schools Partnership Board could be consulted which would make them feel that they had been involved in the process.

Councillor Brooks suggested that as Bromley was considered to be at the forefront of academisation, contact could be made with other boroughs in a similar position through NASACRE to see about the possibility of sharing ideas. It was agreed that this could be looked into, and it was noted that LB Bexley were in a similar position and it would be interesting to compare. LB Bexley were felt to be better at getting information from their schools and still funded an RE advisor and provided networking events for the schools and academies. They had nearly as many academies as Bromley, but the support had still been maintained. It was felt that the message from Bexley was to encourage schools to convert to academies and they would assist them. In contrast, Bromley said they wanted school to do it, and do it quickly, which had resulted in the schools saying that Bromley had pushed them away. Ultimately, no one knew where SACREs would be left if they did not have many maintained schools left in the Local Authority. The Chairman stated that he had put this to NASACRE who had responded that the Department for Education was still saying that they had not decided on the future of SACREs.

ACTION: Chairman

Members enquired whether there was the potential for the SACRE to work with the Aquinas Trust or Diocese of Rochester. They were advised that Lee Kings, Bishop Justus Secondary School was the RE lead for the Trust and arranged network meetings for teachers of the schools within it. He had considered extending the offer to attend these meetings to teachers wider than the Trust, but was unsure how to go about it and how the other schools could buy in. It was noted that there were a series of meetings that would be relevant for non-church schools. It was felt that a communication system needed to be put in place and it was suggested that Lee Kings should be invited to a future SACRE meeting.

RESOLVED that the following be requested from the Local Authority:

(i)  Face to face meetings with Headteachers

(ii)  Mapping work of schools RE and collective worship offer