Agenda item

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

-  Islamic Competition

 

-  Inter Faith Week – 11th-18th November 2018

Minutes:

Islamic Competition

 

The Chairman informed SACRE members that the Prize Giving evening, facilitated by Mr Mahmood at Darul Uloom, would not take place this year due to no schools having contributed to the Islamic Competition.

 

The Chairman noted that at previous SACRE meetings, he had expressed the view that it would be good to organise something similar on a broader scale, either specifically for each faith or a wider religious competition to develop more depth of understanding.

 

 

Inter Faith Week – 11th-18th November 2018

 

The Chairman advised SACRE members that Inter Faith Week would take place during 11th-18th November 2018. Inter Faith Week took place every year, and although it was felt to be too late to organise events for this year, the Chairman suggested that the 3 Faiths Forum could host an open forum. It was considered that this could be relatively easy to set up, with schools submitting questions to representatives of the faith communities and taking part in a three-way panel discussion.

 

The SACRE RE Advisor informed members of a calendar competition which she ran in Hackney to raise awareness of the SACRE. A theme was provided to teachers for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, and their pupils then produced artwork linked to this theme. The winning artwork was then selected to feature in the calendar, which listed all the important dates in religious and worldview calendars. Copies of the calendars were printed and provided to all Headteachers and RE Co-ordinators. The SACRE RE Advisor said she felt that this was something that could be launched at the teacher network. These networks could, in future, also include a theme being discussed, and SACRE members invited to attend to talk about their religion, or share an artefact. The Chairman noted that the Islamic Competition was not a SACRE event, as it was developed by Darul Uloom to ensure that students had a good understanding of the meaning of Islam. Members stressed that it was important that part of this theme be retained.

 

A member stated that he was concerned that there may be initiative overload, requiring teachers to do too much, and questioned how they would resource a competition and continue with their workload in addition to it. The SACRE RE Advisor said that at the network meeting, she would discuss with the teachers their capacity to deliver these additional competitions. Members noted that commitment from the schools to be involved would be needed, especially if a budget was allocated, to ensure it was not wasted. The SACRE RE Advisor responded that for the calendar competition, only thirteen drawings were needed. The template and links were already established, and there would be no expenditure until the number of pictures was confirmed. Teacher representatives said that as the competition was new, not all schools were likely to ‘come on board’ in the first year, but there were two teacher representatives in attendance who would be involved, which meant only a few more schools would be needed to make the competition viable.