Agenda item

Report CSD21034

At the autumn meeting of the SACRE, Members were asked to communicate in their representative groups to look at the following sections of the SACRE Reporting and Evaluating Toolkit:

Group A members (representatives of other faiths and Christian denominations) were asked to focus on Section 5 – Contribution of SACRE to promoting cohesion across the community.

Group B members (representatives from the Church of England) were asked to focus on Section 3 – Collective worship.

Group C members (teachers) were asked to focus on Section 2 – The effectiveness of the locally agreed syllabus.

Group D members (Councillors) were asked to focus on Section 4 – Management of SACRE.

The Chairman thanked Members for sending their thoughts to the SACRE RE Adviser, and a summary was provided. The SACRE RE Adviser informed Members that all of the responses received had been incorporated into the document and colour coded in ‘developing’, ‘established’ and ‘advanced’ criteria. Overall, most areas were light and dark green as they were considered to be ‘established’ or ‘advanced’.

The SACRE RE Adviser informed Members that she had been particularly pleased with the responses relating to the locally Agreed Syllabus, which had recently been launched and had received extremely positive feedback. In future years, further work would be undertaken with teachers to monitor its use and implementation, although they were already aware of around 25 schools using the Syllabus.

With regards to Section 4 – ‘Management of SACRE and partnership with LA and other key stakeholders’, the SACRE RE Adviser noted that her personal reflection was that the Bromley SACRE was extremely well supported and encouraged by the Local Authority.

The SACRE RE Adviser highlighted that Section 5 – ‘Contribution of SACRE to promoting cohesion across the community’ was the only section that had areas considered to be ‘developing’. However, it was highlighted that the self-evaluation related to the previous academic year and some of the recommendations listed were already being worked towards. The ‘REal Resources’ would be useful for helping to build on the SACRE’s knowledge and understanding of world faiths and world views, and the idea discussed earlier in the meeting of an inter-faith interview would also support community cohesion. The SACRE RE Adviser considered that Section 1 – ‘Standards and quality of provision of RE’ was always hard to evaluate as it was dependent on schools engaging with the Local Authority and SACRE RE Adviser. The school network meetings were now attended by between 20-30 primary schools and 7-8 secondary schools. This highlighted that they were now engaging with a larger number of schools in the Borough. The Head of School Standards informed Members that the feedback received from teachers attending the network meetings had been phenomenal.

A SACRE teacher representative highlighted that there were two areas within Section 2 – ‘Effectiveness of the Locally Agreed Syllabus’ which should be rated as ‘established’ rather than ‘advanced’ for the 2019-2020 academic year. With regards to 2c – ‘How well does SACRE promote the Agreed Syllabus and provide training to prepare teachers to use it effectively?’, it was considered that during this period the numbers of teachers attending the meeting had been inconsistent, and had only become more consistent in the current academic year. This was echoed by another teacher representative, who felt that 2c could only be rated as ‘advanced’ for the current academic year as there was evidence of regular attendance to support it. Question 2d – ‘To what extent is membership of the Agreed Syllabus Conference able to fulfil its purpose?’ was also considered to be ‘established’ as during the previous academic year there had often only been a couple of teacher representatives in attendance at meetings. The SACRE RE Adviser suggested that a recommendation should be included in the self-evaluation to increase the number of teacher representatives across all phases to ensure attendance was consistent.

Following a brief discussion, SACRE Members agreed that 2c and 2d in the self-evaluation should be amended and rated as ‘established. These changes would be incorporated and the self-evaluation would be added to the finalised SACRE Annual Report.

In response to a question, the Chairman said that he was not aware of any advice or guidance being produced for schools regarding acts of remembrance or worship for those who had lost their lives during the pandemic, but agreed to check this in further detail with NASACRE.

  ACTION: Chairman

It was noted that a day of national remembrance and reflection was proposed for 23^rd March 2021, which was the first anniversary of the first period of lockdown. The SACRE RE Adviser highlighted that a common issue in schools was the difference between assemblies and Collective Worship. The ‘Reflective Pools’ resource was available to schools on the Bromley Education Matters website and was something that she would like to work on in the future. With regards to any sort of commemorations for those that had passed during the pandemic there was a need to be aware of the distinctions between worship and commemoration.