Agenda item

To follow

The Committee considered the SACRE Annual Report 2021/22 for approval, subject to the below updated Chairman’s Introduction:

“I remain indebted to Joanne Partridge who, in her role of Clerk to SACRE, gives invaluable support to both the Committee and to me. Stacey Burman, our RE Adviser, continues to work hard to provide as much support as possible to schools. We are pleased that the revised Bromley Agreed Syllabus appears to have been well received and Stacey continues to provide support and resourcing to RE Teachers as they implement it within their schools.

I continue to be grateful also to Jared Nehra, Bromley Director of Education, and to Julia Andrew and Carol Arnfield, Bromley School Standards officers, who assist us to deliver a high level of support to Bromley’s schools, and especially to those at the front line of delivering high quality RE and the experience of life-enhancing collective worship for all. I am grateful also to the members of Bromley SACRE for their commitment to this work and their engagement with the various issues which are raised by it.

Bromley SACRE seeks to encourage and support those who deliver RE and lead Collective Worship in Bromley’s schools (whether maintained or not) in helping to ensure that children and young people are given every opportunity to discover for themselves the way in which religious and other world views impact every area of our lives. This work remains as vital today as it ever was.”

With regard to the draft annual report, a SACRE Member was concerned that only 50% of primary schools in Bromley had stated they were confident they were delivering enough curriculum time for RE.  The SACRE RE Adviser explained that this was 50% of responding schools, which only represented a small proportion of primary schools in Bromley, but that the Director of Education could be requested to emphasise the importance of religious education to all or targeted primary schools if this was a concern of the Committee.  The Chairman confirmed that Bromley SACRE had historically preferred to take an encouraging and supportive approach to promoting the delivery of effective religious education and collective worship in Bromley schools; however, further steps had been taken previously where schools were identified as non-compliant in their responsibilities around religious education and collective worship.  The Chairman underlined the need to inform and engage School Governors around religious education and collective worship requirements in schools, including any Governor with designated responsibility for curriculum. 

The SACRE RE Adviser suggested a questionnaire be provided to Bromley Governors asking whether they could confirm the curriculum time for religious education and collective worship; whether there was a specific Governor role supporting religious education or more generally, the curriculum in their school; and whether this Governor regularly met with subject leaders for religious education, and this proposal was agreed by the Committee.  LBB Officers confirmed that they would be attending future Governors’ meetings provided by the Local Authority, and that the Chairman could also attend to share and discuss the above point and promote any questionnaire/survey agreed. However, as not all schools were represented at Governors’ meetings, it was suggested that any messages or surveys be communicated to schools in another format.

In considering other aspects of the draft annual report, a SACRE Member requested that identifying titles be added to Table 1 in Section 2c: School Provision, Attainment and Quality of Religious Education and this was agreed by the Committee.  Another Member queried when exam data would be available for inclusion in the report, and it was advised that this would be noted and provided to SACRE Members once data validation had been completed in December 2022.

Action: SACRE RE Adviser to prepare a survey/questionnaire for schools/governors regarding RE and Collective Worship in their schools.

Action: RE Adviser to forward amended document to Clerk to send to NASACRE.

RESOLVED: That the SACRE Annual Report 2021/22 be approved, subject to the above listed amendments including the updated Chairman’s Introduction.