Minutes:
A Teacher Representative advised that her primary school had received an Ofsted Inspection in December 2022. Although RE had not been chosen for a deep dive, it had been selected for a ‘subject sample’ – this involved most of the elements of a deep dive, with the exception of learning walks. There was no mention of RE within the judgement letter, however it was pleasing to know that this was an area that Ofsted had looked at during their visit. In response to a question from the SACRE RE Adviser, the Teacher Representative confirmed that the school were in the process of gathering evidence, including pupil voice and parental interactions, as part of the assessment for the RE Quality Mark which would be taking place in May 2023.
Another Teacher Representative informed SACRE Members that during the Ofsted Inspection at her secondary school, RE had been selected for a deep dive. During the process the Inspectors had really wanted to know her vision for the subject; where she wanted to take it; what she wanted the students to learn; and what she saw as good RE. They had looked at the curriculum maps and wanted to see the embedding of knowledge and making of links with the wider curriculum. Secondary to that was whether this was reiterated by students and other staff. It was felt that the importance of RE in schools was continuing to grow.
The SACRE RE Adviser reminded SACRE Members that a project to establish regional RE Hubs in every education region in England and Wales was underway. A website was being created in order to enable collaboration between everyone involved in RE, including schools, teachers, places of worship, SACREs and faith organisations. The RE Hubs would provide a platform to advertise and share knowledge, links and connections, and the finalised website would be launch later in the month. The RE Hubs would also offer a short online training session to enable individuals from places of interest or worship to gain kitemark accreditation to speak in schools. This would lead to an ‘approved’ list of speakers being made available on the website for schools.
A Member noted that, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, SACRE Members had been given the opportunity to visit schools, which provided a good way for them “to see RE in action”. It was questioned whether these visits could be reinstated. The Chairman said that this was something that could be considered, however there were some logistical issues and they also needed to be sensitive as some schools were still wary of having external visitors. The SACRE RE Adviser said that in the interim they were looking at other ways to gather information about what schools did. The Member enquired if a school could be asked to deliver a presentation at the next meeting of the SACRE, providing an overview of RE at their school. The Chairman agreed that this was a good idea and could be considered. Mrs Angell, Teacher Representative, said she would be happy to deliver a presentation of her RE Portfolio at a future meeting of the SACRE. Another Member suggested that a programme of presentations from different schools could be scheduled across the next municipal year. ACTION: SACRE RE Adviser / Clerk
The SACRE RE Adviser highlighted that she would also be asking schools to bring samples of pupils’ work to the Network meetings, which could then be shared with the SACRE.