Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Carol Melvin,

Hilary Stone, Laura McNamee, Dharmini Shah, Graham Mariner and

Jamal Parsha.

Nominations were sought for the appointment of Chairman. Duncan Struthers was nominated and seconded to act as Chairman of HASACRE for 2011/2012. There being no further nomination, was duly appointed.

Nominations were sought for the appointment of Vice-Chairman. Mike Gettleson was nominated and seconded to act as Vice-Chairman of HASACRE for 2011/2012. There being no further nomination, was duly appointed.

The minutes of the meetings held on 9 November 2010 and 23 March 2011 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Faith in Schools Project

Alison Fothergill gave a brief talk about the Faith in Schools Project she funded through the Hillingdon Communities Trust. The purpose of the project was to develop inter-faith dialogue with children in primary schools by asking volunteers to go into schools to talk about their own faith.

The meeting heard that during these visits, issues such as respect would be discussed to establish what it meant to different faiths. The children would then be asked to complete drawings, write poems, perform a drama or be read a story from different faith groups. At the end of the session, the children would be challenged to see what the topic meant to them and their families. This project had also been used to look at various topics such as being a good neighbour and tackling bullying.

It was noted that the project was currently being focused on years 5 and 6 pupils in schools in Hayes and ended in December 2011.  The meeting noted that it was envisaged that programme would be rolled out across the Borough once it had been completed in the South of the Borough.

Alison advised that most of the volunteers were non-teachers and very few were teachers.

Invitation was extended to any SACRE member who may wish to attend the sessions as observers. Those interested were asked to contract Alison directly at alisonfothergill@mac.com.

School Cluster Inter-faith Work

Carol Jones, Headteacher at Yeading Junior School briefed the meeting about Inter-faith events that had been taking place in the Borough, in particular, the activities that had involved the Extended Schools Group. She explained that the aim of Hillingdon Inter-Faith Network, Faith in Schools Workshops was to develop inter-faith dialogue sessions in schools to demonstrate community cohesion in action, highlight the commonality of all faiths, share differences between each faith and to promote tolerance and better understanding of other faiths.

It was noted that the work shops set up were aimed at children in years 2 to 5, with children in year 7 acting as facilitators. During these sessions, children were directed to work in groups with other children they did not know.  

The meeting was advised that a session had been held at Grange Park Infant school where children from different schools attended with their parents/carers and participated together in the workshop. It was reported that very positive evaluation at the end of the session was given and some parents had asked for more of these events to be held.

It was explained that the workshop sessions were initially rolled out to 9 schools and since then, 20 schools had been engaged in Faith events.  Carol suggested that this indicated that there was a need for more such activities, as they enhanced real understanding of different faiths by different faiths.

During discussion, it was suggested that staff in Community Cohesion were also working with the children and that this area of work encouraged more funding support.

Erica Blaire added that work being undertaken in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Eric Blaire advised that the issue of budget and effectively financing SACRE in the future would need to be considered. A paper which set out the list of areas that had been financed in the past was handed out to those present at the meeting. It included the cost of the production of the Hillingdon Agreed Syllabus and highlighted the two major expenditure areas as funding annual conferences and consultancy work.

A member suggested that an application for the funding of SACRE activities in 2011/2012 should be submitted to Councillors Douglas Mills, Cabinet Member for Improvements, Partnerships and Community Safety and David Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services. It was recommended that a 3 year budget proposal should be developed and put forward for consideration.

The Chairman added that it was hoped that the current funding provisions would continue and agreed that a development plan was needed to be created to continue to support areas such as, RE Co-ordinators in Junior Schools, meetings of Head of Departments as well as community projects.

A member added that the Youth on Religion (YOR) project from Brunel University had been supported by the Leader, Councillor Ray Puddifoot. It was noted that a YOR Project conference was being held on 6 July 2011 and would consist of active sessions with students.

As a way forward, those present agreed that a list of tasks should be sent by SACRE representatives to the SACERE Clerk at nwilliams@hillingdon.gov.uk.

i)                    Week of Peace and Week of Faith

ii)                  English Baccalaureate

iii)                Youth on Religion (YOR) – Brunel University Project

News items were discussed as follows:

i)                    Week of Peace & Week of Faith - Confirmed to commence from Sunday 25 September 201.

ii)                  English Baccalaureate – Agreed to continue to lobby the Secretary of State for RE to be included as part of the Humanities subjects. It was noted that the RE online website indicated that at present, 98% of students were taking RE as a subject at Key Stage 4 (due to it being a compulsory subject) and that the GCSE short course in RE was the most popular short course examination taken.   It was highlighted that if it became part of the Humanities subjects, students may not be inclined to select RE as one of their subjects.

iii)                Interfaith Annual General Meeting – Wednesday6 July 2011. There would be a display of RE work.

iv)                Hayes Carnival – This would be taking place on Saturday 9 July 2011. SACRE members were encouraged to ask faith representatives to be represented at the carnival. Details of faith representative should be sent to Alison Fothergill at alisonfothergill@mac.com.

The meeting agreed that the review of the Constitution should be undertaken by a working party consisting of the following people:

Duncan Struthers

Mike Gettleson

Eric Blaire

Amir Ahmed

Naseem Amir

Details about dates and venue would be arranged and circulated to members of the working party by Nadia Williams, Clerk to SACRE.

Wednesdays 9 November 2011 and 29 February 2012

The dates of the forthcoming SACRE meetings were noted as Wednesday

9 November 2011 and 29 February 2012.

Eric Blaire handed out a draft of the HSACRE Annual Report 2010 to enable  members to submit any comments they may have. Comments were to be email directly to Ericblaire46@gmail.com by 5 October 2011.

It was noted that the final copy will be reported to the SACRE meeting on

9 November 2011.

Kevin Guest said that he would invite Laura McNamee to attend the next meeting to talk about the Assessment Package of RE.

The meeting was informed about a website which gave useful resource information relating to the events of the holocaust for children between the ages of 11 –14 years. The website could be accessed at www.holocaustexplained.com