Agenda and minutes

Hillingdon Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education - Wednesday, 9th November, 2011 7.30 pm

Venue: Committee Room 3 - Civic Centre, High Street, Uxbridge UB8 1UW. View directions

Contact: Nadia Williams 

Items
No. Item

41.

Apologies and Welcomes

Minutes:

Apologies for absence had been received from Carolyn Appleby,

Mary Coulthurst, Jamal Pasha, Dharmini Shah, Heather Steady and Jean Nunnery.

 

The Chairman welcomed Daniel Norris (Headteacher of Holy Trinity School) who will be a Church of England representative on HSACRE.

 

 

42.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 22 June 2011 and Matters Arising pdf icon PDF 171 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meetings held on 22 June 2011 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. There were the following matters arising:

 

Minute 35 – Faith in Schools Project

 

  • The Chairman advised that a networking meeting was taking place on Wednesday 23 November 2011 at Swakelys School. Eight secondary and two junior schools had expressed an interest in participating at this meeting.

 

  • It was announced that as part of the Hillingdon Community Trust Project where faith representatives would be invited to talk about their own spiritual walk; training seminars had been arranged for those who may be interested. The next seminar would be held on Tuesday 15 November 2011 at the Muslim Community Centre, Pump Lane.

 

  • The meeting was informed that ten sixth former pupils from Guru Nanak School would be delivering a session on Wednesday 23 November 2011 at Dr Triplett’s School, Hemmen Lane, Hayes, UB3 2JQ. The topics for consideration would include issues about neighbours, gangs and bullying.

 

 

 

43.

Annual Report 2010 pdf icon PDF 154 KB

Minutes:

The annual report was discussed and it was noted that the final report would be submitted to Cllr David Simmonds, the Cabinet Member for Education & Children’s Services, for information.

 

Eric Blaire advised that as the QCDA was no longer in existence; it had yet to be confirmed which organisation the Annual report should also be sent to.

 

Concerns were raised about the issue of continued budget for HSACRE to be able to supplement funding for projects such as, the production of the Youth on Religion DVDs as well as attendance at conferences including the forthcoming “What Does Attainment in RE look like?” conference being held in Birmingham on 17 November 2011.  The focus of this conference would be on the issue of assessment in RE, which was considered to be much needed in order that feedback could be disseminated to schools.

 

The Chairman reported that he was due to meet with Professor Nicola Madge at Brunel University, as part of the Youth on Religion Project, to discuss further work with Sixth Form students in Hillingdon.

 

Resolved – That the Annual reported be agreed and reported to the Cabinet Member for Education & Children’s Services for information.

 

 

 

 

44.

Assessment in Religious Education

Minutes:

The meeting was advised that the talk on the Assessment in Religious Education would be presented at a future SACRE meeting.

 

45.

HSACRE Constitution pdf icon PDF 26 KB

Minutes:

The revised Agreed Constitution of the Hillingdon Standing Advisory Council for Education was discussed. Some minor amendments were made in respect of Group ‘A’ as follows:

 

i)                    After ‘Christian and other denominations (faiths) which will appropriately reflect the faith traditions of Hillingdon’ add “SACRE wishes to be inclusive of all active faiths in the Borough”

 

ii)                  “Other Christian Groups not included in Group ‘B’”. It was considered that this group would take into account the growing number of other active faiths in the Borough.

 

iii)                An additional footnote for Group ‘A’ was included to state “SACRE will annually review these groups to reflect the faiths in Hillingdon”.

 

Subject to these amendments, those present agreed the Revised Constitution.

 

Resolved that:

 

1)                 The Hillingdon Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (HSACRE) revised Constitution be agreed.

 

2)                 The HSACRE Constitution be reported to Councillor David Simmonds, the Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services to be agreed.

 

46.

GCSE Results 2011

Minutes:

Eric Blaire circulated the results of the list of secondary schools that had entered students for the Hillingdon Religious Education GCSE in 2009, 2010 & 2011. It also set out the Value Added programme (modelled on the Agreed Syllabus). The meeting was advised that selection criteria would be based on the school highlighted to have achieved good results, as well as made major strides in RE.

 

Past winners had received a cheque of £250 prize (which went directly to the department). For this year however, it was suggested that the prize should be something that would go towards supporting students in further education, such as a bursary towards purchasing text books.

 

It was agreed that once the winner had been declared, a letter should be sent to all secondary school confirming the winner. The letter should also acknowledge all the schools that were covering the subject, commending them for their achievements.

 

SACRE hoped that this competition would encourage all schools to cover the subject separately and not included as a Humanities subject.

 

 

 

47.

Next SACRE Meeting - Wednesday 21 March 2012

Minutes:

The date of the next SACRE meeting was noted as Wednesday 21 March 2012 and not 29 February as previously publicised in error.

 

48.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

Authorisation of Absences on Religious Holidays

The Chairman reported that there had been some confusion in schools with regard to the authorisation of absences on Religious Holidays. This was brought about as a result of the recent Muslim Festival of Eid-ul-Adha, where it was noted that some had observed the day on Sunday 6 and others on Monday 7 November 2011. The meetings noted that as with Ramadan, the date could differ from group to group.

 

In order to clarify the confusion, SACRE agreed that a circular should be sent to Headteachers and Chairs of Governors advising that on this occasion, both dates were recognised by respective religious bodies as a day set apart for religious observance.

 

Week of Faith

Invitation was extended to all SACRE members to the following events being held on Friday 25 November 2011: 

                                                                                         

The Muslim Centre, 3 Pump Lane, Hayes, Middlesex, UB3 3NB 

Members would have the opportunity to observe the proceedings in Musk from 11am -12noon (In addition to congregational prayers being held at 12.30pm and 1.15pm for those who may wish to witness this). No booking or notification is required. Should members have any queries, please contact Amir Ahmed on 07956 212834.

 

Ruislip Synagogue, 9 - 17 Shenley Avenue, Ruislip, Middlesex, HA4R 6BP

A chance to observe a Friday evening specially annotated Service (Starting at 7pm). The Service will be delivered by Rabi Coten who will describe the prayers in English (from Hebrew) for visitors. There will be a question and answer session as well as "kiddush" (refreshments) after the service.

 

For catering purpose, attendees are asked to contact Mike Gettleson on

07973 545 585 or email mike@mikrotime.com to confirm their attendance.

 

Youth on Religion (YOR)

 

The meeting discussed the draft analysis of the results of the questionnaire that had been requested from schools that had taken part in the YOR project conducted by Brunel University. It was noted that the analysis had yet to be finalised by Alison Fothergill, who was analysing the data on behalf of HSACRE.  A full report would be presented to HSACRE once it had been completed.