Agenda and minutes

Hillingdon Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education - Wednesday, 7th November, 2012 7.30 pm

Venue: Committee Room 4 - Civic Centre, High Street, Uxbridge UB8 1UW. View directions

Contact: Nadia Williams 

Items
No. Item

9.

REMARKS FROM THE MAYOR

Minutes:

10.

Apologies and Welcome

Minutes:

Apologies

 

Apologies for absence had been received from Councillor Mike Bull,

Amir Ahmed, Jasvir Singh Rayat, Naseem Bint Amir, Jean Nunney and Dharmini Shah.

 

Welcome

 

The Chairman welcomed Richard Thomas to his first meeting as a representative of the British Humanist Association on HSACRE.

 

 

 

11.

Minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2012 pdf icon PDF 173 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of meeting held on 20 June 2012 were agreed as a correct record.

12.

Matters Arising

Minutes:

Item 8 – Any Other Business

 

Carolyn Appleby advised that there was no feedback to be given on the conference on ‘A Question of Religion: Young People and identity in contemporary Multi-Faith Britain’ conference that she was due to have attended on 29 June 2012, as it had been cancelled.  She hoped to attend the conference that had been organised by the Centre for Child and Youth Research, At Brunel University when it was re-scheduled.

 

13.

Talk from the Interim Chief Education Officer, Julien Kramer

Minutes:

The Interim Chief Education Officer was not able to attend this meeting and this item will therefore be included on the agenda for the meeting on 20 March 2012.

14.

SACRE Leaflet

Minutes:

The Chairman handed out copies of the revised Religious Education in Hillingdon Schools leaflet developed some years ago by HSACRE.  He advised that the leaflet had been given specifically to parents in the past and suggested that schools may find the revised version useful in some way.

 

It was noted that the revised version was still in draft and comments relating to the contents of the leaflet would be welcomed from SACRE members.  Comments should be emailed to the SACRE Clerk at nwilliams@hillingdon.gov.uk Friday 9 November 2012.

 

The leaflet would also be circulated electronically to all SACRE members to bring the leaflet to the attention of absent members.

 

 

15.

Draft 2011 Annual Report pdf icon PDF 244 KB

Minutes:

Eric Blaire introduced the draft HSACRE Annual 2011 Report which had been circulated with the agenda and welcomed comments from those in attendance.  While going through the report, the following were noted:

 

  • That this was the second time that Rosedale College had received the award for being the ‘most improved’ school for its RE GCSE results for 2011. It was noted that there were only three non-academy secondary schools now remaining and these were Abbots field, Harlington and Ruislip High schools.

 

  • That due to the reduction of staff at the Monitoring and Reviewing Centre, there may be an issue with regard to the quality of the statistical analysis in the future. The centre may not be able to provide borough wide statistics in the future

 

The meeting was informed that once comments had been received, the report would be updated and sent to Councillor David Simmonds, the Cabinet Member for Education and Children’s Services, who would then receive the report.

 

 

 

 

 

16.

Future Organisation of Hillingdon SACRE

Minutes:

The meeting welcomes expressions of interest from two Head teachers in being nominated as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of HSACRE for 2013/2014. It was suggested that having Headteachers in these roles would develop an even closer relationship with officers in the Borough and raise the profile the work performed by HSACRE.

 

Daniels Norris, Headteacher of Holy Trinity School stated that if he was appointed as a Chairman, he would be keen to build the transition of pupils from primary to secondary schools.

 

Carol Jones, Headteacher of Yeading Junior School added that, as Vice-Chairman, she would continue to develop the link between secondary and primary schools, which was really good at present.

 

With regard to the imminent departure of Eric Blaire, the current advisor to HSACRE, the meeting was informed that the Council was aware of the need for a replacement advisor to ensure the continued support and advice to HSACRE.

 

The outgoing Chairman thanked Mike Gettleson, the Vice-Chairman for all the advice and support he had rendered to him, as well as to HSACRE throughout the years.

 

The outgoing vice-Chairman responded by returning the thanks and stating that it had been a delight and honour in working with Duncan Struthers, who had been an amazing driving force in steering HSACRE for the past 15 years.

 

On behalf of HSACRE, the Chairman thanked Eric Blaire for all the support and advice he had given over the years and wished him all the very best for the future.

 

Duncan Struthers expressed his sincere thanks for having been given the privilege of chairing HSACRE for 15 years and stated that he would continue to support HSACRE in his pending new role as Advisor. He circulated a paper outlining the future organisation of HSACRE in which he set out some of the work that had been achieved during his chairmanship and expressed his thanks and gratitude to various people.

 

This document would be circulated to all members of HSACRE for information.  

17.

Appointment of Chairman

Minutes:

Nominations were sought for the appointment of Chairman.  It was moved and seconded that Daniel Norris be appointed, there being no further nominations Daniel Norris was duly appointed as Chairman.

 

 

18.

Appointment of Vice - Chairman

Minutes:

Nominations were sought for the appointment of Vice-Chairman.  It was moved and seconded that Carol Jones be appointed, there being no further nominations Carol Jones was duly appointed as Vice-Chairman.

 

19.

Youth On Religion (YOR) - Update

Minutes:

In his update to the meeting, Duncan Struthers advised that part of the Youth On Religion programme involved staff from Brunel University going into two secondary schools (Bishopshalt and Stockley Park) and interviewing pupils to talk about their faiths and what it meant to them.

 

 Up to fifteen pupils had been interviewed, and from this, it was noted that a short video tape would be produced and edited by Alison Forthergill, Duncan and Eric Blaire. Once completed, the tapes would be released to schools that may be interested in making use of them. It suggested that this tape would be particularly useful to KS1 pupils as it was important for them to see human living faith and one of doing this, was by getting sixth form students to show younger students their own faith.

20.

School Events:

  • Training Event
  • Interfaith Events

Minutes:

The following school events were announced:

 

·        Duncan Struthers advised that there were inter-faith events taking place at two schools, which HSACR members where welcome to attend. Expressions of interest should be made by contacting Duncan directly at dhstruther@aol.com for further details, as attendance was strictly by confirmation only.

 

·         All members were invited to join the Hillingdon Inter Faith Network (HIFN) & HSACRE Multi Faith Team, which visited schools to talk about their individual faiths.  It was noted that before visiting schools, the team would meet for about half an hour once a week to have a brief discussion about the importance of their individual faiths.

 

·        It was announced that discussions were currently taking place to try and get organisers of the “Walk Through The Bible” to visit Hillingdon schools.The event was described as one that was aimed at presenting the Bible in an exciting and interactive way to teachers. It was noted that the organiserswould go into visit schools (free of charge).  The meeting was informed that negotiations were currently on the way and once finalised, further details would be given HSACRE members.

 

21.

Freedom of Information

Minutes:

Eric Blaire reported that at least two to three freedom of information requests were now being received from the Mail on Sunday. The most recent request was in relation to details about withdrawal from RE provisions or active worship.

 

It was noted that through these requests, attention had been drawn to issue of food and faith in schools and the need to review the Food and Faith Guidelines, which had been produced jointly with Healthy Hillingdon.

 

The meeting was advised that the question had now been raised, as to whether food provided in schools should reflect the proportion of pupils that were from the school community.

 

In order to explore this issue further, it was suggested that there should be a meeting to look at the providers of food in Hillingdon schools and to discuss ways of making them aware of this issue, in collusion with HSACRE.

 

During discussion, it was noted that the focus should be on the clarity of information to ensure that children where clearly aware of what they were eating. It was highlighted that this issue would also need to be discussed with parents.

 

It was agreed that this issue should be included as an agenda item for discussion at the next meeting. HSACRE would develop some recommendations, which would be submitted to school governors for consultation and generate discussion on the matter.  Further consultation would also be undertaken with SACREs from neighbouring boroughs, as it was considered that their input would be useful in establishing good practice.

 

Resolved:

 

That the issue of Food and Faith Guidelines be included on the agenda for the next HSACRE meet being held on 20 March 2013

 

22.

Next Date of Meeting - Wednesday 20 March 2013

Minutes:

The next meeting was noted as Wednesday 20 March 2013.

23.

Information Items pdf icon PDF 89 KB

  • Inter Faith Week – 18 – 22 November 2012
  • Religious Education Quality Mark – A day conference on the RE Quality Mark for Teachers and Advisers in Local Authorities and Dioceses

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The information items circulated with the agenda relating to the Inter Faith Week from the 18 – 22 November 2012 and the Religious Education Quality Mark – A day conference on the RE Quality Mark for Teachers and Advisers in Local Authorities and Dioceses were noted.