Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Lil Osborn, Jamal Pasha, Kamal Persaud and Richard Thomas.

The minutes of meeting held on 7 November 2012 were agreed as a correct record, subject to it being amended to note that Mary Coulthurst had been in attendance; and there were the following matters arising:

Item 13 – Talk from the Interim Chief Education Officer

Apologies had been received from Julien Kramer, Chief Education Officer and it was anticipated that he would be able to attend the next meeting. 

Item 16 – Future of Hillingdon SACRE

On behalf of HSACRE, the Chairman congratulated Duncan Struthers in his new role as SACRE Advisor.

The Chairman announced that it was timely for HSACRE to examine the nature of SACRE and to ascertain what its aims were. It was suggested that HSACRE members would need to make decisions regarding:

•  What the value of SACRE was and what its purpose was
• Consider the key things that SACRE hoped to value and establish what the priorities were
• Establish what SACRE was not

A ten minute group discussions took place and feedback was given raising the following points:

• Recognised that SACRE was a statutory body and any actions/recommendations provided to schools were binding. Therefore, there were concerns about schools that were gaining academy status and how SACRE could ensure that RE was being provided at these schools. Highlighted that it was only through RE that ignorance could be reduced.
• That the Interim Director of Education had some influence in schools and given that the number of school places were increasing, raised concerns about how SACRE would influence in order to ensure that needs were being met.
• Highlighted that SACRE had a duty to ensure that all faiths within schools were acknowledged and respected and therefore, children should understand how each other’s faith worked. Strongly advocated that knowing about other people’s faiths served to reduce intolerance and therefore, believed that SACRE would have that influence, particularly in primary schools through the syllabus, inclusion, promotion of diversity and impacting on the community.
• That there was a growing number of atheists families and SACRE needed to take note of those families also and in ensuring that all groups were inclusive.
• That in order to have that understanding, there needed to be an understanding of other people’s religion and SACRE would need to ensure that, that was respected and retained. Therefore SACRE  would need to put structures in palace to attain this.
• Knowing about other religion was a positive thing.
• Whilst schools reflected diversity, children would need to be educated to know what was common to all, how to coexist and to consider other people.
• Highlighted that one of the aim of SACRE in Hillingdon was that it attended conferences and that the Agreed Syllabus was actually drafted and developed by SACRE member themselves, Which was noted as a great strength.
• That SACRE had a very strong moral purpose with a great deal of expertise within its membership.
• Agreed that HSACRE should not be dictatorial and should take a diplomatic approach when addressing issues.

RESOLVED

That a draft action plan would be developed and reported to a SACRE meeting for discussion in due course.

Carole Jones reported that she had met with the Council’s nutritionist, Thomas Dunn, Health Promotions Officer and Fiona Gibbs, Stronger Communities Manager to progress, develop and discuss a draft of the Guidelines for Food on Faith.

Ms Jones advised that a meeting had been arranged to take place on 24 April 2013 at Yeading Junior School starting at 9.30am, for further discussions of the draft guidelines. SACRE members were encouraged to attend, so that the views of as many faiths as possible could be sought to help produce the final document that would be more accessible for schools. Input from as many faith communities as possible was encouraged, to ensure that the information provided were true and correct.

With regard to concerns raised about the issue of traces of horse meat being served in school meals, it was noted that decision regarding the contract of provision of food in schools were taken by school governing bodies at each school, and that it was up to such bodies to take up the issue with providers of their school meals.

Duncan Struthers advised that the Interim Education Officer had confirmed that the Council was not aware of any evidence that traces of horse meat had been found in food served in Hillingdon schools.

SACRE members were asked to send any comments they may have by email to nadiawilliams@hillingdon.gov.uk, if they were not able to attend the meeting on 24 April 2013.

With regard to an issue raised regarding the clarity of the description of ingredients in foods, the Chairman added that this issue would be difficult to deal with, but that SACRE could raise awareness of the issue. In terms of the increase in diversity in the Borough, it was noted that producing the guideline was about making schools aware of what they served in schools.

Duncan Struthers advised that 2013 Ramadan will start on Tuesday

9 July and will continue until 7 August 2013.

However, it was stressed that SACRE would still be required to notify schools accordingly.

It was confirmed that the ‘Walking through the Bible’ course for teachers was being held on Tuesday 4 June 2013 from 9am to 3.30pm in the Middlesex Suite at the Civic Centre, Uxbridge.

SACRE members unanimously agreed to continue with the ‘Best Value Added’ award scheme for the value added programme modelled on the Agreed Syllabus to schools that had entered pupils for RE at KS4 GCSE.

The selection criteria was said to be based on the school highlighted to have achieved the best result and made major strides in RE. The schools results lists were handed out at the meeting and following discussions, it was proposed, seconded and agreed that for 2013, the ‘Best Value Added’ award should be awarded to Ruislip High school.

Resolved

That Ruislip High School be awarded the ‘Best Value Added’ award.

The Chairman announced that a questionnaire on continuing professional development (CPD) for RE and Collective Worship was being developed to send to schools in order to check whether RE teachers were being adequately trained in schools. The questionnaire coincided with the recent news release (copies were handed out at the meeting) following an all party parliamentary inquiry report entitled “RE: the truth unmasked’ which highlighted the lack of support for and provision of qualified RE teachers.

It was noted that the questionnaire would be anonymous and would   ask about training provisions for  Newly Qualified Teachers (NQT) and subject leader provisions, to gauge the current provisions of RE in schools. 

It was explained that prior to the questionnaire being circulated, a draft would be sent to school groups for their input in finalising the questionnaire. It would be sent to all Headteachers and RE Leaders electronically and would be collated at Holy Trinity using survey monkey.

Analysis of the responses would be reported to a SACRE meeting in due course.

The Chairman advised that it was important that the remit of SACRE considered the determination of collective worship, as this area was dealt with at schools.  SACRE would be the vehicle for faith communities and anticipated that Brunel University would be involved in the training and may potentially provide funding support.

Noting the main findings of the Parliamentary inquiry and the recommendations, it was agreed that SACRE would wish to raise awareness of the concerns identified with new entrants going into schools, where fewer and fewer teachers were having experience in RE. Such concerns were said to be identified in the proposed questionnaire where primary schools would be asked who taught RE in their schools.

It was stressed that schools with academy status were not required to teach RE. 

Daniel Norris reported that he had attended a conference on 17 December 2012 on the new RE Quality Mark (REQM), an accreditation system which recognised good practice in religious education. It allowed schools to register to be accredited at any of the three levels of Bronze, Silver and Gold awards. Schools were required to provide evidence to show that they met the requirements for any of these awards, which were assessed by a trained assessor who would visit the school to validate the Quality Mark.  

It was acknowledged that was worth promoting the REQM in schools as it was very well supported nationally in primary and secondary schools, and that training could be linked to this accreditation, whilst promoting RE at the same time.

Details about the REQM accreditation would be circulated to all schools and could be accessed at www.reqm.org.

Attention was drawn to the Ofsted Subsidiary guidance - Supporting the inspection of maintained schools and academies report. It was highlighted that inspection of the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development (SMSC), which was advised may be seen through lesson observation in subjects such as RE, art, and music were said to be taken into account. In addition, it was stressed that caution should be exercised, as SMSC in some schools may not look at RE.

In reviewing the censor report that was handed out at the meeting, attention was drawn to the changes in the nature of faiths shown across the Borough and highlighted that some faiths were shown to be growing at a faster rate than others.

The Ofsted report also revealed the fact that teaching on Christianity was diminishing.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Tuesday 11 March 2014

The dates for 2013/2014 meetings were noted as Tuesday 18 June, Wednesday 6 November 2013 and Tuesday 11 March 2014.

• Culham St. Gabriel’s RE Leadership Weekend -28-29 September 2013
• Brunel University - A Question of Religion: Young  People  and  Identity  in Contemporary Multi-Faith  Britain  

Information items relating to the Culham St. Gabriel’s RE Leadership Weekend -28-29 September 2013 and the Brunel University - A Question of Religion: Young People and Identity in Contemporary Multi-Faith Britain were noted.

• It was noted that Carolyn Appleby will be attending the ‘A Question of Religion: Young People and Identity in contemporary Multi-Faith Britain’ conference. The conference was organised by the Centre for Child and Youth Research, At Brunel University and had been postponed from a previous date in June 2012.  It had now been rescheduled to take place on Friday, 12 April 2013 from 10.30am – 4.00pm at The Mead Room, Hamilton Centre, Brunel University.

• SACRE members were invited to attend the Inter-faith event for secondary schools being held on Thursday 21 March 2013 in the Middlesex Suite, Civic Centre, Uxbridge, from 12pm – 3.30pm.

• Following an issue that had occurred during the Christmas period, Amir Ahmed advised that he had attended meetings, places of worship and school assemblies to raise awareness of pupils, as well as parents about the importance of children taking part in festivities at schools. As it was through such activities that children learnt about other people’s religions and nurtured tolerance.