Agenda and minutes

Hillingdon Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education - Thursday, 10th November, 2016 7.45 pm

Venue: Committee Room 5 - Civic Centre. View directions

Contact: Luke Taylor  01895 250693

Note: Agreed Syllabus Conference 

Items
No. Item

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MEETING WAS NOT QUORATE AND THEREFORE NO FORMAL DECISIONS WERE MADE

Membership of Committee

It was confirmed to the HSACRE that the meeting did not have the attendance to make quorum, and therefore no formal decision could be made. It was agreed that the meeting continue and the comments on each item be reported to the next HSACRE meeting.

39.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Carol Melvin BSc (Hons), Anil Bhatt, Father Desmond Banister and Angela Lount.

40.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 52 KB

Minutes:

It was suggested the minutes be agreed at the next meeting.

41.

Agreed Syllabus Review pdf icon PDF 57 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Prior to the HSACRE meeting, a sub-committee had looked into the possibility of adding Humanism to the HSACRE syllabus. The Humanist Society had agreed to suggest a document that would fit with the current HSACRE syllabus' key ideas and layout. The resulting document was included in the agenda. HSACRE thanked the Humanist Society for their work.

 

Schools were asked for their views on the document and whether they were in favour or opposed to the addition of Humanism.

 

The Humanist representative introduced the document and also confirmed that a link listed on the syllabus would help schools to plan lessons on Humanism, if required.

 

HSACRE Members confirmed that they have always been inclusive, but questioned whether the addition of Humanism to the syllabus could put an unnecessary burden on teachers to learn more information. It was stated that by Key Stage 4, all pupils must have been taught one non-religious world view at school, and that adding Humanism to the syllabus would help achieve this, although Members commented that this may be seen as unfair on other non-religious world views.

 

It was noted that the inclusion of a faith, or non-faith, strand of the syllabus in each of the key stages did not guarantee its inclusion on the school syllabus as each school is responsible for the decision as to which religions it includes on its syllabus. The Committee also confirmed that the addition of a link to teaching material was a helpful addition.

 

HSACRE Members stated that it was not their role to tell teachers what they should teach, and that they could only comment on the content that could be taught in school; it was the choice of governing bodies to decide what should be taught in each individual school.

 

The advisor to HSACRE commented that as many schools had responded to the consultation with their views, it would be helpful to write to the schools to inform them of the responses that were received, once they had been made anonymous, with an update confirming that the potential change to the syllabus would be discussed again at the next meeting.