Agenda and minutes

Mr Leeson, Corporate Director Education, Learning and Skills

Mr Leeson started his presentation by saying there was an expectation that all schools nationally would teach the new national curriculum from 2014,  the Government was not proposing to change the statutory basis of the curriculum and Religious Education (RE) would therefore retain its statutory and important status.  He said, as had been acknowledged in the SACRE annual report, that there had been changes to the structure of Ofsted inspections and while RE along with other subjects had not been individually inspected since the 1990s, Ofsted continued to inspect the provision of an act of collective worship and RE within schools and in particular the social, spiritual, cultural and moral development of pupils.

Mr Leeson said that the quality of education in Kent schools was improving overall but it was variable and therefore the quality of RE teaching and collective worship also varied between schools. He acknowledged the key role of SACRE in retaining the focus on RE and collective worship and said the Kent SACRE was particularly active, kept itself up to date and had produced a high quality Agreed Syllabus.

Mr Leeson went on to say that he and his team continued to support and listen to the views of SACRE , although there were fewer people in the team and fewer subject specialists the LA was committed to school improvement and was pro active in relation to education.  He said 49 school partnership hubs had been established and were  working together collaboratively and  sharing best practices to improve outcomes for children in all areas of the curriculum and in particular to improve GCSE results and achievement at KS2.

Mr Leeson said that all GCSE subjects were being reviewed and the eBAC might have an effect on some curriculum areas but no head teacher intended to narrow the curriculum.  It would be wrong to assume that increased diversification (new options at KS4, vocational qualifications etc) would change what is delivered to pupils as the core curriculum.

Miss Walters raised concerns about the profile of RE in CPD training for primary schools and soughtassurance that budgetary support for advanced skills teachers and development and support would continue.  In response Mr Leeson said that the national curriculum had been reviewed and although the intention had been to be less prescriptive the programmes of study for English, Science and Maths for every key stage were very detailed.  He went on to say that the teaching of RE and the Agreed Syllabus had not been neglected and that he would make sure that teachers were supported to deliver these new programmes of study.

In response to a question from Mr Platnauer, Mr Leeson said that 62% of Kent schools were good or better, many schools were improving rapidly and it was important to retain a clear view of what was needed.  He said he had made £12 million worth of savings to the education budget during his first year in post and it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Mr Foster introduced the plan.  He said it was a working plan that would be updated from time to time and that SACRE was on target to deliver all the items scheduled for January – March 2013.  Mr Foster reported feedback on the schools survey – see appendix for detail.

In response to questions he said that he would provide feedback to the next SACRE meeting about his visits to 6 primary and 3 secondary schools.

Agreed to adopt the Development Plan set out on pages 17-24.

Sue Dunn (Chief Executive) and Peter Williams gave a presentation on the service they offered to victims of domestic abuse. Information about the service is online at http://www.restoredrelationships.org/resources/.