Agenda and minutes

To note the membership of the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education as follows:

Group 1 (Christian and Other Religious Denominations)

Mr R Chakkedath, Mrs C Elapatha, Mrs J Grant, Mrs F Hawkes, Miss S Malone, Mrs E May, Mr Papadopoullos, Miss J Webb, Mrs J Wigg, Mrs N Younosi

Vacancy:

Judaism representative, Methodism representative, Sikhism representative

Group 2 (Church of England)

Ms C Bostock, Ms N Brownfield, Mrs V E Corbyn, Mrs B Naden, Mrs R Swansbury, Miss R Walters

Group 3 (Teacher Associations)

Ms K Burke, Mrs C Caisley, Mr W Chambers, Mr A Fowler, Mr R Joyce

Group 4 (Local Authority)

Mrs C Bell, Mrs T Dean, Mr S Manion, Mr M J Northey

Vacancy:

Kent County Council representative

(Co-opted members)

Miss T Kelvie, Miss E Pope

Vacancy:

Co-opted representative

The Committee were informed that Mrs Rebecca Swansbury would be joining Kent SACRE as of 26 June 2018 as the new Canterbury diocese representative following Mrs Patterson’s resignation.

Apologies were received from Mrs Swansbury, Mr Papadopoullos, Mr Fowler, Mrs Pope, Mrs Malone, Mrs Brownfield, Mrs May.

Mrs Prendergast attended as a substitute for Mr M Northey.

None declared.

To receive and agree the minutes of the last meeting of the SACRE on 28 November 2017

Resolved that the minutes of the previous SACRE meeting held on 28 November 2017 are a correct record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

To receive and note the Kent SACRE Annual Report.

1.    Ms Smith-Orr informed the committee that the SACRE Annual Report would be presented by Mr Manion at the Children’s, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee on 8 March 2018. She informed the committee that the exam results had not been verified and that this was problematic when producing the annual report which needed to be finalised in December. Results showed that a low volume of Kent schools were putting children forward to take exams within Religious Education and Collective Worship.

2.    Members enquired about the number of schools who attended the RE syllabus launches and the breakdown of cost around these. Ms Smith-Orr confirmed that there was a register for all schools that attended; for the primary school syllabus launch there had been 50 representatives and at the secondary school syllabus launch there had been 28 attendees. The schools that did not attend the syllabus launch would be sent a syllabus book. With regard to the cost implications, Ms Smith-Orr said that the invoices had not been received from RE Today and therefore it was difficult to provide an accurate forecast of the costs. She assured the committee that a meeting would be held with Emma Stone (Business and Finance Process Officer) and Georgina Little (Democratic Service Officer) to discuss the budget and ensure costs were allocated appropriately for future SACRE events and resources. 

3.    RESOLVED that the annual report be noted.

A SACRE should be doing the following activities and the RE Tool is a helpful document for making the next development plan and agreeing what activities need to be done by Kent SACRE:

·         Monitor  standards and achievement in RE in the LA through agreed school visits and analysis of appropriate data including external examination results,

·         Have a clear, realistic development plan which raises both the profile of, and achievement in RE,

·         Enrich the quality of RE through specific projects e.g. raising boy’s attainment,

·         Build strong and positive partnerships with schools, colleges and universities, local faith and belief communities and keep informed of key national developments in RE; and

·         Provide effective support on the effective teaching of RE including planning, methods and resources

SACRE members will work through the RE Tool at the meeting and focus on  sections 1,3,4 and 5. Members will be divide into 4 mixed groups and discuss each section for 10 minutes, and then have a 20 minute discussion to come to a consensus on each category.

Also attached is the Development Plan 2015-2017 appendix that should be reviewed in conjunction with the RE Toolkit.

1. Ms Smith-Orr introduced the SACRE Self-evaluating Toolkit which had been designed to help individual SACRE’s evaluate their role and consider their impact on pupils’ educational experience. The Toolkit highlighted five key dimensions of a SACRE’s work and provided examples of good practice which enabled members of SACRE to evaluate what category they fell within, be it ‘Developing’, ‘Established, or ‘Advanced’ and formulate an action plan going forward. Ms Smith-Orr separated the committee into two groups to allow for a 40 minute discussion on the following sections, followed by a 20 minute committee discussion to summarise the findings:

Section 1 – Standards and quality of provision of Religious Education

Section 3 – Collective Worship

Section 4 – Management of the SACRE and partnership with LA and

                   other stakeholders

Section 5 – Contribution of SACRE to promoting cohesion across the

                   community

2. As a result of the group discussion, it was recognised by members of SACRE that they were not as involved with school curriculums as initially hoped.  It was felt that SACRE needed to strengthen its communication with School Governors and Councillors to ensure information was being cascaded effectively and efficiently through the appropriate school governing bodies. The Chair welcomed the suggestion of reintroducing the use of an RE bulletin to remind Governors of their responsibility around Religious Education and direct them to the KELSI website which contained guidance and information for schools around the statutory and non-statutory requirements that needed to be conducted around Religious Education and Collective Worship.

3. Members enquired about a schools responsibility to publicise on their website a parents right to withdraw their child from RE and guidance on how to apply for a determination. The Chair welcomed Members suggestions that this be added as an agenda item for further discussion at a future SACRE meeting and to provide a training event if appropriate.

4. Ms Smith-Orr commended the committee on carrying out the exercise and confirmed that all feed-back would be used to formulate an action plan that would be worked on over the next three years. This would be circulated to Members of SACRE for ratification before formal implementation. Ms Smith-Orr asked that any further comments and/or suggestions be sent directly to her in the next two weeks. Ms Smith-Orr confirmed that her contract had been extended for a further 20 days and this would be a contributing factor in ensuring that key actions were prioritised. Members were reminded that once the action plan had been formulated, the committee would be in a stronger position to request additional funding for SACRE’s consultancy.

5. RESOLVED that the RE Toolkit be endorsed.

To comment and endorse the proposal to use the Kent SACRE Website Check form to monitor Religious Education and Collective Worship in school.

1. Ms Smith-Orr introduced the RE and Collective Worship monitoring spreadsheet and asked that Members discuss and endorse the proposal to implement the monitoring tool which would be used to identify what schools in Kent met the legal and statutory obligations which fell within Ofsted’s inspection criteria. Ms Smith-Orr advised Members that Ofsted were using school websites as the initial trigger for inspection and that SACRE were responsible for ensuring that schools received the correct support and guidance that would help deter investigations. Ms Smith-Orr gave a brief presentation on how to navigate around the various school websites.

2. Members commented on the spreadsheet and made the following points:

·         Guidance on a parents’ right to withdraw their child from RE should be a tick box

·         The Church schools already had a monitoring process in place

·         A notice of the deadline date should be sent to Members of SACRE who were able to assist with the exercise

3. RESOLVED that the committee endorsed the proposed decision to implement the monitoring spreadsheet. The SACRE committee recommended to the Chair, that a letter should be sent to schools following the launch of the Kent Syllabus, explaining that Kent SACRE would be undertaking a monitoring activity; looking at all school websites to ensure RE provisions were explicit as Ofsted’s criterion had changed.

To consider and agree on the proposal for Kent SACRE to continue as members of NASACRE.

1. Ms Smith-Orr asked that Members consider and endorse the proposed decision to remain as members of the National Association of Standing Advisory Council of Religious Education (NASACRE) and that the new membership would start in June 2018.

2. RESOLVED that the proposed decision to remain as members of NASACRE be endorsed.

To receive an update on the upcoming annual NASACRE meeting being held on 24 May 2018.

1. Ms Smith-Orr provided an update on the Annual SACRE meeting that would be held on 24 May 2018 and asked that members consider and endorse the proposed decision that two Members from Kent SACRE attend the meeting.

2. RESOLVED that the committee endorsed the decision for both Mr S Manion and Mrs N Younosi to attend the annual NASACRE meeting.

To review the events held in January 2018 and February 2018 to launch the Agreed Syllabus on Religious Education for Primary and Secondary Schools.

1. Ms Smith-Orr provided an update on the Kent Syllabus Launches for both primary and secondary schools and said that there had been 50 primary school representatives at each event however the venue for the secondary school launch was not suitable and only had 28 representatives.

2. In response to Members questions regarding the booking site, Mr Manion had asked that any Members who had trouble with accessing the site email him directly and he would re-direct these to the appropriate person to ensure all attendees received certificates.

3. In regard to concerns around attendance levels, Ms Smith-Orr welcomed Members suggestions that training should initially be concentrated on those schools that did not attend the syllabus launches and then cascaded out.

4. RESOLVED that the verbal update be noted.

To receive the SACRE Budget Report 2017-2018.

1. Miss Smith-Orr provided an update on the budget report and advised Members that due to the inconsistency of information she would be meeting with Mr S Manion, Emma Stone (Business and Finance Process Officer) and Georgina Little (Democratic Service Officer) to look at the finance forecast and align costs to the appropriate budget, be it within Local Authority or SACRE.

2. RESOLVED that the budget report be noted.