Agenda item

Mrs Martin had presented the latest Development Plan to members and highlighted objectives which had or had not been achieved. In particular she raised:- the issue of how Mr Foster would best use his allocation of 25 days SACRE work from April 2013 to March 2014 :the need to adjust the Plan to indicate some of the targets for January to March 2013 had not been met: the lack of visits and provision of a written report resulting  from the schools due to be visited following the SACRE Survey: the outcome of the Westhill application.

Mr Foster reported between September 2012 and March 2013 Ofsted had inspected 142 Kent schools and he had looked at about 1/3 of the reports to date. Finding the subject matter he required varied in each report as to how it could be identified and it was a laborious task. Mr Tyson suggested reading on line.

Mr Foster had appended to the Minutes the responses from the 99 Primary schools who had completed the SACRE Survey on RE and Collective Worship, it was noted he had completed visits to 2 of the 6 primary schools and 1 of the 3 secondary schools he was scheduled to visit. He reiterated it was not a realistic target for him to contact all schools indicating either non-compliance or a failure to complete the Survey. He advised there were 600+ Kent schools, and was reminded by Mrs Martin that 200 Church schools are subject to Section 48 inspection and therefore the survey had instructed them not to complete some answers.

Mr Foster’s target had fallen behind due to the cancellation of a number of meetings with Mrs Rogers, which had wasted his time, and the need to work with the 4 School Improvement Advisors, one had responded to date.  Mr Foster had shared the issue of non-compliance in Collective Worship and the low completion rate of the survey with Mrs Rogers. Mr Manion and Mr Foster agreed to report to Mr Leeson, Mr Gough and the Education Cabinet Committee (of which Mr Manion is now a member) including reference to Ofsted’s lack of inspection in SMSC development Members agreed this approach would carry more weight and raise the profile of SACRE.

Mr Foster had already passed a significant amount of information to the L.A. He would continue to work on the findings until the end of term and then submit to the L.A. and circulate information to SACRE members.

Mrs Martin asked for an update to record on the Development Plan regarding the promotion of the ‘Gathering Together’ document and Mr Foster stated this appeared as a PDF on the webpage. The Governors briefing paper had been submitted to Linda Lissimore-Governor support manager and she had arranged for it to appear in the Autumn edition of “The Governor.”

Debate ensued about the status of Academies and the requirement to teach RE and whether SACRE are in a position to challenge non-compliance in Academies. It was noted this would be documented in the Academies individual funding agreements. Mr Foster advised that NASACRE had published a discussion paper on its website and members agreed to include the topic as an Agenda Item in November.

Mr Norman commented that each school’s interpretation/definition of non-compliance would vary widely and in reality different Headteachers/Principals

were probably acting the same-but recording actions differently.

Patterns of Attendance.

The clerk was requested to submit a spreadsheet to future meetings indicating attendance numbers for each of the 4 groups.

To be quorate a minimum of one member from each group was required to be in attendance.

Web Links/kenttrustweb update

Mr Foster confirmed no web links had been submitted by members for him to upload and Mr Platnauer had not advised him of any information he had recieved.Mr Foster repeated the request to email -fosterallan@gmail.com.

It was noted the proposed Headteacher Roadshow had not happened and

in response to Mrs Martins frustration at the lack of achievement to the goals set in the Plan, Mr Manion stated that the Plan  was too ambitious and needed to be prioritised with achievable goals. The Kent Youth SACRE had been the priority to date and this had moved forward. Mrs Grant volunteered to assist if needed.

It was agreed to review and prioritise the Plan at the next briefing in October 2013.