Agenda item

1.    Mrs Smith-Orr provided an update on the Kent SACRE Development Plan and highlighted to Members the achievements and progress that had been made to date. Supplementary to this, Mrs Smith-Orr informed Members that a new Development plan had been produced which set out the new priority objectives for September 2019 through to July 2020. Mrs Smith-Orr informed Members that one of the key objectives for Kent SACRE was to introduce new training tools for schools which could be accessed through an improved KELSI interface which in turn would hopefully help to encourage teachers to be more proactive in promoting Religious Education and/or Collective Worship in schools. Mrs Smith-Orr informed Members that the SACRE Clerk had been in contact with the persons responsible for managing KELSI to look at what improvements could be made, however, input and ideas from SACRE Members would be welcomed.

(a)    In response to queries regarding the Continuing Professional Development and what this would look like going forward, Mrs Smith-Orr informed Members that it was very difficult to provide a detailed plan at the current point of time due to the extensive amount of collaboration that was required between the Dioceses, Canterbury Christ Church University and the Regional National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) hub. Mrs Smith-Orr said that a strong reliance would be placed upon those from the Diocese who were also Members of SACRE, to network with the appropriate bodies. An option to explore further would be to hold another training event for teachers providing there was a sufficient amount of money left within the allocated SACRE budget. Mrs Smith-Orr also informed Members about the WIRE document (to be covered fully in the following agenda item) that would encourage teachers with their professional development. Mrs Smith-Orr acknowledged that an extensive amount of work needed to be done to review the CPD and welcomed Members comments and ideas on how this could be achieved.

(b)  Mrs Smith-Orr acknowledged Members request for a specialist speaker from NATRE to attend SACRE to talk about what training was available for RE teachers. She informed Members that training was being built into the SACRE meetings and that specialist speakers had been invited to attend on several occasions:

·         5 March 2019 - Fr Vissarion spoke to Members about Orthodox Christianity

·         5 March 2019 - Mrs K Burke provided examples of class work produced by her secondary school students to demonstrate how the Kent Syllabus had been applied and modified

·         11 June 2019 – Ms N Brownfield provided examples of class work produced by her primary school students to demonstrate how the Kent Syllabus had been applied and modified

·         11 June 2019 – Mrs W Finn provided examples of class work produced by her students from a Special Needs school to demonstrate how the Kent Syllabus had been applied and modified

Mrs Smith-Orr welcomed requests from Members for specific training and agreed to accommodate this where possible.

(c)   Mrs Smith-Orr agreed to liaise with the Kent School Governors hub.

2.    RESOLVED that the update report be noted.