Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Dr Malcolm Craig, Rebekah Ackroyd, Professor Alan Gillies, Harsha Shukla, Ishwer Tailor, Lisa Fenton, Joanne Harris and Francis Williams.

The minutes of the last meeting held on 7 February 2022 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

Presentation by Ahmed James

The Chair welcomed Ahmed James to give his presentation on Islam and Afrocentrism.

He explained that Cheikh Anta Diop was one of the foremost individuals regarding Afrocentrism. Cheikh Anta Diop stated that Afrocentrism was a cultural and political movement whose mainly African American adherents regarded themselves and all other Blacks as syncretic Africans and believed that their worldview should positively reflect traditional African values.

In the Quran it stated that you should always try and do good within your society and bring people together to do good within that society. There were many people with different approaches to Afrocentrism.

A lot of the presentation focused on West Africa where there was a lot more Afrocentrism as opposed to East Africa. In East Africa people did not class themselves as Black but classed themselves as Arab. It was pointed out that centuries ago Mali in West Africa had many centres of learning for Muslims and had many universities and schools where different subjects were explored. Mali was a centre where people would come and learn and benefit from it.

Uthman dan Fodio, 1754 – 1817, created a society which was a majority of Nigeria and parts of Mali. He set up a system where everyone could benefit. He set up a lot of schools for learning and a lot of support for the poor people. He focused mainly on the infrastructure of the country. His daughter was Nana Asma'u who was a women's rights activist. She led female teachers who travelled around educating the masses.

In Senegal a lot of the teachers and jurists were women. The jurists made the decisions about Islamic laws.

The point of Afrocentrism was about the people wanting to go back to their native collectivity and community. Africa was difficult to embrace from an Afrocentric point of view. There was a lot of pan-Africans that talked about needing to go back to Africa but the question was where because a lot of countries would not accept you as part of the community.

In America there were certain individuals who tried to embody the Afrocentrism within their communities. Many had different approaches to doing this. Keep links with the community was vital. There was so much we can learn from each other and in understanding each other there are many benefits.

Members thanked Ahmed for his presentation and noted how far the world of Islam had spread through Black communities and the impact of the slave trade. It was also noted that in the population of Africa two out of every five were Muslim. African Muslims accounted for one third of all the Muslims in the world.

The SACRE enquired if there was a mosque in Preston and Lancashire that the African Muslim community predominately supported. The group was informed that the majority of African Muslims attended the City Mosque on North Road in Preston. It was found to be the most multicultural in Preston. It was pointed out to the SACRE that a lot of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Documents to be circulated

Members were informed that the schools self-evaluation forms would be sent out this week.

There was a query about Key Stage 5 about whether schools were doing core work and exams and what the curriculum content was. Hopefully schools would respond to this.

Regarding the KS1 and KS2 self evaluation form it was felt that in the title after Collective Worship there should be CW in brackets. In terms of Question 1 on the form it should say 'LCC School Number (eg.01001)'. On Question 5 it was felt the name of the RE Coordinator should be included. Regarding Question 7 and Question 9 it should read 'age related expectations for Religious Education'.

It was suggested to include a question asking if schools had attended the launch of the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus and had they accessed further CPD in line with it and who had provided it. Also ask them if they had not adopted the syllabus, what were they were actually using. It was pointed out that these points were in Question 15 and Question 21 of the form.  

It was agreed that the form could go out with the necessary changes.

In terms of the KS3 form it was suggested that the form should include KS4 and 5 as well.

Regarding Question 1(a), it should also include Years 12 and 13 and ask if they were doing 'A' Level or Core. Under 1(d) it should also include KS5. There should also be a separate question about 'A' Level entries.

The Lancashire SACRE thanked Alison Lloyd for putting the self-evaluation form together.

The SACRE was informed that the Lancashire NGFL section of the website was being massively updated in the next month and RE was part of the Lancashire NGFL. This would make the website much easier to navigate. Alison Lloyd would inform people when this update had happened.

Members were informed that during lockdown a lot of additional people had attended the North West Hub meetings because the meetings were online. At the last meeting of the Hub it was important to get back to what the meeting was about and what its core purpose was.

At the last meeting the new self-evaluation tool that the SACRE had produced was discussed as well as training on world views. There was also a discussion about Hindu Dharma.

Members were informed that admin support was being paid for by Lancashire. As there were more people attending there was a lot of pressure on this admin support with people asking for documents after the meetings. It was stated that whoever hosting the meeting should look after the admin side of things.

The next meeting of the North West Hub was on 11 July and would be a face to face meeting at County Hall, Preston.

It was felt it was very important to re-establish the principles of what the North West Hub was about. Members stated that the North West Hub was a great initiative.

The focus of the North West Hub was an opportunity to strengthen the profile of RE across the North West. It was important to get the membership of the Hub correct.

Alison Lloyd informed the Lancashire SACRE that the NASACRE conference was now online and it was Alison's job to book people on to the conference. The conference was on 23 May 2022 from 10:30am to 3:30pm. If anyone signed up to the conference they could also access two workshops for the fortnight after the conference. The conference cost £40 for one person, £60 for two and £80 for three.

The Chair, Peter Martin, would be attending the conference. Kathleen Cooper and County Councillor Anne Cheetham also expressed interest in attending.

The Lancashire SACRE was looking at the next school year with the intention of starting up school visits again in September.

There was a suggestion to hold a future meeting of the Lancashire SACRE at the City Mosque, on North Road, Preston. It was noted that the mosque would be open to having a SACRE meeting or visit. Councillor Nweeda Khan would contact the mosque regarding this.

Peter Lumsden, Building Bridges Burnley, explained that during the pandemic new ways of reaching schools online had been developed. It was suggested to share these new ways at a future meeting of the SACRE.

Within the Blackburn Diocese there was a large meeting with schools about the new Bishop of Blackburn.

The Diocese of Blackburn had a Mission 2026 and within this there was a strong strand on education and children and young people's work. The Education Board had a vested interest in the new Bishop of Blackburn and would make sure the schools had strong interest in the process.

Through the Chair, Peter Martin, a letter of thanks would be sent from the SACRE to the outgoing Bishop of Blackburn for all the work he had done.  

There was no correspondence.

Members had been emailed about how the format of future meetings should take place. There had been 21 responses received:

·  9 members would like the meetings to remain virtual.

·  2 members would like hybrid meetings.

·  3 members would like physical meetings.

·  7 members stated no preference.

Some members stated that if the meetings remained virtual it would be a good idea to hold one meeting physically through the course of the year, possibly the AGM in November.

It was felt that hybrid meetings were the best way to go moving forward as this would enable school professionals to attend.

The next SACRE QSS meeting on 8 June 2022 would be held via Zoom and the next full SACRE meeting on 4 July 2022 would be a hybrid meeting.

The next scheduled meeting of the SACRE will be held at 10.00am on Monday 4 July 2022.

The next scheduled meeting of the Lancashire SACRE would be held at 10:00am on Monday 4 July 2022.