Agenda and minutes

Members of the public are welcome to attend our meetings to watch them in person at any of the venues across the County. Publicly accessible meetings held in County Hall will be webcast, which means they are available to be watched live or recorded on our website. Please see our webcasting notice here. The Committee may, in certain circumstances, resolve to hold part of the meeting in private. If this is the case, you will be required to leave the meeting.

Venue: Committee Room 'C' - The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston. View directions

Contact: Josh Mynott  Tel (01772) 534580 Email  josh.mynott@lancashire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

Christian and other religious groups appropriately reflecting the principal traiditions in the area.

 

The Roman Catholic Church  Ms J Busby

  Mr B McMullen

  Mr S Jones

The Free Churches Group  Mr C Wills

  Mrs Anita Tidswell

Islam  Mr N Anwar

  Mr S Jogi

Hinduism  Mrs H Shukla

  Ms V Chauhan

Teacher Associations  Mr P Martin (ASCL) – Chair

  Mr D Fann (NAHT)

  Mrs A Robinson (ATL)

Church of England  Mrs J O'Rourke

  Mr J Wilson

LCC  County Councillor A Cheetham

  County Councillor K Ellard

  County Councillor Y Motala

  County Councillor P Buckley

Observers  Dr M Craig (Bahá'i Faith)

 

 

Officers in attendance

 

Mr J Hewitt – Head of Quality and Continuous Improvement, Lancashire County Council, Children and Young People Directorate

 

Mr J Mynott – Committee Support Team Leader, Lancashire County Council, Office of the Chief Executive

1.

Nomination of Chair and Deputy Chair

Minutes:

Resolved:  That

 

  i.  Mr Peter Martin be appointed Chair of the SACRE for the ensuing year.

 

  ii.  County Councillor Yousuf Motala be appointed Vice-Chair of the SACRE for the ensuing year.

2.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Peter Baker, Andrew Brennand, Phil Clarke, Jacquie Clarke, Sue Greenhow, Jo Crabtree, Joanne Harris.

3.

Minutes of the last meeting pdf icon PDF 79 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 29 September 2014 be confirmed as a correct record.

4.

SACRE Annual Summary Report 2013-14 pdf icon PDF 905 KB

Minutes:

The SACRE Annual Summary Report was presented. It was explained that it had been produced in a shortened format, as in recent years, as previous reports in a longer format were not as widely read or used as would have been hoped.

 

Comments on the draft were invited from the meeting.  SACRE members paid tribute to the enthusiasm and commitment Mr. Hewitt has displayed towards SACRE.

 

It was reported that levels of attainment in Key Stages 1, 2 and 3 all continue to rise, with A-*A grades in Religious Education up 4%, showing more students are excelling at GCSE at the end of Key Stage 4.

 

It was recognised that it has become increasingly difficult for schools to arrange for staff to attend training courses, due to the difficulties associated with arranging appropriate cover. The SACRE requested further information on the take up of courses at a future meeting.

 

It was recognised that a relatively significant number of schools in the Lancashire area had achieved RE Quality Mark (REQM) status, although this still amounted to only 10 out of approximately 600 schools in the area. It was understood that more schools were engaging with the REQM as a best practice tool, whilst not going for formal accreditation. It was agreed that further detail on the number of schools engaging in this way would be brought back to SACRE.

 

The SACRE noted the excellent work being done by Joanne Harris and Kate Murry with Youth Voice. 

 

Resolved: That the draft SACRE Annual Summary report 2013-14 be approved.

5.

Better Inspection For All (Ofsted Consultation) pdf icon PDF 64 KB

Minutes:

The SACRE considered the "Better Inspection for All" Ofsted consultation. It was noted that the consultation closed on the following Friday, and that all individuals and bodies were entitled to respond directly to the consultation if they wished.

 

In relation to a response from the SACRE, the key elements of the consultation as they related to the work of SACRE were highlighted and considered. In general, the approach set out by Ofsted was felt to be more focussed on the curriculum, more based on nurturing and less on simplistic measurements, and was broadly welcomed.

 

In relation to the specific proposals relevant to SACRE, there was agreement with the proposals on the "Effectiveness of Leadership and Management", with comments about what was meant by "appropriate" in relation to performance management and professional development. It was also strongly felt by SACRE that it would be essential for individual inspectors to know and understand the local RE curriculum in use at any school in order to make appropriate judgements. Additionally, it was felt that this section should include reference to social inclusion and the holistic development of children and young people.

 

On "Personal Development and Leadership", there was strong agreement from the SACRE, and there was agreement on the proposals on "outcomes". In relation to this latter issue, the attention of SACRE was drawn to a You Tube video called "Tim Oates on Assessment", the transcript of which was also available online.

 

On "Quality of teaching, learning and assessment", it was agreed to highlight Social, Moral Spiritual and Cultural (SMSC) development and how this is developed in the way young people learn and are taught.

 

Resolved: That a further draft would be produced based on the comments of SACRE and circulated to all members before submission.

6.

Arrangements for SACRE Members Visiting Schools pdf icon PDF 35 KB

Minutes:

The proposed arrangements for SACRE members visiting schools were discussed. It was agreed that only SACRE members who had attended the training would be able to undertake these visits on behalf of SACRE, and that an additional training session would be arranged following the QSS meeting on 9 February.

 

Resolved: That the proposed arrangements for SACRE members visiting schools be approved.

7.

SACRE Hub pdf icon PDF 28 KB

Minutes:

SACRE members were invited to suggest any future topics of the North North West SACRE Hub. It was suggested that consideration could be given in future for the Hub to access Culham St Gabriel's funding for joint working projects.

8.

National Update

Oral Report

Minutes:

A number of national issues were highlighted to the SACRE.

 

It was noted that the DfE has emphasised the responsibility of schools for demonstrating a "broad and balanced" curriculum, and the statutory duty for schools to publish details of their curriculum on their websites was highlighted. It was additionally noted that Ofsted were making increasing use of school websites in influencing decisions about when to inspect schools. It was confirmed that the County Council was offering advice and support to schools on this.

 

Recent indications from government have suggested that there is an understanding of the need to protect RE / RS as a subject, and the reliance on the position of the subject as a legal requirement has not been sufficient.

 

The Chair of the SACRE will attend a conference arranged by AREIAC and NASACRE on the "Trojan Horse" investigations and outcomes in Birmingham, and will report back as appropriate.

 

The GCSE syllabus has been made more "rigorous". There is now a requirement to study two religions, although faith schools can give more emphasis to their own faith in doing so. It is intended that this new syllabus comes into effect in September 2016

 

Resolved: That the updates be noted.

9.

Report of the Quality and Standards Sub-group pdf icon PDF 66 KB

Minutes:

The report of the Quality and Standards Sub-group was noted.

10.

Observers' Contributions

Minutes:

None.

11.

Members' News

Minutes:

The Chair reported on a conference on Jesus in Islam at Lancaster University which took place in November. He reported that it was an extremely interesting day, and that he had met with several other attendees whose work could be of future interest to SACRE.

12.

Correspondence

Minutes:

There was no correspondence reported.

13.

Date of Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the SACRE will be held at 10.00am on Monday 16 March 2015 in Cabinet Room 'C' – the Duke of Lancaster room – at County Hall, Preston.

Minutes:

It was noted that the next scheduled meeting would be held at 10am on 16 March 2015 in Cabinet Room C – The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston.