Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Joan O'Rourke, Andrew Brennand, County Councillor Kevin Ellard, Helen Sage, Afrasiab Anwar, Pete Baker, Ephraim Guttentag, Zakarya Anwar, Harsha Shukla, Ben McMullen and Joanne Harris.

Peter Martin informed the SACRE that Habib Patel and Kieran O'Doherty would both be finishing their services within Lancashire County Council at the end of March, and presented the thanks of the SACRE to them for their hard work and support

It was noted on the minutes for the meeting held on 23 November 2015 that:-

-  Ishwer Tailor's surname had been spelt incorrectly

-  Jo Busby had attended the previous meeting

Resolved: That, with the amendments above, the minutes of the full SACRE meeting which took place on 23 November 2015 be confirmed as a true and correct record.

-  Monitoring Report (attached)

-  Conference for Chairs of Governors

-  NNW Hub Feedback

Monitoring Report

Members referred to the monitoring report which was presented to the Quality and Standards Sub-group on 11 January 2016, which detailed the three current methods of analysing standards within schools – through the manual collection of data, information provided within OFSTED reports and via student questionnaires.

It was confirmed that more Primary schools had responded last year than previously, and it was a positive picture across Key Stages 1-4. It was recognised that appreciation of the SACRE to schools for providing the information would be a positive step, and that one way of doing this could be through a revived SACRE termly newsletter.

On the issue of the quality of provision, it was reported that Ofsted's new Common Inspection Framework meant they would only provide schools judged to be good with a 1-day review visit, and only proceed to a "Section 5" full inspection should this initial assessment indicate that the judgement should be reviewed; out of 9 community primary schools, 6 Section 5 inspections took place and comments for each were generally positive, and out of 7 community secondary schools 3 Section 5 inspections took place.

Conference for Chairs of Governors

The chairman informed members that he would be attending a conference for chairs of governors, which will take place on Saturday 5 March 2016, and would be delivering a presentation on the importance of Religious Education,  focussing on the governors' responsibility to deliver, and monitor the quality of, RE in schools and to address any issues on collective worship.

NNW Hub Feedback

It was reported that the next meeting of the NNW Hub will take place on Thursday 10 March 2016.

A report on the meeting of the Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC), which took place on 6 January 2016, was presented to the SACRE. The ASC had determined that the principles and approach behind the current syllabus continued to reflect the best approach to effective RE, but that amendments were required in some areas to take into account local and national developments and ensure resources were up to date and easily available.

It was recognised that development work was required on the website to improve the accessibility of resources and support, and Members were invited to look at the SACRE website in order to provide feedback to the working group and the ASC. It had been recognised that there would need to be a co-ordinated and well publicised launch of the new curriculum, and it was further reported that an assessment working group would contact teachers and liaise with any willing to participate in provided training by autumn 2016.

-  "Living With Difference": Community, Diversity and the Common Good

-  Proposals for the Futures of SACREs, ASCs, RE and Collective Worship: Chair of NASACRE David Hampshire

The SACRE considered the Woolf Institute  'Living with Difference' document which was chaired by the Rt Hon Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss GBE, as well as a table of comparison between this and a series of other recent reports, constructed by David Hampshire, Chair of NASACRE. A number of comments were made in relation to Collective Worship and its continuing relevance, as well as the capacity of eth SACRE to monitor its delivery.

Resolved: That an email be sent out to all members with the passwords to access the Agreed Syllabus and page(s) on Collective Worship

A report on the Burnley and Pendle Faith Centre was considered. Since 2014 the Faith Centre has operated as a traded service, with over 50 schools buying into the service as of October 2014 and many partnerships made with other Lancashire services and partner agencies. The report also informed members that the feedback received from schools partaking in these services were very positive.

Resolved: That Afrasiab Anwar be considered for invitation to the Agreed Syllabus Conference meetings for further advice.

SACRE members were offered the chance to observe RE at Broughton High and Brunshaw Primary. This would both provide momentum to the school visit programme and provide members with some benchmarking information from schools delivering excellent RE.

Resolved: That:-

i.  CC Yousuf Motala and Alice Robinson visit Broughton High School

ii.  Kath Cooper and John Wilson visit Brunshaw Primary School.

There was nothing to report on Lancashire Youth Voice.

Dr Malcolm Craig reported that he had accompanied a school faith trail hosted by Preston Forum of Faiths; having previously studied Christianity and Hinduism, students were taken to a mosque and gurdwara to experience the religious practices of Islam and Sikhism

Ishwer Tailor reported that the Preston's Gujarat Hindu Society would be celebrating the festival of Maha Shivarati at their community centre on Thursday 17 March 2016.

No correspondence was received.

The next scheduled meeting of the SACRE will be held at 10.00am on Monday 27 June in Cabinet Room D – the Henry Bolingbroke Room at County Hall, Preston.

The next scheduled meeting of the SACRE will be held at 10:00am on Monday 27 June in Cabinet Room D – the Henry Bolingbroke Room at County Hall, Preston.