Agenda and minutes

Attendance

Roman Catholic Church  Ms Jo Busby

The Free Churches Group  Mr C Wills (UR)

  Mr P Baker (AoG)

Teacher Associations  Mr P Martin (ASCL) – Chair

  Mrs A Robinson (ATL)

Church of England  Mrs M Pate

Mr J Wilson

Mrs J O'Rourke

Lancashire County Council  Mr F Williams

  CC A Cheetham

  CC Y Motala

Teachers Union  Ms Julie Roper (NASUWT)

The Faith Centre   Mr A Anwar

The Bahá'i Faith  Dr M Craig

Officers in attendance

Mrs A Lloyd – Advisor (School Improvement), Lancashire County Council, Children and Young People Directorate

Mrs M Mahmood – Democratic Services Officer, Lancashire County Council, Office of the Chief Executive

Miss K Harrison – Democratic Services Officer, Lancashire County Council, Legal and Democratic Services

Apologies

Apologies for absence were received from Ben McMullen, Harsha  Shukla, Lisa Horobin, Helen Sage, County Councillor Peter Buckley, County Councillor Kevin Ellard, and Kathleen Cooper.

Attached.

The minutes of the meeting held on the 27 June were agreed as a correct record.

Launch of the new website

SACRE member's area on the new website.

The Lancashire SACRE website was presented to members who were informed that the website was currently in the process of being updated with a view of it being launched in October.

Members of SACRE were shown how to navigate through the website and various functions such as the Symbols of Religion which provided a detailed overview of each religion and would aim to provide teachers with some knowledge and examples of teaching points. Members of SACRE were asked to use their knowledge and experience to check through the documents and submit any comments/proposed changes. SACRE members noted that Islam and Hinduism had been checked.

The Faith Centre Co-ordinator informed members that the Faith Centre has its own section on the website that included information such as upcoming events in schools and communities, what was on offer to schools e.g. visits and assembly information and details of SLA's that were available along with contact details for the centre. It was mentioned that the aim for this section of the website was to keep it simple for teachers to easily access the information.

It was reported that other sections of the website included the functions of SACRE, annual report and information on British Values.

Members referred to the 'Meet the Members' section of the website and were informed at the latest QSS meeting that it was felt that the information was best placed in the SACRE Annual report which is uploaded to the website under its own tab. Members of SACRE agreed that the information was best placed in that area.

SACRE Members praised the work of Jo Crabtree and Joanne Harris who both work full time as teachers and had given so much time towards the Syllabus and launching the SACRE website. Moira Pate was also thanked for the work she has recently completed with Jo and Joanne on the individual religion documents. It was mentioned Jo and Joanne had both provided their own email addresses as contact details for the website but it was suggested that a generic email address be created such as info@ for other people to access.

Members noted that sections of the website could be downloaded separately and emailed out to members who wished to review any areas, alternatively the log in information could be provided for members to look and review the website.

Members noted the recent lack of attendance from certain religions at the SACRE meetings and proposed that a letter be sent out to those members who had not attended in recent months ahead of the SACRE annual meeting on 21 November 2016.

The work of officers who had contributed to this project was praised including Alison and it was hoped the work could be recognised through a Pride Award nomination.

Plan Attached.

Members referred to the SACRE Development Plan 2016-18 and formed into small groups to discuss the plan. It was noted that the development plan had recently been reviewed at the QSS meeting on the 12 September were amendments had been suggested.

Feedback

The following feedback was reported from the individual groups:

·  Section 1.3, more focus needs to be on primary and secondary school teachers.

·  Section 1.6 it was mentioned that the Lancashire SACRE website would be a good form of communication for events. A suggestion was made that a forum could be included which may take some pressure of Jo and Joanne.

·  A WhatsApp group which included RE teachers was mentioned as a good form of communication.

·  It was suggested that new assessment advice needed to be included.

·  With reference to the advice and training, questions were asked as to how likely it would be for this to happen.

·  It was mentioned that some guidance will need to be put together on how schools collect attainment information as this year data was received but not quick enough.

·  A section on the website for pupils was highlighted and it was mentioned that this could come under Youth SACRE.

·  Within section 4.4, questions were raised on academies buying into the service and if they would be receiving the same information available.

·  Section 5 was reviewed and members highlighted that this related to the work with the Faith Centre.

·  It was emphasised that it was hoped that the Faith Centre would be independent by 2017.

·  More publicity needed to be done around the Faith Centre as people and schools were still unaware that it existed.

Attached.

The members of SACRE were reminded of the annual report which needed to be finalised for December and included within the report was the attendance list for the past 12 months of SACRE. Members were encouraged to check the record of attendance was correct and if there were any problems to contact Misbah Mahmood.

It was noted that the attendance for SACRE needed to be reviewed in some areas as there had been low attendance for some faiths in recent meetings. In particular Islam had been poorly represented and a new representative for Anita Tidswell - Representing the Methodist Church would need to be sought.

Attached.

The Annual Feedback Form from Halton SACRE was presented to the members, it was mentioned that Lancashire SACRE would like to trial something similar and possibly have a sub group to look at monitoring the evidence received and linking it to the website.

It was decided that the feedback form would be discussed at a future QSS and SACRE meeting.

Verbal update from Afrasiab Anwar.

The Faith Centre Co-ordinator provided members of SACRE with an update and reported that the summer programmes were providing workshops that were linked to British Values. It was mentioned that SLA's would soon be sent out and schools would l be able to buy into the service.

The Faith Centre had recently attended a school in Blackburn for an assembly and reached out to a number of pupils. It was also mentioned that Marsden Community School had recently visited the Faith Centre and provided positive feedback.

Verbal update – Advice of those wishing to attend.

Members of SACRE were informed of the agreed Syllabus launch which would take place at Woodlands Conference Centre on Thursday 10 November 2016. 10 spaces were made available for SACRE members to attend and County Councillor Anne Cheetham, Joan O'Rourke, Francis Williams, Alice Robinson (am only) John Wilson and County Councillor Yousuf Motala confirmed they would like to attend.

Verbal Update.

There were no updates for this agenda item.

Verbal Update.

There were no updates for this agenda item.

Verbal Update.

There were no updates for this agenda item.

Verbal Update.

The Members of SACRE noted that it was National Interfaith week in November and usually Lancashire Forum of Faiths hold a celebratory event. The Faith Centre Co-ordinator confirmed that the Faith Centre would be taking part in the celebrations.

Verbal Update.

There was no update for this item.

Attached - Manchester Jewish Museum Flyer.

A Manchester Jewish Museum leaflet was presented to members who were encouraged to raise awareness in schools.

Provisional dates for future SACRE Meetings to be held at 10.00am in The Henry Bolingbroke Room (Cabinet Room D), County Hall, and Preston.

21 November 2016

30 January 2017

24 April 2017

3 July 2017

2 October 2017

Provisional dates for future QSS Meetings to be held at 10.00am in The Diamond Jubilee Room (Cabinet Room B), County Hall, Preston.

7 November 2016

9 January 2017

27 March 2017

12 June 2017

11 September 2017

Members were presented with the dates scheduled for 2016/17. It was noted that some dates were difficult to avoid religious festivals/activities and were encouraged to report to Misbah Mahmood if any clashes are noticed.

The next meeting of SACRE is on 21 November, 10:00 am in the Diamond Jubilee Room.