Agenda and minutes

Attendance

Roman Catholic Church  Ms J Busby

The Free Churches Group  Mr C Wills (UR)

Teacher Associations  Mr P Martin (ASCL) – Chair

  Mrs A Robinson (ATL)

  Ms J Harris

  Ms J Crabtree

  Mr D Fann (NAHT)

Church of England  Mrs M Pate

  Mrs J O'Rourke

Mr J Wilson

Lancashire County Council  CC P Buckley 

CC A Cheetham

  CC Y Motala

Teachers Union  Ms J Roper (NASUWT)

Representing NATRE  Ms J Clarke

Representing Hinduism  Mr I Tailor

  Mrs H Shukla

The Faith Centre   Mr A Anwar 

Members of the public  Mr B O'Rourke

Officers in attendance

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

Mrs M Mahmood – Senior Democratic Services Officer, Lancashire County Council, Legal and Democratic Services

Mr F Bailey – Democratic Services Officer, Lancashire County Council, Legal and Democratic Services

Apologies

Apologies for absence were received from Mr B McMullen, Mr P Baker, Mr K Pagpa, Ms L Horobin, Mrs H Sage, Mr F Williams, CC K Ellard, Mrs K Cooper, Dr M Craig, Mr E Guttentag.

Tour of the Gujarat Hindu Society

The meeting started with a tour of the Gujarat Hindu Society building and Mr I Tailor provided members with a detailed overview of the temple and its history which members found extremely interesting and informative.

The Chair thanked Mr I Tailor and everyone at the Gujarat Hindu Society for their kind hospitality and the opportunity provided to SACRE members to visit.

Attached.

Subject to the following amendment the minutes of the meetings held on the 21 November 2016 were agreed as a true and accurate record:

Apologies for absence had been made by County Councillor P Buckley.

The membership of the QSS had always been an open invitation policy to members of SACRE, however, this had resulted in potentially different people attending the QSS meetings each time. Whilst the desire to hold the meetings in the same spirit was noted, it was felt that at any given time tasks allocated to the QSS needed to be defined to allow continuity of work actions and to give SACRE members more of a decision making role.

An audit of key skills for all SACRE members was suggested, this could be used to request certain members to attend if a particular task required their expertise. Allowing the meetings to be focused around the key priority areas of the development plan was also suggested.

Agenda items for the next QSS were discussed. As the meeting would  be the last one before the County Council Elections in May consideration needed to be given to welcome packs for new County Councillors and to ensure there was updated information in the pack on what the SACRE was and its aims and objectives.

Action: The following was agreed:

-  An agenda item would be added to the end of the SACRE agenda to discuss forthcoming QSS agenda items, this would help to identify possible expertise required at the next meeting.

-  The following items were agreed for the next QSS agenda:

o  Newsletter

o  Induction Pack

o  NASACRE Survey

o  KP2, Next Steps – clear guidance to be provided to schools on how standards will be measured in 2017.

Attached.

Mrs A Lloyd informed members that the Annual Report for 2015/16 had been finalised and submitted to the Government and NASACRE where it had now been uploaded. It had also been circulated to schools on the Portal.

Membership for the SACRE was discussed and the lack of representation from certain faiths was highlighted again. Mr A Anwar informed members that although Lancashire Council of Mosques was the umbrella organisation within Lancashire, it did not represent all of Islam. Mr Ali Anwar was highlighted as a possible candidate who may wish to represent Islam on the SACRE as well as Mr F Desai from Preston and West Lancashire Racial Equality and Diversity Council.

Action:

-  Mr A Anwar to contact Mr Ali Anwar to see if there was any scope in him attending SACRE meetings as a representative of Islam.

-  Representation on SACRE and new membership to be added to the SACRE agenda for the June meeting.

To be tabled at the meeting.

A progress report providing updates under each of the priorities was circulated by Mrs A Lloyd. For each priority the work completed so far and the next steps had been considered. The next steps would help to inform future QSS agenda items.

Priority 1 – To raise standards by improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in R.E.

The website was live and feedback received had been extremely positive. There was some materials such as Buddhism that still needed completing. Mop up training that been planned for March for those that were unable to attend the conference in November. It was proposed that the conference would become an annual event. The Chair emphasised that the profile of the SACRE had been raised due to the excellent work that had been carried out by Mrs A Lloyd, Ms J Harris and Ms J Crabtree on the website and the conference.

A discussion took place in regard to Universities and there being a missing link, a suggestion included making contact with Teaching Schools. Mrs H Shukla was aware of a contact at the University of Cumbria, Mr N Harris and it was agreed she would try and make contact. 

Priority 2 – The SACRE works in effective partnership with the LA to monitor and evaluate standards and the quality of provision in R.E.

The next steps for this priority would be to provide clear guidance to schools on how standards would be measured in 2017.

Priority 3 – To improve the provision of collective worship

The next step would be to develop a protocol for dealing with any requests for disapplication and the granting of a determination. The protocol will not need to be complicated, a letter could be submitted to SACRE and the SACRE could agree it. A paper would be circulated to SACRE in the future to agree the process.

Priority 4 – To ensure that the SACRE is effectively managed and works in close cooperation with the LA and other key stakeholders

School visits were discussed and at the last meeting a suggestion had been made about writing up any visits. The next planned visit was to Lea County Primary School in Ashton.

A student debate on R.E. had been booked in for the 28 February 2017 in the Council Chambers at County Hall for Pupil Voice. Students from different schools would debate 3 topics, members of SACRE were welcome to attend the event.

Priority 5 – To develop the contribution to R.E. of community cohesion

Mr A Anwar informed SACRE members that 37 primary schools and 4 secondary schools were now signed up to the Faith Centre. Positive feedback from schools was generating further interest to other schools. A networking event had been planned for the end of term due to the level of interest. As more and more schools came on board, additional support for the Faith Centre was required such as volunteers. The Lancashire Forum of Faiths was supporting this need. The aim was to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Newsletter had already been discussed earlier on the agenda.

An update on Community Cohesion had already been discussed under agenda item 5. 

Attached.

The Big NASACRE Survey had been issued and responses needed to be submitted by April. At the QSS meeting on the 18 January, Mr J Wilson agreed to answer as much of the survey as possible and bring it back to the next QSS meeting to share with members. The deadline for responses was 30 April 2017.

The following documents are attached:

-  Commission on Religious Education, Call for Evidence

-  The Casey Review, A Review into Opportunity and Integration

Two documents had been circulated to members:

Commission of England Survey, Call for Evidence – Ms J Harris provided some background information on a new piece work that had been commissioned. The call for evidence was to try and scope whether there should be a national syllabus for R.E. The aim was to try and gather as much evidence as possible from everyone involved in R.E so all the issues could be considered. Responses needed to be submitted by February.

Casey Review – The review had now been published, however some of the content had been controversial in regards to community cohesion issues.

A visit to Lea County Primary School had been arranged in the near future, feedback would be provided at a future meeting. The Chair was also due to visit Hollands School soon. 

There were further updates for this agenda item.

There were no updates for this agenda item.

There were no updates for this agenda item.

The next scheduled meeting of the SACRE will be held at 10.00am on Monday 24 April 2017 in Cabinet Room C – The Duke of Lancaster Room, County Hall, Preston.

The next scheduled meeting of the SACRE will be held on Monday 24 April 2017, at 10.00am in Cabinet Room C, The Duke of Lancaster Room.