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02/21/2012 06:00 PM SACRE - Minutes

ROYAL BOROUGH OF WINDSOR AND MAIDENHEAD

STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION (SACRE)

21 FEBRUARY 2012

PRESENT: Councillor Natasha Airey, Councillor Dee Quick, Saghir Ahmed (Islamic Trust), Michael Gammage (Chairman) (Baha’i Community of Maidenhead), Joan Hicks (Church of England), and Julie Mintern (Vice-chairman) (Church of England).

Officers in attendance: Jo Fageant and Michael Kiely (minutes).

		ACTION
1	Apologies for Absence & Declarations of Interest
	Apologies for Absence were received from Dalwyn Attwell (NAHT), Jasvinder Bhogal (Maidenhead Sikh Temple), Mary Christie (Roman Catholic Church), Nick Lowe (Baptist Church), and Jagdish Varma (Hinduism). Apologies were also received from Karen Butler. There were no Declarations of Interest.
2	Minutes of the previous meeting
	Members approved the minutes of the previous meeting held on 8 November 2011.
3	Matters Arising
	i) Places of Worship Information A document entitled Places of Worship Information was circulated to members. Jo Fageant recognised it as a document that she had initially prepared. A number of updates were required and it was agreed that Jo Fageant would update the document. Sagir Ahmed provided his up to date contact details in relation to the Mosque in Maidenhead. It was suggested that weblinks to Churches Together in Maidenhead and Windsor and Maidenhead Community Forum should be included. Members suggested that once corrected it should be edited in such a way that it could either be published on the website, circulated via the schools intranet service, or included with the Schools Bulletin. ii) CPD News Jo Fageant advised that a CPD session had been run by the Diocese of Oxford on philosophy for children. The next course, scheduled for 9^th March 2012 would focus on Able, Gifted and Talented Children in Religious Education. There had been good uptake on the whole day courses, and excellent attendance at the first of the three twilight sessions. It took place at Ellington school in the Autumn term and included 29 RBWM staff and 4 colleagues from Slough schools. A document was circulated which summarised the RE courses offered in RBWM secondary schools. It was noted that at least some post-16 RE was a legal requirement. Jo Fageant agreed to review the document and contact Elaine Norstrom to advise of her concerns.	Jo Fageant Jo Fageant
4	SACRE Budget Plan 2011/12
	In relation to the budget, the following comments were made: Ø There was likely to be a small under-spend as the Annual Conference had been budgeted for, but these costs were due to come out of the 2012/13 financial year. Ø £100 had been budgeted for attendance at the NASACRE AGM which would take place on 23^rd May 2012. This was to cover attendance and travel, and so members were encouraged to consider attendance. Ø There was some budget still to be allocated to schools that released colleagues to attend RE syllabus review. Ø Further costs relating to SACRE Adviser time and twilight training at the end of February 2012 was still to come out of the budget, along with recharges for administration time for the Principal Adviser and the Clerical Officer.
5	Equality Act 2010
	Members’ attention was drawn to the document in the agenda papers entitled, “Equality Act 2010 - Advice for School Leaders, School Staff, Governing Bodies and Local Authorities. The Equality Act 2010 provided a single, consolidated source of discrimination law. The law emphasized the need for no discrimination based on religion or belief. The phrase ‘or belief’ was a recent addition to the legislation. Brief discussion took place on humanism, and how other SACREs had treated their applications for SACRE membership.
6	Membership
	Members discussed the vacancies on SACRE, and how these might be filled. In relation to union representation it was agreed that the SACRE clerk would contact the Principal Adviser about any meetings which took place with the unions. It was also agreed that Jo Fageant would work with Karen Butler to create an ‘advert’ for the role. This could be circulated in the Schools Bulletin. Members were pleased to note the appointment and attendance of Cllr Mrs Airey.	Michael Kiely / Jo Fageant / Karen Butler
7	NASACRE News
	Jo Fageant reported that the debate about the omission of RE in the EBacc had come to an end. It was now acknowledged that further progress with this matter was unlikely. The national curriculum was under review, but this would not include Religious Education, as it did not form part of the national curriculum. The Non-Statutory National Framework was published in 2004. There were no plans for the government to revise it as local determination was now favoured. Discussion took place on the relationship between SACRE’s and academies. Academies were not part of the SACRE’s remit. Instead RE arrangements were defined by their funding agreements. NASACRE was developing a leaflet which would encourage academies to develop full links to their local SACRE’s.
8	St Gabriel’s RE Community Weekend
	It was noted that full details on the weekend could be found at: http:news.reonline.org.uk/pdf_lib/recw_2011_proceedings.pdf In a broader discussion members emphasised the need to promote and maintain religious education, particularly in light of the emergence of academies. Jo Fageant highlighted the work of the National Association of Teachers of RE, NASACRE and AREIAC Members also suggested that there could be better publicity of the work of SACRE’s to RE teachers in their local areas.
9	Syllabus Presentation and Launch
	It was noted that it was the Agreed Syllabus Conference which would create the syllabus. Consideration would be given to its format (hard copy, a CD-Rom, website etc), and how it would be distributed to schools. A key consideration would be how to get schools to be engaged with the syllabus. It was hoped that the documents would be published in the Summer term. Jo Fageant explained that she had liaised with her counterpart who provided advice to Wokingham and Reading. It had been agreed that there would be launches of the syllabus across the local region. If colleagues were unable to attend one launch, they could arrange to attend one in a neighbouring area. The purpose of the launch events was to promote the syllabus, enable teachers to take back new knowledge to their schools and to plan for September 2012 onwards. The Agreed Syllabus Conference would be required to meet to approve the draft and then the local authority would be required to approve it, either by the Lead Member for Children’s Services or at a meeting of full Council. The Lead Member for Children’s Services agreed to discuss the matter with the Leader of the Council. Members were of the opinion that the syllabus should originate as a paper based document for ease of reading, but should also be available electronically.	Cllr Mrs Quick
9	Any Other Business and Date of next meeting
	There was no other business. It was agreed that the Clerk would look at dates at the end of May 2012.	Michael Kiely

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Modified: 2010-01-27
Published: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:38:45
Author: Andrew Scott
Editor: Andrew.Scott
LGSL PID: 354
RDCMS ID: 9249