Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence from any members who are unable to attend.

Apologies were received from L. Melvin, A. Vishwanath and T. Griffin

To receive declarations of interest from any members with respect to an item of business.

There were no declarations of interest declared.

To review and approve the minutes of the previous meetings held on 18 November 2025 and 2 March 2026 as a true and accurate record of the proceedings and to be signed by the Chair.

There were no issues raised on the minutes of the previous meetings held on 18^th November 2025 and 2^nd March 2026 and it was resolved that the minutes be approved as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

To receive an update from the sub-group on the progress of the review of the Local Agreed RE Syllabus.

The purpose of the ASC meetings was to plan and prepare for the launch of the new Local RE Agreed Syllabus (Syllabus) for Rotherham. This was the fourth meeting of the ASC for the 2025-2026 academic year.

The Chair talked Members through the further amendments that they had made to the draft Syllabus and in the ensuing discussion, the following points were raised:-

·       The Chair confirmed that all suggested amendments discussed in previous meetings had been incorporated and that the Syllabus had been given a thorough edit.

·       The Chair explained that a Contents page had been created with links to pages but that page numbers would need to be inserted and all links checked. This would be the last job to check once all content was finalised.

·       Members pointed out that some fonts and line-spacing were different in new parts of the Syllabus that had been inserted and the Chair confirmed that they would amend this and standardise the document throughout.

·       Tricia Williams, who had provided the up-to-date census information, confirmed that she would be able to insert the exact rather than rounded-up figures in the census table.

·       The Chair commented that they would like to check with secondary school staff who sat on the sub-group that they had no further input on the KS3, 4 & 5 pages of the Syllabus. These pages had not been altered much but the Chair had removed sections which they knew were out of date or reflected practice that was no longer current.

·       Salma Yasseen commented that the expanded section on “Inclusion in RE” was much more comprehensive than previously and read very well.

·       In response to a question around the inclusion of more up-to-date artwork, the Chair confirmed that the artwork currently in the Syllabus would be left in as it was too large a piece of work to try and obtain new samples for this version of the Syllabus. It was agreed that the inclusion of the children’s artwork worked well and broke up the text.

·       There was discussion around the inclusion of an acknowledgement to RE Today, as they had been engaged to work on the previous version of the Syllabus. It was agreed that as the Syllabus had been substantially altered in this edit, the Chair would include an acknowledgement of the previous work of RE Today and explain that the new Syllabus had built on and adapted that work. The Chair confirmed that they would update the details on the front and back pages of the Syllabus confirming that copyright would sit with RMBC/SACRE and would update the date on both to 2026.

·       Members agreed that they had no further comments on the content of the Syllabus and confirmed that it was now at proof-reading stage. Tricia Williams offered to undertake a thorough proof-read of the document, with help from Tony Griffin if required, who had previously offered assistance.

·       Niall Devlin, the Service Director for Education & Inclusion, commented that the Syllabus represented a very robust piece of work and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To discuss and agree the next steps in the process of the review and revision of the Local Agreed RE Syllabus.

The next steps to progress to the final stages of the review of the Syllabus for onward approval by Rotherham SACRE were discussed as follows:–

·       Tricia Williams would update the census figures for England & Wales to the exact figures.

·       The Chair would attempt to make contact with Members who were secondary school teachers to check that they had no further amendments to the KS3, 4 & 5 sections of the Syllabus.

·       The Chair would send a version of the Syllabus to Tricia Williams and Tony Griffin for a final sense-check and proof-read.

The Governance Advisor confirmed that another meeting of the ASC had been arranged for 7^th September 2026. The plan would be to bring the final version of the Syllabus to that meeting for ASC approval, then on to the full meeting of Rotherham SACRE on 17^th September for approval from all Members to move to publish and distribute the new syllabus in time for the winter term of the 2026-27 academic year.

The Governance Advisor enquired how distribution of the Syllabus amongst schools within the borough would take place. The Service Director for Education & Inclusion confirmed that the Syllabus would be published on the council website, and a link would then be emailed to all schools.

To determine any items which the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency.

There were no additional items of business requiring consideration at the meeting.

The date and time of the next meeting of the ASC would be Monday 7^th September 2026 at 4:00pm, via Microsoft Teams.