Agenda and draft minutes

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

There were no declarations of interest.

To determine whether any items on the agenda require the exclusion of members of the public or press.

There were no matters of business for which it was deemed necessary to exclude members of the public or press.

To appoint a Vice-Chair of SACRE for the 2024/2025 academic year.

Resolved:- That Anthony Griffin be appointed Vice-Chair of SACRE for the 2024/2025 Academic Year.

To review and approve the minutes of the previous meeting held on 19 September 2024 as a true and accurate record of the proceedings and to be signed by the Chair.

The minutes from the last meeting on 19 September 2024, were approved as a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

To receive an update on CPD Training.

The Chair provided an update to the Committee on CPD training, during which the following was noted:

• The Chair and the SACRE Advisor led the primary school subject leaders training session, which focused on the new Deep and Meaningful Ofsted Review Report. The report focused on what good religious education looked like.
• The Chair would circulate the Deep and Meaningful Ofsted Review Report and the presentation from the primary school subject leaders training session to members of SACRE.
• The Chair attended a National SACRE Microsoft Teams meeting, NA Sacre submitted the following to the Department of Education’s curriculum review:

o   Relating to the non-statutory National Content Standard for Religious Education, National SACRE called for all religious education syllabus providers such as RE Today, to build upon the work of the National Content Standard, to provide a clear framework for all schools to be held account for the religious education that they provided for their pupils. And stated that at present, as religious education was not part of the mandatory curriculum, many pupils were at risk of not receiving a high-quality religious education and felt that a national solution needed to be bigger than just community schools.

o   NA SACRE supported religious education to continue to contribute to statutory requirements to schools, to promote spiritual, moral, social, cultural development and community cohesion. Religious education along with other curriculum subjects, provided helpful experiences with knowledge and understanding of diversity and difference, within the local community, regionally, nationally, and globally in terms of religious literacy.

o   NA SACRE was concerned with the level of local funding for SACRE’s work and its impact on syllabus development. NA SACRE would like to see ring-fenced funding for the support for religious education and SACRE’s. A Freedom of Information Report provided evidence of SACRE’s not being funded or being given adequate professional support, to review and publish an agreed syllabus.

o   NA SACRE was concerned about how a SACRE’s work could be limited through a lack of budget, to provide local high quality CPD for teachers.

o   NA SACRE had concerns from its analysis of SACRE Annual Reports and local authorities meeting the legal requirement to submit their annual report to the Department of Education.

o   NA SACRE was working well with religious education hubs; this was improving their ability to bring SACRE’s together locally.

o   NA SACRE looked at how SACRE’s functioned and what could be improved. NA SACRE would want to see the legislation reviewed to ensure it would be fit for purpose in the current education system.

• The Religious Education Council for England and Wales also sent a submission to the Department of Educations’ curriculum review. The Religious Education Council for England and Wales had expressed concern relating to the national curriculum, it was felt that it was important to keep a degree of flexibility in the national curriculum, relating to focusing on the religious profile of each area.
• SACRE members felt that some local authorities were a small size to develop a local  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

To receive a verbal update on Inter Faith Week 2024.

An update on Inter Faith Week 2024 was provided to the Committee and the following was noted:

• Three Primary Schools and one Secondary School requested attendance from faith members for Inter Faith Week. The groups were led in pairs of two, representing two different faiths.
• The attendee’s used the Inter Faith website poster which covered a lot of different faiths. A general introduction was completed and then both attendee’s read out their own individual faith quotation from the poster and asked each other questions on how they applied it to their everyday lives.
• The feedback from the participating schools was very positive, although there wasn’t much interaction from pupils during the session, on-going discussions took place in classes after the session. A parent approached one attendee to provide positive feedback and advise that their child enjoyed the session at school.
• It was agreed that this would be repeated on an annual basis, the event would be planned earlier next year to ensure wider involvement.
• The SACRE Advisor asked if any members present for volunteers who would be willing to represent their faith at the Teachers Professional Development meeting on 4^th February 2025. The Governance Advisor would email the SACRE Advisor with a list of members who had volunteered.
• The Vice-Chair advised that they had a contact of a representative of the Jewish faith who may wish to become a member of SACRE. The Vice-Chair would make contact with the representative and advise the Governance Advisor if they would like to become a SACRE member.
• The Cabinet Member for Childrens and Young Peoples Services would find out whether Wingfield Academy could be invited to the Harms of Hate Event. The details of the event would be shared with the Governance Advisor, to be circulated to members.

To receive a verbal update on the SACRE Development Plan 2024/2025.

This agenda item provided an update to SACRE members on the SACRE Development Plan for 2024/2025, during which the following was noted:

·       Objective 1- continue to develop RE subject knowledge for Rotherham primary teachers and subject leaders:

o   This was on-going.

·       Objective 2- Review and carry out determinations for collective worship:

o   SACRE would arrange for a member to attend Thornhill Primary School in the New Year to carry out their determination.

·       Objective 3- Develop links with Sheffield and Doncaster SACRE’s:

o   Further thought would be given to this.

·       Objective 4- Provide support to enhance provision in RE in schools:

o   A list of visits and visitors would be developed.

·       Objective 5- Increase prominence of RE through the Rewards celebration:

o   No REward nominations had been received.

o   The REwards would be advertised at the Subject Teacher Meetings.

o   The members present who were teachers would nominate some areas of practise that they had previously identified.

o   The REward Categories would be circulated again to members via the Governance Advisor.

o   There was no application form for the REwards.

· The Development Plan was a working document which would be updated throughout the year.

To receive an update on the progress of the SACRE Constitution and Terms of Reference Review.

The Governance Advisor for the Committee provided a high-level update on the review of the SACRE Constitution and Terms of Reference, during which the following was noted:

·       The Constitution and Terms of Reference were in the process of being reviewed. A combined document had been drafted and would be reviewed by the from the Monitoring Officer.

·       Guidance from National SACRE (NA SACRE) and benchmarking with other local authorities had led to some proposed amendments to the document.

·       The document would be circulated in the New Year and would be brought back to the next SACRE meeting for discussion and consideration by members.

·       The key changes so far included the following:

o   Statutory responsibilities for SACRE, for example the process of the SACRE Annual Report.

o   Further detail captured on relevant processes such as co-optee’s, the appointment of the Chair and Vice-Chair and terms of office.

o   Additional detail to the responsibilities of the Chair, Vice-Chair, Governance Advisor and SACRE Advisor positions.

To receive an update on the SACRE Annual Report for 2023/2024.

This agenda item provided an update to SACRE members on the Annual Report for 2023-2024, during which the following was noted:

·       The Chair had begun drafting the Annual Report.

·       The Governance Advisor would provide information on a summary of the meetings, attendee’s, venue and key actions captured.

·       The Annual Report would need to go through the correct governance process for approvals and noting, as the Committee was a Council appointed body. Clarification would be sought on the precise process, including which directorate would be responsible for the report.

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

There were no matters of urgent business raised.