Meeting documents

Apologies for absence were received from Chris Farrow (Teacher Representative), Renate Diallo (Quaker Representative),Sally Hawksworth (Humanist Representative) and Councillors Howell and Wilkins.

There were no declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Meeting dated 22 November 2016, having been previously circulated, be confirmed as a correct record and signed as a correct record, subject to the following amendment:

Under those present, amend ‘Lynda Forde-Horne’ to ‘Lynda Ford-Horne’.

The Minutes would be ratified at the next quorate Meeting.

Matters Arising

Minute SAC16.16 ’Apologies for Absence’

The Church of England Representative asked for clarification as to whom Chris Farrow represented on SACRE as there had previously been some confusion. The Clerk confirmed that Chris Farrow had been appointed to SACRE as a Teacher Representative and not as a Roman Catholic Representative. The Clerk had written to the Diocese of Plymouth to seek a new nomination.

Minute SAC15.16 ‘Chairman’s Remarks’

The Chairman and the Religious Education (RE) Consultant felt that ‘Matters Arising’ was an integral part of the SACRE Agenda. They noted that many SACRE Agendas, including Bournemouth, featured ‘Matters Arising’ and therefore requested that it be included on future Agendas.

The Governor Services Adviser asked the Clerk to forward her a copy of the Constitution and details of SACRE’s membership.
 

The Chairman lead the ‘Reflection’, which focused on the importance of moral education.

With the agreement of those present, the Chairman rearranged the running order of the Agenda.
 

The Chairman welcomed Hafsa Badet to the Meeting to talk about the Anti-Bullying Ambassador Programme, which was part of the charity ‘The Diana Award’.

Hafsa advised that her daughter was an Anti-Bullying Ambassador at a Poole School, however, she had raised concern that Anti-Bullying Ambassadors were not given an opportunity to record events of bullying and were actively discouraged from reporting incidents of bullying unless it was felt that the victim was at risk of suicide.

Hafsa advised that schools were under immense pressure from Ofsted and were marked down by Ofsted for having incidents of bullying and racism. Hafsa was bringing this to the attention of SACRE as she felt that it posed a safeguarding risk for both the Anti-Bullying Ambassador and the victim of bullying, as children should not be discouraged from reporting bullying.

The Governor Services Adviser explained that she would be very concerned if schools were sending out this message. Ofsted would look at how a school dealt with incidents of bullying, not that bullying took place.

A discussion ensued and it was asked how the situation was relevant to SACRE? The Chairman explained that Hafsa had shared the information with Bournemouth SACRE and that it was relevant to Poole SACRE as sometimes bullying could be racially motivated. Hasfa commented that she was raising awareness through Poole SACRE as it was a safeguarding issue. A formal route for reporting bullying should be available to all children.

The Meeting was advised that all schools should have an Anti-Bullying Lead Officer and an Anti-Bullying Policy.
 

The Clerk advised that as the Meeting was not quorate, SACRE Members could not vote on the following appointments:- Cheryl Smith, Teacher Representative, Sean Bevis, Buddhist Representative, Jindy Atwell, Sikh Representative and the Rev’d Nigel Ford, Free Church Representative.
The Church of England Representative asked if the new representatives had been affirmed by their own religious groups? The Chairman advised that new representatives always came from a recommendation from an existing SACRE Member/s.

The Clerk referred to section 2.2 of the Constitution, which stated that “All Nomination Bodies be requested, wherever possible, to appoint representatives from the local religious community on the Poole SACRE”.

Jindy Atwell explained that she was one of three Sikhs in the Poole community and that if she was appointed as the Sikh Representative she would not be representing the views of the whole Sikh community.

The Church of England Representative expressed concern that potential new representatives did not have the backing of their religious communities/groups.

As the Head of RE at Corfe Hills School and a practising Sikh, the Chairman felt that Jindy had a great deal of expertise to offer SACRE, however, following her time spent observing the meeting Jindy decided that SACRE was not something she wanted to participate in at present due to members conduct.

The Governor Services Adviser recommended that the SACRE Constitution be reviewed as it was very restrictive. The Chairman supported this and stated that Poole SACRE was very constrained by the Council and that no other SACRE was as restricted by its Local Authority. The Clerk advised that the Constitution should be reviewed at the first meeting of the Municipal Year and therefore would be an item on the next Agenda.
 

The Chairman informed the Meeting that there had been a number of acts of commemoration across Bournemouth and Poole for the Holocaust Memorial Day.

On 26 January 2017 approximately 340 students from four different schools listened to a ‘hidden child’ of the war speak about his experiences at Corfe Hills School. There had been an event at Bournemouth Borough Council on 27 January 2017 and on 29 January 2017 approximately 400 adults attended the Life Centre at Moordown.

The Chairman stressed that it was important to let schools know that there were survivors willing to talk about the Holocaust and that they do this without charge.
 

The Governor Services Adviser informed the Meeting that a delegated fund had been agreed for the Financial Year 2017/18. The Governor Services Adviser was investigating how to provide for 2018/19 and how to provide for non statutory matters.

The Governor Services Adviser explained that Poole SACRE was looking to share its budget with Bournemouth SACRE and it was questioned how Bournemouth SACRE fulfilled its statutory duties without a budget?

The Chairman advised that she would meet with the Governor Services Adviser outside of the Meeting to discuss this.
 

The Religious Education (RE) Consultant provided an update from the most recent Primary Network Meeting, which took place on 9 February 2017.

The primary Network Meeting had discussed the following matters:-

• Withdrawal from RE
• The ‘Understanding Christianity’ resource
• Discovery RE - version 3
• NATRE Survey of Primary Schools
• The new agreed syllabus - early stages since the launch
• Discovery RE version 3
• The ‘Crossing the Bridges’ project
• Collective Worship

The Teacher Representative commented that she was experiencing an ongoing situation with a Jehovah’s Witness parent withdrawing their child from RE. In Reception Year the majority of learning was ‘child initiated’ and often the child would choose to participate in activities that the parents wished them to avoid. Removing the child from this would mean moving them from most of the curriculum. Meeting with the parents had not resolved the issue and therefore it was being brought to SACRE’s attention for advice and support.
 

“To deal with applications from Headteachers of Poole Schools for total or partial exemption from providing Christian worship.”

The Chairman noted that SACRE had not received any formal requests for ‘determinations’, however, the Chairman wished to know how many pupils were withdrawn from RE in Poole Schools?

A discussion ensued and the following points were raised:-

• Parents had the right to withdraw their children from RE and collective worship in schools.
• Some Muslim families were now withdrawing from Church visits when they had previously attended.

A SACRE member suggested inviting the parents who withdrew their children from RE to come and observe a class. The Teacher Representative explained that this would not work as the parent would need to be DBS checked as safeguarding was a current priority.

The RE Consultant advised that he would contact NASACRE with advice on how to proceed with this issue.

The Chairman advised that she would write to all Poole schools to find out how many pupils were currently being withdrawn from RE. The Governor Services Adviser recommended writing to the Poole Schools Association first to seek advice on the best way to do this to ensure a good response from Poole Schools.

The Church of England Representative asked for advice and guidance on collective worship in order that SACRE could provide better support for teachers. He explained that the London Borough of Bromley had issued guidance for non church schools entitled ‘Reflective Pools’.

The Meeting discussed forming a Working Party to look into how better advice and guidance could be given with regard to collective worship and determinations. The Chairman, the Teacher Representative, Cheryl Smith and the Humanist Co-opted Member advised that they would like to participate in the Working Group. John Kingston advised that he was substituting for Sally Hawksworth, the Humanist co-opted representative, and that he would ask her if she would like to be involved.
 

The Religious Education (RE) Consultant advised that he had attended and run a workshop at the tenth South West SACREs conference at ‘Dillington House’. The ‘Dillington House Conference Notes’ were then circulated to all present.

The Meeting was informed that a variety of workshops had taken place and the conference had discussed whether or not SACREs were still ‘fit for purpose’.

The Meeting discussed the ‘Crossing the Bridges’ initiative and how it could be brought to Bournemouth and Poole?

Rev’d Nigel Ford advised that he could arrange for Poole Schools to observe a baptism. It was highlighted that if children were to be welcomed into a place of worship then it was important to make the experience ‘human’ for them.
 

The Religious Education (RE) Consultant circulated the Poole GCSE results for Summer 2016.
The following points were noted:-

• The results for St Aldhelm’s Academy were very good, with 71 out of 81 pupils being entered for their GCSE examinations.
• Concern was expressed following the performance of one Poole School.
• SACRE needed to monitor the quality of RE teaching at Poole Schools and the GCSE examination results.

It was noted that in future, the Annual Report for SACRE could contain up-to-date GCSE results, however, the results would have to be labelled as ‘unvalidated’. The other option would be to send the Annual SACRE Report to NASACRE later in the year.
 

The Clerk advised that the Council was waiting to hear from the Secretary of State regarding local government reorganisation in Dorset. If the local government reorganisation went ahead there would be one SACRE for Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch. In the mean time Julian Osgathorpe, Joint Director of Corporate Services was overseeing the proposal for shared corporate services between Bournemouth and Poole.

The Chairman advised that she would still like Bournemouth and Poole SACRE to hold joint meetings in the future.
 

The next Meeting was scheduled to take place on Tuesday 4th July 2017; however, a number of SACRE Members advised that they could not attend on this date.

The Meeting asked that the date of the next Meeting be moved to Thursday 22nd June 2017 at 4:00pm.

The Chairman asked to revisit item SAC37.17 'Appointment of SACRE Representatives’ and asked Members to vote on whether or not to appoint Cheryl Smith as a Teacher Representative?

The Clerk reminded SACRE members that this decision would need to be ratified at the next quorate meeting and that Cheryl would not be a member of SACRE until such time.

RECOMMENDED that Cheryl Smith be appointed to SACRE as a Teacher Representative (primary phase) (to be ratified at the next quorate meeting).