Issue - meetings

SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) is a statutory responsibility of every Local Authority (LA) in England.

The locally Agreed Syllabus is a statutory syllabus of Religious Education (RE) prepared under Schedule 31 to the Education Act 1996 and adopted by the LA under that schedule. It must be followed in state funded schools without a designated denomination. Once adopted by the LA, the Agreed Syllabus sets out what pupils should be taught and can include the expected standards of pupils’ performance at different stages.

Every five years SACRE must convene an Agreed Syllabus Conference to review and commission a revised syllabus that reflects changing communities, curriculum, and culture of the local area.

The current Agreed Syllabus is a legacy joint Bournemouth and Poole syllabus.

BCP SACRE have commissioned and procured Jan Lever Group to review, plan, write and deliver the first BCP Agreed Syllabus which will be taught in schools from September 2023.

The syllabus will be covered by up to £20,000 and will be delivered within the agreed budget and timeline.

The Education Adviser, Quality Assurance, Support & Partnership 0-25,

 presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) was a statutory responsibility of every Local Authority (LA) in England.  The locally Agreed Syllabus was a statutory syllabus of Religious Education (RE) prepared under Schedule 31 to the Education Act 1996 and adopted by the LA under that schedule. It must be followed in state funded schools without a designated denomination. Once adopted by the LA, the Agreed Syllabus sets out what pupils should be taught and could include the expected standards of pupils’ performance at different stages.

Every five years SACRE must convene an Agreed Syllabus Conference to review and commission a revised syllabus that reflects changing communities, curriculum, and culture of the local area.  The current Agreed Syllabus was a legacy joint Bournemouth and Poole syllabus.

BCP SACRE had commissioned and procured Jan Lever Group to review, plan, write and deliver the first BCP Agreed Syllabus which would be taught in schools from September 2023.  The syllabus would be covered by up to a £20,000 budget and would be delivered within the agreed budget and timeline.

The Committee discussed the report and comments were made, including:

·      In response to a query, the Committee was advised that the syllabus was created for maintained schools to follow, and that Academies had a choice whether to use the locally agreed syllabus.  The Committee was advised it was hoped that most Academies within BCP would use elements of the syllabus for the base of their religious education

·      A Committee Member welcomed and supported the review and hoped that all schools across BCP would roll it out

• An MYP advised that she had met with one of the RE Advisors and had requested she was included in any further work as it was closely aligned to her campaign.
• A Committee Member requested information on the number of academies who had engaged with the review and were going to use the locally agreed syllabus. ACTION
• The Diocesan Representative advised the Committee that when a Church School had a SIAMS inspection it was enquired whether the school was following the locally agreed syllabus so it was in their interests to follow it.

RESOLVED that the Committee endorse the locally agreed syllabus to full Council and note that:

a)    The locally Agreed Syllabus was a statutory syllabus of RE prepared under Schedule 31 to the Education Act 1996 and adopted by the Local Authority.

b)    The BCP agreed syllabus would reflect our local communities and support the teaching of high-quality RE within our local education system.

c)    BCP SACRE had completed its functions and had commissioned and approved the review of the Agreed Syllabus.