Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed the SACRE to Winchelsea School and recorded her thanks to the Headteacher of the school and to SACRE member Vince Saunders for their hospitality in hosting the meeting.

Notification was also received of the appointment, following the recent BCP Council election in May, of three new Councillor representatives on the SACRE namely Councillors Richard Burton, Mike Cox and Marion Le Poidevin.

The Chair welcomed Councillor Burton to his first meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Georgie Pinder and Julia Coleman who were both involved in an OFSTED inspection elsewhere in the BCP Council area.

Apologies were also received from Bharati Joshi, Dave Pegg, Jane Kelly, Rob Lawton, Deneen Kenchington, Karen Barker, Maaria Kanamia, Councillor Mike Cox and Councillor Marion LePoidevin.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Minutes of the meeting on 08 March 2023 were confirmed as a correct record.

To explain the approach adopted to teaching RE within the special school setting, Vince Saunders delivered a presentation describing the five key elements of a lesson plan and the unique multi-sensory approach adopted in contrast to the more traditional printed material and worksheet style that would not be appropriate in the particular setting. He described a three-dimensional approach avoiding any complex jargon and based on practical hands-on experience and exposure to the teaching objectives. In the particular example, the learning around the ‘places of worship’ theme had been followed with a visit to a local church to re-enforce the sensory essence of the teaching.

There was a view that the style could potentially be adapted for use in all schools and, whilst clearly essential to special needs teaching, there was the opportunity for the approach to be set out and included as a resource for schools. This would also support the objective to expand provision generally within the Agreed Syllabus for teaching of RE in Special Schools. The importance of including appropriately adapted assessment measures was underlined.

A new RE inspection framework had been issued and would be described further and discussed at the next meeting of the SACRE. In the meantime, an analysis of the results of OFSTED inspection was being put together for future presentation.

The BCP SACRE action plan for the period 2022-2023, updated as at June 2023, was noted and agreed.

The next Newsletter would be issued at the beginning of the new term in September 2023 and would be collated during the Summer and any contributions were invited.

An update on an RE teachers and leaders conference for the next academic year would be provided at the next meeting. There was also aspiration that funding would be available for the provision of additional training for ‘RE hub’ leads.

The Chair of the SACRE advised colleagues that by strict interpretation of the SACRE operating arrangements this would be her last academic year in the Chair. She had, however, agreed that she would take the Chair for one additional academic year (academic year 2023/24 commencing in September 2023). The SACRE welcomed this offer and agreed to the proposal.

Following normal practice, the Vice-Chair would then take over from her as Chair from the beginning of academic year commencing in September 2024. There was currently no Vice-Chair in place and it would therefore be necessary for each of the SACRE component Committees (‘Committee A’ – Christian denominations, other than Church of England, and other religious denominations and world views; ‘Committee B’ – Church of England; ‘Committee C’ – Teachers; and ‘Committee D’ – Local Authority) to meet separately before the next meeting in October to appoint a Chair in each case with a view to one of these Chairs becoming Vice-Chair of the main SACRE from September 2023.

As the current SACRE Chair is a member of ‘Committee A’, it would be appropriate that the SACRE Vice-Chair, and future SACRE Chair, be the appointed Chair of the Teachers Committee (‘Committee C’).

It was noted that the new ‘agreed syllabus’ had been purchased by Dorset Council subject to appropriate re-branding. It was noted that another Local Authority were similarly interested.

In the BCP Council area the syllabus had been launched in January and early feedback from users continued to be complementary. The importance of continued feedback from teachers was underlined.

The SACRE received an update of activity and there was appreciation of the huge amount of work that was currently going on.

Another BCP area centred teacher was being sought to take on a role of Hub lead and approaches were being made and could include teachers from Primary or Secondary and not necessarily from Church Schools.

All three regional SACREs had now approved the ‘Learn Teach Lead’ approach and it was hoped that the Working Group in place to formulate operational arrangements would shortly be able to meet.

The ‘Flourishing in Trusts’ programme was continuing to address raising of the standards and profile of RE teaching across academy schools.

The provision of targeted training for people visiting schools remained an important priority.

The Chair reported that the Jewish Museum was physically closing but that important resources and materials would continue to be available on an on-line basis. Holocaust Memorial Day would be on 27^th January 2024 with an event at Poole Lighthouse on Sunday 28 January. The annual Holocaust Memorial Day event for students would also be taking place at a date and venue to be confirmed.

The following meeting dates have been agreed for the BCP SACRE in the 2023/24 academic year with meetings normally scheduled to commence at 4pm. (Format and venue to be decided) :

18 October 2023 (Autumn Term);

13 March 2024 (Spring Term); and

19 June 2024 (Summer Term).

The following meeting dates were confirmed for the next academic year :18 October 2023 (Autumn Term), 13 March 2024 (Spring Term) and 19 June 2024 (Summer Term).

It was agreed that the meeting on 18 October 2023 would be a virtual format meeting preceded by the separate meetings of the SACRE component Committees.

The view of the SACRE was that virtual meetings were the most effective way of maximizing attendance and maintaining the good record of attendance that was currently being achieved.

The SCARE recorded its congratulations to former Vice-Chairman, Cheryl Smith, on her recent appointment to a Headship.