Agenda item

Report of the Director for Children and Families

Advisor

It was highlighted that the current tenure of the RE advisor to SACRE was ending on the 31 March 23. At this stage it was unclear if the contract was to continue. Given the additional work that was required to support the launch of the new Agreed Syllabus for RE Councillor Snape offered to contact the relevant Cabinet Member and Senior Officer on behalf of the SACRE to ask for some clarity on the commission.

Continuous Professional Development

SACRE heard that Entrust commissioned the SACRE advisor to run a face-to-face autumn course which took place on 22 November 2022 and was attended by 20 schools. The course concentrated on a summary of the forthcoming revisions to the Agreed Syllabus and resources and ideas for effective RE. More courses were to be planned once the Agreed Syllabus was launched.

Governors received an update on RE in Staffordshire via the Spring 2023 Governor Information Pack. This included the status of the Agreed Syllabus and the process for the review. This information reached 300 plus schools and over 200 leaders, including governance professionals from a variety of schools - both maintained and academy.

The SACRE Advisor attended virtual meetings of the West Midlands Association of Religious Education Inspectors and Advisors and Consultants (AREIAC) and a local National association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE) online meeting. The next meetings were due to take place on the 6 and 14 March 2023.

The SACRE Advisor attended a Church of England (CofE) conference on 27 January 2023, this was the 5^th CofE National conference. The title of the conference was Flourishing Together. The keynote speakers included Rt Hon Gillian Keegan - the Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon The Lord Boateng, Dame Rachel de Souza - the Children’s Commissioner for England and the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell. There were also a variety of workshops from serving teachers as well as recognised leading educational speakers. The overall message for delegates was that in order for young people to flourish in modern Britain they needed an education that championed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, alongside high quality Religious Education/Studies. The conference confirmed that the outcomes that SACRE had strived to achieve through the delivery of the revised Agreed Syllabus championed all of the above.

Westhill Legacy project- Explore, Engage, Reflect (EER) in conjunction with Youth Net. Autumn Term 2022 report.

Members were reminded that SACRE had funded the Westhill Legacy projects from the 2022-2023 budget through commissioning the Entrust Minority Ethnic Achievement Service (MEAS) to deliver workshops in conjunction with YouthNet. There was an initial delay in the release of money from the SACRE budget, but this had been rectified and two dates, one in February at Springhead Primary at Talke Pits and another in March 23 at Ravensmead Primary at Bignall End had been arranged. Confirmation is expected of a date to support Baldwins Gate CE VC Primary school. Seven additional schools in the Newcastle area had been contacted and responses were still expected.

Workforce data

SACRE was reminded that, as part of the census for November 2021, Schools were expected to report the number of hours spent teaching each subject to the DfE.

It was noted that many schools in Staffordshire recorded that they did not allocate any time to teaching RE or RS. 

The Schools were contacted, and in some cases visited, by the SACRE Advisor. It transpired that the issue was not always with the teaching of RE/RS, but with the completion of the census forms. It was noted that, in some cases, the census return was not a true account of the number of hours being allocated to the teaching of RE/RS. The SACRE Advisor would continue to work on this project as time and resources allowed. It was anticipated that the next census return would show an improved figure.

Freedom of Information Request

SACRE were informed that a Freedom of Information (FOI) request was received from NASACRE on 10 January 2023. This focussed on SACRE funding and requested specific details relating to the level of funding received, where the funding had been allocated from and where the funding had been spent. There were also some questions relating to membership, the number of meetings that had been held and how many of the meetings were quorate. The response was collated and returned to NASACRE on the 12 January 2023.

RE Quality Mark application - St Luke’s Primary School Cannock

SACRE were informed that St Luke’s Primary School in Cannock were in the final stages of submitting an application for the RE quality mark. The RE lead was working through the requirements of collecting evidence for the assessment.

Resolved: a. That the report and updates be noted.

b. That it be noted that Councillor Snape would contact the relevant Cabinet Member and Senior Officer on behalf of the SACRE to ask for some clarity on the commission of the RE Advisor.