Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Executive and Director for Families and Communities

At their last meeting members were informed that Staffordshire SACRE had been awarded £2,725 by Westhill/NASACRE to complete the proposed Explore-Engage-Reflect project, which would take place on 22 November 2017.  It was now nearing capacity with 89 delegates from 18 schools attending.  Schools included primary, middle and secondary phase settings.

The rationale behind the project was that it was intended to embed the new Staffordshire Agreed Syllabus in RE.  The Syllabus affirmed that the role of RE was to foster in each pupil a growing level of religious literacy, through three complementary aims, encapsulated as Exploring, Engaging and Reflecting.  The first two of these corresponded to the standard themes of “learning about” and “learning from” religion.  The third aim was innovatory and radical, it called for pupils to “acquire a growing range of the social, spiritual and emotional skills and dispositions appropriate to living well in a religiously plural and open society, by reflecting on the reality of religious diversity and on the issues raised by living in a diverse world”.  SACRE was seeking to support and empower schools to fulfil the requirements of the third aim through the creation of a face to faith experience entitled “Explore – Engage – Reflect.”  It would have a Christian and Muslim focus and would be led by adherents to the faiths who were skilled in the field of education.  It would take the form of a morning encounter with Christianity and an afternoon encounter with Islam (or vice-versa).  It would be designed to be fully interactive with pupils exploring artefacts, images and text; engaging with key questions relevant to the faiths in question; and reflecting on what it means to live your faith within England through a real opportunity for dialogue.  The Youth Net would be commissioned to deliver the Christian based content.  This was a Stafford based Christian charity whose leader, Sam Phillips, was a member of SACRE.  Waheeda Qureshi, a member of the Linguistic and Cultural Mediator team at Entrust, and Mohammed Fahim (former team member and now independent) would be commissioned to deliver the Muslim content.  Emma Jardine-Phillips, Education Consultant, County RE Adviser and Advanced Skills Teacher in RE would be commissioned to oversee the project and report developments to NASACRE/Westhill.

In considering this matter there was wider debate around how the work of SACRE was promoted and awareness raised of its existence.  The response was that this was not done in an active and effective way, although schools should be aware of it, as it was education and schools focused.  Its role was to fulfil statutory functions under the auspices of the County Council.  However it was acknowledged that when schools transferred over to academy status they would not have to follow the Agreed Syllabus, and there was no right of access or means of holding them to account.  It was agreed that it would be helpful to reinvigorate the website and include pictures and pen portraits of members. 

RESOLVED – That the progress on the Explore – Engage – Reflect project be noted.