Agenda item

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

Members of SACRE were asked to consider proposed further guidance to schools regarding visits to places of worship, or trips which include visits to places with religious significance. 

Some schools had experienced a reluctance from a few parents to allow their children to take part in visits to places of worship.  Reasons given had included finance, safety issues or a political agenda.  The guidance aimed to support head teachers and RE subject leaders in the planning and implementation of visits, trying to pre-empt any parental concerns. Because visits to sacred spaces were an invaluable learning opportunity it was important to ensure the experience was positive for all involved.  Visits to places of worship required careful planning and consideration of teaching methodology in order to maximise the learning potential and to avoid any parental concerns.  Teachers should establish stable relationships with appropriate places of worship, ensuring that pre-visits were made and risk assessments carried out.   Visits to sacred spaces were believed to bring the Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education to life, and underpin the role of RE in helping to prepare and equip pupils for life and citizenship in today’s diverse and plural Britain.  The purpose of all visits was educational, not to evangelise or proselytise so a visit should not compromise a pupil’s own religious or non-religious beliefs. 

Members considered a number of suggestions for preparing pupils for a visit so that they would be comfortable with any differences they saw.  They also considered a Code of Conduct for any member of a belief community who supported Staffordshire Schools with their RE.  This was adapted from the National Association of Teachers of RE in their guidance document “Religious Believers Visiting Schools”.  The guidance also covered: the need for a clear rationale about visits; ways of preventing a problem from arising; preparation in school before the visit; helpful questions to pose during the visit; and follow-up activities afterwards.  There was also a sample letter to parents, which had been adapted from guidance produced by Surrey SACRE, which set out the details of the visit and offered practical advice and reassurance.

Every school was required to have an Educational Visits Co-ordinator to comply with safeguarding demands.  As Local Authorities were focused on health and safety as well as safeguarding, it was likely that as schools implemented more stringent requirements they would become more demanding about the health and safety and safeguarding expectations of the places they wished to visit.  It would be useful to suggest that schools ask faith leaders whose venues they wished to visit for sight of their health and safety policies and risk assessments.

It was suggested that once the guidance had been approved SACRE may wish to share the information with Stafford Friends of Faith for dissemination, to ensure that the local places of worship hosting visits from schools have some advice to raise awareness as to how schools would need help to plan their visits, and the questions they may be asking in advance. Members commented that the guidance was a helpful and constructive document which they believed schools would welcome.

RESOLVED – That the proposed further guidance on visits to places of worship, or trips which include visits to places with religious significance, be approved.