Agenda and minutes

71.1   The Chairman welcomed Paul Wagstaff, Director Education and Skills who was standing in for Victoria Ludlow.

Members and officers must declare any pecuniary or personal interest in any business on the agenda. They should also make declarations at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting. Consideration should be given to leaving the meeting if the nature of the interest warrants it. If in doubt, contact Democratic Services before the meeting.

72.1   No recordable interests were declared.

Members to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 25 February as a correct record.

73.1   The following changes were agreed:

·        In the list of those present change Mrs Barker to Miss Barker

·        Minute 83 – change ‘was’ to ‘is’

73.2   Resolved – that the minutes of the 25 February 2019 meeting, with the amendments above, are agreed and that they be signed by the Chairman.

SACRE is asked to note the appointment of Kirsty Lord to SACRE in place of Bob Smytherman and to agree that Mrs Grace Waker, Head of Religious Education, Steyning Grammar School, be co-opted to SACRE.

74.1   SACRE noted the appointment of Kirsty Lord to SACRE in place of Bob Smytherman and agreed that Mrs Grace Waker, Head of Religious Education, Steyning Grammar School, be co-opted to SACRE.

An update on progress made on issues raised at previous meetings will be given.

SACRE is asked to note the update.

75.1   The following actions/updates were recorded:

Actions from the last meeting

·        Victoria Ludlow to check whether the three schools were inspected by the same lead inspector – to be reported at the next meeting

·        The number of secondary schools with sixth forms that submitted students for A level RE to be included in future reports on examination results

·        The Local Authority did not have a budget to support the Youth Voice Conference

·        Chichester University would provide lunch for the teachers and speakers at the Youth Voice Conference – students would be asked to bring a packed lunch

Updates

Mr Smith gave the following update on the Youth Voice Conference:

·        114 students from 11 schools would be taking part with each choosing to attend three out of ten workshops

·        Workshops would be run by religious and non-religious groups, three SACRE members and the student steering group

·        Students would complete evaluation forms of the event and feedback to their individual schools. Students had also fed back to SACRE at a meeting in the past – this might be possible in November

·        The number of participants was nearly double that of last year

·        The location of the Conference (Bognor Regis) tended to influence which schools were able to attend

·        Attempts had been made to find a venue in the north of the county -
Action: Mrs Jones to send Mr Smith contact details for King’s Church, Burgess Hill, which she thought would be a suitable venue

·        Mr Smith had contacted the Shipham Trust to see if it could help with funding the event, but had not received a response –
Action: Mr Simmons to contact the Shipham Trust to see if it could help with funding future conferences

75.2   Resolved – that SACRE notes the updates.

Report by the Director of Education and Skills.

The report covers spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and collective worship from inspections between January 2019 and May 2019.

SACRE is asked to note the report.

76.1   SACRE considered a report by the Director of Education and Skills (copy appended to the signed minutes) which was introduced by the Director of Education and Skills who highlighted the section on the changes to the inspection framework that would take place from September.

76.2   The following points were covered in discussion:

·        The judgement reported was for schools overall, so a school’s performance in RE could be better or worse than its judgement

·        From September, inspections would focus on the curriculum and the quality of education and how subjects are taught

·        Schools must show the intent of their curriculum, how it is implemented, assessed and its impact on attainment to widen the importance of all subjects

·        Schools would have to look at how schemes of work dovetailed together and how skills interacted with knowledge and were built on year on year

·        There was likely to be more emphasis on SMSC in future

·        Most schools already offered a broad curriculum

·        The new framework might lead to a change in subject progression to strengthen skills across a broad range of subjects

·        All schools had budgets for training and used them how they wished with help from the local authority – training was also available via the Virtual School

76.3   Resolved – that SACRE notes the report.

SACRE is asked to agree the recommendations of the Working Group and, assuming the recommendation to hold an Agreed Syllabus Conference is accepted, to discuss arrangements for the conference.

77.1   Jacky Pendleton, Chairman of the Working Group told SACRE that the Group felt that only minor changes were required, especially as more direction was expected on a national level.

77.2   The following points were covered in discussion:

·        Communications with RE leads would need to be two way

·        A network of RE leads would be useful – the unions could help set this up

·        Staff would need support during implementation of a new syllabus

·        There was a big difference between the way RE is taught in schools compared to in universities – the syllabus should give direction about how RE is taught

·        RE was ‘getting lost’ in PSHE – the syllabus needed to provide clear purpose and aims

·        SACRE wondered if West Sussex could base its Agreed Syllabus on those used by other authorities or buy the one produced by RE Today

·        SACRE raised concerns over the lack of specialist RE leads to teach the subject and the lack of a budget for SACRE.
Action: Anne Barker offered to raise the issue of the lack of RE specialist leads and a budget for SACRE with the Schools’ Forum. Dave Simmons offered to raise the issues at the Education Round-up of the Cabinet Member for Education & Skills. Jacky Pendleton suggested that the county councillors on SACRE should raise these issues with the Director of Education & Skills

76.3   Resolved – that SACRE is keen to support the Working Group’s recommendations, but currently does not feel that resourcing in staffing and funding are in place for an Agreed Syllabus Conference to take place to review the Agreed Syllabus.

Future meeting dates are: 18 November 2019 and 2 March 2020.

78.1   The following meeting dates were noted.

10.30 am, 18 November 2019

10.30 am, 2 March 2020