Agenda and minutes

54.1   The Vice-Chairman welcomed Mrs Mullett as a new teacher representative.

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.

55.1   Mr Smytherman declared a personal interest in respect of Item 7 (Inspection Results for West Sussex Schools) as a Foundation Governor of

St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, Worthing (Bosco Catholic Education Trust).

55.2   Major Warner declared a personal interest in respect of Item 7 (Inspection Results for West Sussex Schools) as he has a family member who works at the Georgian Gardens Primary School.

Members to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 11 June as a correct record.

56.1.  SACRE agreed to add the word ‘largely’ to minute 50.2, bullet point two between ‘were’ and ‘compulsory’.

56.2   Resolved – that the minutes of the 11 June 2018 meeting, with the amendment above, are agreed and that they be signed by the Chairman.

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

SACRE is asked to note the update.

57.1   The following actions/updates were recorded:

·        Exam result data was not available for this meeting, but would be added to the agenda for the next meeting

·        All schools to be sent letters congratulating them on their results in RE – Action: Victoria Ludlow to draft a letter to be sent from the Chairman.

57.2   Resolved – that SACRE notes the update.

Rev Chrissie Millwood to update SACRE on the recent survey of specialist teachers.

58.1   SACRE discussed the results of a survey of specialist teachers carried out by Rev Chrissie Millwood and raised the following concerns: -

·        The view expressed by one respondent that the GCSE exam route taught by Catholic schools was very dry for KS4 students – this could be due to the way the subject was taught and was only one comment reflecting the view of one individual

·        The amount of time the 46.15% of students that opted not to take RE exams spent on RE – this is a national issue and some schools deliver aspects of RE in cross curricular ways, e.g. through aspects of PSHE

·        The need for specialist teachers only

·        The challenge of delivering the GCSE syllabus in relevant and engaging ways’

·        That a number of students were withdrawn from RE to receive curriculum support for numeracy or literacy

·        That a number of schools were not meeting the legal obligation to teach RE and that this did not appear to be pickedup by OFSTED, which inferred that the importance of RE was under-estimated – the local authority was not able to enforce the law, but SACRE could send a letter reminding Headteachers and governors of the obligation to teach RE (Action: Victoria Ludlow to arrange for a letter to be drafted on behalf of the Chairman) – schools might have to improve on areas that were the focus of OFSTED inspections and were under pressure to be well placed in league tables

·        Best Practice – Action: The Chairman to contact his equivalent in East Sussex regarding the current position with regard to the previously-established networking meetings of SACRE Chairmen across the South-East, which had previously helped him to see if there were any examples of best practice that West Sussex could learn from

·        SACRE thanked Rev Millwood for producing and analysing the survey.

58.2   Resolved – that the Chairman writes to all Headteachers of West Sussex schools (copying in Chairs of Governors) reminding them of their legal obligation to teach RE and asking, if RE was not taught, for the reasons, and what support they needed to teach RE and whether they thought a full review of the Agreed Syllabus was required.

The West Sussex Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education was last published in 2015 and is due to be reviewed in 2020.

SACRE to agree: -

     i.        whether the syllabus is largely fit for purpose and will only require a light review in 2020 or

    ii.        whether a working group needs to be established to carry out a thorough review by 2020

59.1   SACRE discussed possible ways of approaching the review of the Agreed Syllabus.

59.2   Resolved – that a Working Group consisting of Mr Firoozmand (Committee A), Mrs Smith (Committee B), Mrs Macrae (Committee C) and Mrs Pendleton (Committee D) should meet before the next scheduled meeting of SACRE to decide how thorough a review of the Agreed Syllabus was needed.

Report by the Director of Education and Skills.

The report covers spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and collective worship from inspections between April 2018 and October 2018.

SACRE is asked to note the report.

60.1   SACRE considered a report by the Director of Education and Skills (copy appended to the signed minutes).

60.2   The following points were covered in discussion:

·        Best practice was shared informally by schools, via the Schools’ Network and by the local authority which had previously tried to develop a database of best practice, but this had proved difficult to maintain and to get quality assurance

·        The practice of having junior governors existed across the county

·        It would be useful to have each school’s location and OFSTED judgment stated in future reports – Action: Victoria Ludlow to ensure this happens.

60.3   Resolved – that SACRE notes the report.

Verbal update from Angela Smith.

61.1   Mrs Smith gave the following update:

·        Seven schools took part in the 2018 event which had nine workshops under the theme of ‘Is there any place in the modern world for religion?’

·        82 evaluation forms were returned, all rating the event as good or outstanding

·        Chichester University had offered to host the 2019 event on 25 June with the theme ‘Does religion have a future?’

·        A venue in the north of the county was being sought for an autumn event

·        A steering group is being formed for the 2019 event

·        The event would be free for students and travel expenses would be offered to speakers as before.

61.2   On behalf of SACRE, the Chairman thanked Mrs Smith and the steering group for the excellent 2018 event.

Future meeting date is 25 February 2019.

62.1   It was noted that the next meeting would be held at 10.30 am on 25 February 2019.