Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education Minutes of Meeting 30 th September 2013 6.00-9.00pm Services for Education, Warwick House, 10 Edward Street, Birmingham, B1 2RX Representative Committees met prior to the meeting to discuss Determinations, Co-options, Letter to Mr Gove regarding Collective Worship, and other agenda items as appropriate. ACTION 1 Welcome and Chair s Business Cllr Barry Henley (Chair) welcomed SACRE members to the meeting. Members were reminded that following the outcome of the review of the SACRE constitution during the summer term representatives of a number of the religions and denominations formerly represented on Committee A now cease to hold full membership of SACRE. During committee meetings members were asked to consider a number of groups for co-option on SACRE including Progressive Judaism, Welsh Presbyterian, Ahmaddiyya Muslim Association, British Humanist Association, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, Baha i Community, Jain Community and Rastafari Community. Results from committee votes were as follows: Committee A voted against co-option of any of the groups Committee D voted in favour of co-option of all groups Committee B & C voted in favour of co-option for Progressive Judaism, Baha i Community, Jain Community and Rastafari Community. Following committee votes it was agreed that representatives of the following religions and denominations be co-opted for SACRE membership for the academic year 2013/2014 Progressive Judaism, Baha i Community, Jain Community and Rastafari Community. These groups to be advised of the decision made and asked to provide contact details for their nominated representative(s) accordingly. BH to action On behalf of SACRE Cllr Barry Henley expressed a vote of thanks to Chris Tanquee for her support of SACRE over the last 10 years. He wished Chris all the best on her retirement from teaching in Birmingham and thanked her for the valuable contribution she has made to SACRE as one of the Union representatives on behalf of ATL. 1
2 Apologies Apologies received and accepted (see attached list). 3.1 Minutes of Meeting 19 th June 2013 Minutes of the 19 th June SACRE meeting were checked for accuracy and approved as a true record of the meeting. 3.2 Matters Arising from the SACRE Meeting 19 th June Response to REC Review on behalf of Birmingham SACRE Guy Hordern advised members that no additional comments were received after the last meeting to be included as part of the Birmingham response to the REC in which concerns were raised about a strong emphasis on non-religious world views. Circulation of NASACRE Leaflets Simone Whitehouse confirmed that all Birmingham Academies and Free Schools were e-mailed the NASACRE leaflet back in June reminding them of their responsibilities to provide RE. Letters to Nominating Bodies Simone Whitehouse confirmed that representative details are still outstanding from 4 or 5 nominating bodies these to be chased again. SW to action Letters to Schools regarding Ofsted Inspection Reports and comments on RE provision, SMSC, and/or Collective Worship Simone Whitehouse advised members that letters sent to schools as agreed with a number of Headteachers responding to express their thanks accordingly. Determinations Simone Whitehouse confirmed schools have received letters advising them that their Determination applications were agreed at the last meeting. Annual Report Nasim Awan asked for an update regarding the Annual Report that was still outstanding. Cllr Barry Henley advised that this should be available for review at the next meeting in December. BH & SW Finance Update Cllr Barry Henley advised members there still hasn t been any clarification from the City Council regarding the budget for 2013/2014. In the absence of any further details, and with the support of the Finance Committee, expenditure continues to be closely monitored and spend authorised as appropriate 2
to enable the work of SACRE to continue with as little disruption as possible. RE at Learning and Assessment Service Simone Whitehouse referred to a couple of examples from the Summer Term 2013 to illustrate the different requests for information, advice, or support that have been received. These include contact with Parkview Academy regarding their determination renewal and a meeting with Guy Hordern and Jill Rowe from the Oasis Academy chain. A summary of comments from Ofsted Inspection reports during the Summer Term regarding SMSC in schools, the teaching of RE, and the quality of Collective Worship was included for members as part of the meeting packs. Attention was drawn to a couple of examples including Colmers School (April 2013), Small Heath School (May 2013), Bordersley Green Primary School (May 2013), Nishkam Primary School (June 2013) and Topcliffe Primary School (June 2013). SW to send letters to school accordingly 5 Determinations No applications received for review at this meeting. Cllr Barry Henley asked for comments about the draft letter to Michael Gove concerning Determinations for Collective Worship that was circulated for discussion during committee meetings. Suggestions included: 1) reinforcing the strength of opinion from Birmingham SACRE through the use of should always approach instead of may approach 2) we think could be replaced with believe it would be beneficial 3) sending a copy of Birmingham SACREs Determination form with the letter, as well as one of the Inspiring Collective Worship leaflets 4) welcoming a response to the letter 3
6 Reports from Working Parties Collective Worship Sue Fearon A series of three twilight training sessions on Collective Worship are scheduled to take place, the first of which will be on the 21 st November at Baverstock Academy. Copies of the framework that the Collective Worship group are using to record faith specific examples of theistic statements from the dispositions were circulated to members for their contributions. While a selection of statements drawing on Christian, Islamic and Buddhist perspectives have already been produced the group are keen to collate together as many different faith perspectives as possible. These to be handed to Jill Stolberg or e-mailed to Simone Whitehouse so they can be used as part of the Collective Worship twilight sessions. Curriculum - Simone Whitehouse/Marius Felderhof SW - Work reviewing and updating schemes of work to ensure progress takes place between Key Stages is still ongoing. Ideally the group are keen to increase the number of people in the working party and would welcome any new members interested in being involved with this work. MF - Still interest from the University of Birmingham about involvement with an evaluation of the syllabus, in particular the impact on Birmingham schools. This needs to be explored further so as to ensure any evaluative study is based on a large enough sample group for findings to be considered valid. IT Purple Mash Update Simone Whitehouse Although there was no Purple Mash update available due to Rabbi s Arkush s absence, SW was able to provide a summary of data analysis from the Faith Makes a Difference website covering the period 1 st May through to 20 th September. - 2849 visits made to the website during this period with an average of 19 visitors a day; some days this has been as much as 70/80 visitors a day. - 58.6% of visitors are new to the site, 41.4% are return visitors - 26% of visitors only visited the front page - 23,615 page views have been accessed with the average user staying on the site for just under 5 minutes this is regarded as high - 27.3% of users are accessing the site via the Birmingham Grid for Learning, around 50% are from the Midlands, and an increasing amount of interest has been coming from the Manchester area 4
- 8.5% of users are accessing the site on their iphones - 90& of users are based in the UK, 4% in the US - Just over 300 lessons have been sold via Paypal in this period. This is in addition to any free lessons that have been downloaded from Birmingham schools but which unfortunately we don t have the means to calculate Marius Felderhof expressed concern about the possible implications on sales of syllabus resources of the framework lesson plans for RE that are expected to be mentioned in the RE Review document that is due to be published in October. In preparation for this Sue Fearon suggested SACRE consider writing to Birmingham schools to remind them of the local Agreed Syllabus and their responsibilities to provide RE and Collective Worship. Likewise similar information about the Birmingham syllabus, website and resources could be sent to other local SACREs in case they might be interested in adopting the use of these, especially those areas with similar demographic populations to Birmingham. Simone Whitehouse and Cllr Barry Henley offered to explore this further once the RE Council Review/Syllabus details have been published. BH & SW to explore possibilities Finance Cllr Barry Henley. Update provided earlier in the meeting see section 3.2: Matters Arising from the SACRE meeting - 19 th June 2013. No further updates about marketing to report at this stage. 9 Any Other Business Simone Whitehouse to follow up with those nominating bodies where representative details are still outstanding. SW to also circulate brief details about working parties to all members along with an invitation to join any of these. SW to circulate lists of working parties & existing members to all SACRE members Together for the Common Good Liverpool Conference Guy Hordern Guy informed members that he had been invited to give a presentation at the conference back in early September about the Birmingham Agreed Syllabus as an example of inter-faith co-operation. Inter-Faith Week Guy Hordern Information about anticipated events for Inter-Faith week circulated to all members for reference, some of which have grown out of work on the Agreed Syllabus and includes the launch of the Birmingham Faith Map. Andrew Smith added 5
that the theme for November onwards is Peace and Reconciliation in support of commemorations to mark the 100 th year anniversary since WW1. Library Project Marius Felderhof Work on programmes for the touch tables is underway but has proved more challenging than initially anticipated. Depending on the success of the pilot phase Saltley Trust have offered the possibility that they may be able to provide some funding for the project. Near Neighbours Photography Project Andrew Smith Andrew reminded members about this years Photography Project focused on the 3 themes of faith, friendship and community. The closing date for entries is the 1 st November and submissions will be displayed in Birmingham Cathedral. More information is available via: www.faithfulneighbourhoods.org.uk Dates for future 2013/2014 Meetings Thursday 5 th December 2013-1.00pm-4.00pm Monday 10 th February 2014-1.00pm-4.00pm Wednesday 18 th June 2014-6.00pm-9.00pm Venue details to be confirmed and circulated to SACRE members in due course. SW to circulate 6
Attendance SACRE Meeting 30 th September 2013 Organisation Name Surname Heart of England Baptist Association Sior Coleman Apologies West Midlands Buddhist Council Tony Lister Present Council of Black Led Churches - - - Duke Street Chapel Janet Hopton Present Churches Associated with the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches Sue Fearon Present Hindu Community Ravi Ladva - Representative Council of Birmingham and Midland Jewry Shmuel Arkush - Loretta Cohn Present Methodist Church District Keith Dennis Apologies Muslim Liaison Committee Zahida Hussain Present Malik Hussain Present Azkar Mohammed Present Nasim Awan Present Mohammed Hashim Present Tahir Alam Apologies Elaine Ashraf Present Greek Orthodox Church - - - Roman Catholic Church - - - Sikh Community Pritpal Kaur Riat Present United Reform Church Marius Felderhof Present ATL Ashraf Ghouse Present Andrew Hopton Present NAHT NASUWT NUT Lucretia Fields Present Samantha Dawson-Smith Apologies Netta Ford - ASCL Ronald Skelton - Voice Jane Hetherington Apologies Church of England Jill Stolberg Present Andrew Smith Present Rachel Jepson Present Patricia Williams Present Linda Isiorho Apologies Samantha Cosgrove Apologies Birmingham City Council Guy Hordern Present Councillor Gurdial Singh Atwal - Councillor Valerie Seabright Apologies Councillor Lyn Collin Apologies Councillor Barry Henley Present Councillor Jon Hunt Present Councillor Chaudhry Rashid Present Councillor Phillip Davis - RE Adviser, Learning and Assessment Service Simone Whitehouse Present Observers: Matthew Cook, John Edwards, Norman Mills, Arvinder Jain, Adrian Bailey, Loretta Cohn 7