Agenda and minutes

To welcome any new SACRE Members and receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Holt, Om Dhir and Nasir Mubashar.

Wendy Brice-Thompson agreed to take the Chair for the meeting.

Deborah Weston explained that the Council had taken a decision regarding the membership of SACRE and Councillor Ford and Councillor Nunn were no longer members of SACRE.  The Chair agreed to write to the two Councillors concerned to thank them for their input to SACRE and that they would be missed. 

ACTION:  Wendy Brice-Thompson

Luthaneal Adams arrived

To receive an update regarding representation within SACRE.

There were no substitute members in attendance.

To elect a new Chair and Vice Chair for a term of office agreed by SACRE Members.

1.1. It was noted that the term of office for the Chair and Vice Chair of SACRE was two years.

1.2. Wendy Brice-Thompson was unanimously elected as Chair of SACRE.

1.3. John Lester was unanimously elected as Vice Chair of SACRE.

To agree as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 14 July 2020 (attached) and to authorise the Chair to sign them and to address any matters arising therefrom.

1.1. The notes of the meeting held on 14 July 2020, were agreed as a true record.  It was agreed that they should be watermarked to indicate that they were approved.

1.2. Matters arising from the minutes, not included elsewhere in the agenda, were noted as follows:

1.2.1.   Resource Catalogue (minute 3.2.2 refers)

Deborah Weston reported that she had circulated the places of worship list template for Redbridge so that it could be amended to reflect Havering information but had not had any response.

1.2.2.   Membership of SACRE (minute 3.2.3 refers)

Members of SACRE were pleased to note that Rabbi Lee            Sunderland was present at the meeting.

1.2.3.   Future Art Competition (minute 3.2.6 refers)

It was agreed that a future art competition would be discussed later in the meeting.

1.2.4.   Update on School Activity (minute 4 refers)

Julia Conway-Diamond advised that this matter would be considered under item 10 on the agenda.

1.2.5.   NASACRE Conference (minute 6 refers)

It was reported that it had not been possible to access the NASACRE website to book a conference place.

1.2.6.   School website monitoring update (minute 7 refers)

It was agreed that the best way of progressing this matter would be to send the National Association of Teachers of RE website template to schools and ask them to self-evaluate the website.

To receive an update regarding the Agreed Syllabus and agree any actions required.

Deborah Weston drew members attention to the details of the Agreed Syllabus contained in the agenda pack.  It was noted that Havering had agreed to the re-writing of unit plan 2.14 but that SACRE had requested that all unit plans be re-written. 

It was noted that there was a legal requirement to start reviewing the RE syllabus within 5 years. 

The arrangements between Redbridge and Havering in terms of the agreed syllabus were outlined and it was noted that 2/3 of the funding came from Redbridge has it had more schools. 

Julia Conway-Diamond advised that the Members needed to reconvene as the Agreed Syllabus Conference and therefore the meeting was paused to enable this to happen. 

The SACRE meeting was paused

SACRE Members to formally vote on the proposal to continue to use the current Havering/Redbridge Agreed Syllabus for the next 5years. Each committee to meet separately to vote on whether or not to approve this proposal. Committee will then return to share their decision.

The meeting reconvened as an Agreed Syllabus Conference and each group met separately to consider the following two proposals:

To edit the Agreed Syllabus for RE to Havering subject to amendments and time limited information as set out in the agenda paper.

And

To recommend to the Local Authority that the partnership with the Redbridge SACRE be continued and the suite of resources supporting the syllabus be extended. 

The SACRE meeting resumed

Each Committee reported on its decision following the meeting of the Agreed Syllabus Conference as follows:

Committee A – agreed both proposals

Committee B – agreed both proposals

Committee C – agreed both proposals with the proviso that maybe there isn’t a need to change as much as suggested due to cost

Committee D – agreed both proposals

It was therefore unanimously agreed to make the recommendations to the London Borough of Havering. 

ACTION:  Julia Conway-Diamond

A question was raised about the possible partnership between schools and Havering Arts Council for a competition for schools.  It was recommended that the Chair of SACRE contact the Chair of the Havering Arts Council (Chrissie O’Connor) and Matthew Russell from the Queen’s Theatre who was leading on an initiative ‘Havering Changing’.  Guy Self, an officer within the Council, was also identified as a useful contact.

ACTION:  Wendy Brice-Thompson

In response to a question regarding the distribution of information about the Farmington scholarship, it was explained that details were on the RE page of the Portal.  Councillor Frost offered to share the information at the Havering Deanery Synod and John Lester would inform the Interfaith Forum.

ACTION:  Councillor Frost and John Lester

Deborah Weston advised that Colin Bloom, the Faith Engagement Minister was keen to have responses to a questionnaire and all members of SACRE were asked to participate in the Faith Engagement survey and the deadline for response was 11 December.

ACTION: All members of SACRE

To consider and agree the 2020 Annual Report.

It was reported that usually un-validated exam data and validated from the previous year would be included in the annual report.  Members of SACRE were advised that due to the impact of the coronavirus on examinations a request had been made for schools not to be contacted about data this year. 

Deborah Weston suggested that the data included on page 15 of the draft annual report which had been included in the agenda pack.

It was also suggested that there was some work required to determine the levels of provision for RE in schools.  Areas to consider included the number of hours schools report as being spent on RE and the correlation between teaching hours and GCSE entries.  If schools were not providing RE then that would be in breach of the regulations.

It was acknowledged that some schools spent an appropriate amount of time on RE and there was a need to send a letter to schools recognising this.  It was agreed that Deborah Weston and Julia Diamond-Conway would draft a letter for the Chair to sign.

ACTION:  Deborah Weston / Julia Conway-Diamond / Wendy Brice-Thompson

The Chair agreed to prepare a foreword upon receipt of the list of bullet points to be included which Julia Diamond-Conway would prepare.

ACTION:  Julia Conway-Diamond / Wendy Brice-Thompson

It was noted that once completed the Annual Report needed to be sent to NASACRE and the DfE.

ACTION:  Julia Conway-Diamond

To receive an update on progress with regards to setting up virtual visits of places of worship and agree any next steps.

SACRE members were advised that Dawn Ladbrook and Marlene Wylie had been working together to organise the virtual visits and visitors scheme.   Details of a virtual tour of the Romford Evangelical Church were to be shared on the RE pages of the Portal.  The tour is about the church community not just the physical building.  It would also be possible, subject to the necessary protocols, to arrange for a virtual visitor to talk to children in classrooms.   Julia Conway-Diamond wished to record thanks to everyone at the Local Authority who had helped to write the necessary protocols.                                                                             

St Andrew’s in Hornchurch were also developing a PowerPoint package and Julia Conway-Diamond offered to review the materials as they were produced.     

Julia Conway-Diamond explained that her contract with Havering was for only 6 days per year. However, it was possible for SACRE to apply for a West Hill NASACRE grant to fund such a scheme if anyone was interested in making the application on behalf of Havering SACRE to enable the project to involve as many places of worship as possible. 

It was agreed that it would be helpful to invite other faiths to identify virtual visitors to develop the scheme to a wider group and other places of worship.  Rabbi Lee Sunderland suggested that it would be something he could do quite quickly and it was agreed that he and Julia Conway-Diamond would work together to progress this idea. 

It was suggested that pre-recorded videos could be used for slots in assemblies and lessons and linking the videos to particular units of the syllabus would be particularly useful.

Luthaneal Adams offered to provide the technical expertise to prepare the videos if that would be helpful.

John Smailes advised that the Gideons had produced a 5 minute video.

SACRE members noted that the Salvation Army and Romford Baptist Church also wanted to be involved in the virtual tours work.

It was noted that there was a lot of content and it needed to be broken up into specific topics.  Julia Conway-Diamond suggested that the content could be uploaded separately.

It was suggested that the Community Infrastructure Levy, where each community decides how it is spent, might be a source of funding for the project.  Jerry Haley was identified as an Officer within the Council who would be able to advise on this matter.  It was agreed that Deborah Watson would liaise with Councillor Persaud and Council Officers to determine whether the Community Infrastructure Levy could support this initiative. 

ACTION:  Deborah Watson and Councillor Persaud

It was agreed that Dawn Ladbrook and Wendy Brice-Thompson would complete the West Hill NASACRE form. 

ACTION: Dawn Ladbrook and Wendy Brice-Thompson                                                                                   

To receive further information regarding the WIRE Award (Widening Inclusivity in Religious Education).

It was noted that to get schools in the RE Quality Mark is expensive and the WIRE Award would be an alternative for schools to gain an award from Havering SACRE.

In response to a question, it was explained that WIRE stood for Wider Inclusivity in RE.  It was confirmed that there was no prize it was merely a recognition of the work done in schools. 

Any member may raise issues previously notified to either the Chair or the Clerk (unless the issue relates to a matter arising from the meeting itself or is of an urgent nature, when the Chair will determine whether to allow it or not).

There was no further business to discuss.

To set the date for future SACRE meetings for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The following dates were agreed for the remainder of the academic year:

March 23 at 6.00 pm – via Zoom

June 29 at 6.00 pm – meeting format to be determined.

The meeting closed at 19:40.