Agenda item

(This item is for notification purposes only. A draft of the Agreed Syllabus was circulated and Members were asked to let Wendy Harrison, RE Advisor, have their comments on the accuracy of the document. SACRE agreed to set up an Agreed Syllabus Conference to prepare and approve the final draft before it was approved by the Council's Executive and then sent to schools. Consideration will be required on how the Agreed Syllabus is released to school and how it is publicised. A copy of the new Agreed Syllabus will be emailed to Members and a hard copy is available from Democratic Services)

The Chairman stated that this matter was on the agenda for notification purposes only and he made the following comments:-

·         He stated that a draft of the new Agreed Syllabus, which was required to be reviewed every five years, had been circulated to members and they had been requested to let Wendy Harrison have their comments on the accuracy of the document. He stated that SACRE had agreed to set up an Agreed Syllabus Conference, comprising members of SACRE, to prepare and approve the final draft before it was approved by the County Council's Executive and then sent to schools in the Spring Term 2018 to be followed by training.

·         A copy of the new Agreed Syllabus would be sent to all schools and he hoped that a copy would be put on the www. He was examining publicity of the syllabus with the County Council's Communications section.

·         He gave a brief outline of the purpose of the new syllabus.

·         He appreciated that it had not been possible to satisfy everyone on the final outcome of the syllabus particularly the compulsory elements in Key Stage 1. He stated that the importance of Judaism in the development of Christianity was recognised and stated that Wendy Harrison had spoken to Robin Young, the newly appointed Jewish representative on SACRE who had some reservations about Judaism's omission from Key Stage 1 as a compulsory focus of study. He stated that it was not possible to reopen discussion on this matter as the responsibility for producing the new syllabus had been delegated to the Agreed Syllabus Conference which had a statutory duty to produce it. He stated that there would be an opportunity to add Appendices to the syllabus and that this would be the time to make reference to Judaism and other religions.

Comments by members included:-

·         A member stated that she had taught very well six major religions during her teaching career as indeed so had many more teachers. She had not responded to the recent request for comments on the syllabus because she had made her views known at the previous meeting, i.e. that Judaism should also continue be one of the religions that remained compulsory within the new Agreed Syllabus. She added that while she appreciated that Judaism would be included in the Appendices that it was important that these were written and published as soon as possible after the main document was published and made available to schools. She also added that she thought that the content in the new Agreed Syllabus was very well written indeed.

·         A member was of the view that most schools would retain Judaism and that there would be a need review the effects of the new syllabus in the future.

Wendy Harrison reminded members that it was the Agreed Syllabus Conference that had a statutory duty to produce the Agreed Syllabus and stated that the inclusion of Islam at Key Stage 1 had not been based on census statistics but because of the need to ensure that pupils had a good understanding of Islam. Christianity remained central to the Agreed Syllabus. Hinduism was included as a third compulsory religion so that dharmic traditions were represented, not just the three Abrahamic religions.

Gillian Georgiou explained the opportunities available to schools to learn about other religions, that it was not proposed to minimise the opportunities to teach about other religions and stated that all schools would be supported.

The Chairman welcomed the new Agreed Syllabus and thanked the Agreed Syllabus Conference and the Teachers' Panel for the work they had put in to produce the new syllabus. He stated that there would be an opportunity to review syllabus a year after its implementation.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.