Agenda and minutes

Chris Burke gave the opening reflections.

The Chairman welcomed Dr Amanda Grant, from the Jewish Community, to her first meeting of SACRE.

Apologies for absence were received from Andrew Hornsby (Methodist Church), Swathi Screenivasan (Hindu Community), Elizabeth Moore (NAS/UWT, Primary Schools), Kay Sutherland (NAS/UWT, Secondary Schools), County Councillor Mrs Jackie Brockway and Jack Dryden (Co-opted Member).

There were no declarations declared at this stage of the meeting.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 6 November 2018, be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

(Dr Tanweer Ahmed MBA will give a 20 minute presentation on how the Mosque came to be built and Muslim beliefs. This will be followed by 10 minutes of questions to Dr Ahmed)

SACRE received a presentation from Tanweer Ahmed in connection with the history of the development of the Mosque, on Dixon Street, Lincoln. He stated that he was the Chairman of the Lincoln Islamic Association which was a registered charity and highlighted the hard work which had been undertaken by him and other individuals in getting the project off the ground despite initial public objections. He outlined the great efforts made to win over the local community to the development including arranging visits for local residents to explain the purpose and role of the Mosque. He stated that the Mosque now received numerous requests to visit the Mosque including from many schools.

The Chairman thanked Tanweer for his excellent presentation and for hosting the meeting of SACRE. A tour of the Mosque took place preceding the meeting.

Members supported the opportunity of future meetings of SACRE in venues of worship.

The Chairman made the following announcements:-

·         Chris Rose, representing the Society of Friends on SACRE, had resigned due to an increased workload in other areas of his work.

·         Christina Barnes, the Salvation Army's nomination to SACRE, had resigned from the Salvation Army just before she was due to be appointed to SACRE.

·         Replacements for the other vacancies on SACRE, including Ground Level Network, the Teachers' Panel and the Church of England, were being pursued.

SACRE received a report from Wendy Harrison which summarised inspectors' judgements on schools' provision for pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, including British values in those schools inspected by Ofsted since the last report prepared for SACRE.

After summarising the inspectors' comments Wendy Harrison stated that the proposed new Ofsted Framework had a focus on the "wider curriculum", which included RE. The purpose was sufficiently wide enough to meet children's needs as in recent years there had been an emphasis on the teaching of Maths and English.

Wendy Harrison stated since the completion of the Agreed Syllabus she had been able to re-engage with school visits.  A recent flyer resulted in around thirty schools asking for help and support. Schools were offered two hours 1:1 support for free but had to pay if they required staff training. Schools could also be requested help from the Diocese so this meant that they were being well supported in the implementation of the new syllabus.

RESOLVED

(a)  That the following schools receive a letter from the Chairman congratulating them on the positive remarks made by the inspectors:-

Thurlby Primary School

Gipsey Bridge Academy

Donington-on-Bains Primary School

Weston Hills CoE Primary School

Holton-le-Clay Junior School

Tetney Primary School

(b)  That the following schools receive a letter from the Chairman  expressing concern about the various weaknesses identified by Ofsted:-

Willoughton Primary School

The Fourfields CoE School

The West Grantham Academy St John's

(A response to the Commission on RE has now been received from the Secretary of State for Education and is attached for information)

A response to the final report of the Commission on RE had now been received from Damian Hinds, Secretary of State for Education. SACRE was informed that the Government did not wish to make any significant changes at this time, mainly because of the need to reduce teacher workload and therefore most of the recommendations of the Commission would not be implemented. However, the Secretary of State acknowledged the importance of RE and pointed out that he had taken some actions in response to the report, e.g. the announcement of RE bursaries for ITT and funding for RE Subject Knowledge Enhancement.

RESOLVED

That the response to the Commission on RE by the Secretary of State for Education, be noted.

SACRE received a report from Gillian Georgiou in connection with work being carried out in the Diocese. This included that many schools had continued to request subject knowledge support to deliver the Lincolnshire Agreed Syllabus; the second phase of the REConnecting Lincolnshire project, which, amongst others, included religious and cultural literacy working with clusters of secondary and primary schools in both the East Coast region and Grantham areas and supporting schools in light of the new SIAMS (section 48) Evaluation Schedule for church schools' inspections.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.

(The NASACRE Annual Conference has been arranged for Wednesday 22 May 2019 in Manchester. The cost of attendance is met by SACRE. The nomination of a member of SACRE is sought to attend the conference)

SACRE was informed that it could nominate up to a maximum of three members to attend the  NASACRE National Conference in Manchester on 22 May 2019 and that all expenses associated with attendance were paid for by the local authority. The Chairman and Mark Plater volunteered to attend the Conference.

The Clerk agreed to email all members to seek a third volunteer to attend.

RESOLVED

That the Chairman and Mark Plater attend the NASACRE National Conference on 22 May 2019 and that the Clerk email all members to seek a third volunteer to attend.

(Post meeting note: Councillor Bob Adams had volunteered to attend)

(A member has raised the issue of the payment of travel expenses for attendance at meetings of SACRE. The views of members are sought?)

SACRE was informed that a member had raised the issue of the payment of travel expenses for attendance at meetings of SACRE. It was noted that the local authority members were already eligible to claim expenses.

Members agreed that the County Council's members' expenses scheme should be adopted by SACRE.

Wendy Harrison stated that she had been informed by the local authority that SACRE had between £5,000 to £6,000 available to spend in the financial year 2019/20. This money could be spent on a variety of educational matters, including the purchase of resources to support school visits and to support members attendance at conferences.

Members welcomed this funding and agreed that it would seem reasonable to spend at least £2,000 on resources. They also agreed that the funds should be used to fund attendance at conferences; the payment of expenses to members for attendance at meetings of SACRE in accordance with the local authority's scheme of members' allowances and events to promote the work of Lincolnshire SACRE.

Councillor Mark Withington agreed to examine the use of the local authority's reserves to help SACRE.

RESOLVED

(a)  That the sum of approximately £2,000 be spent on RE resources to support work in schools and training events.

(b)  That the remaining money be used to support attendance at conferences by members; the payment of expenses to members for attendance at meetings of SACRE in accordance with the local authority's scheme of members' allowances and events to promote the work of Lincolnshire SACRE.

(A volunteer is sought to do reflections at the next meeting?)

Cherry Edwards agreed to do reflections at the next meeting.

The Chairman stated that he had set up an initial page on Facebook for SACRE and agreed to share the details with members.

SACRE was informed that the County Council's website team had stated that a separate website on the main website was not the way forward due to a shortage of resources. However, a presence on the Council's main website would be able to be found more easily in search engines and the content could probably be managed by existing resources. They would be happy to look at this once the new site became live later in the year. They agreed that Facebook was a good place to start and that they could share some content on the main Council account.