Agenda and minutes

To undertake the annual election of the SACRE Chair & Vice-Chair.

Members are asked to note that in accordance with the SACRE Constitution the appointment of Chair & Vice Chair will be for the remainder of 2024-25 academic year, with elections doe the 2025-26 academic year to be undertaken at the next meeting in July 2025 meeting.

Given the absence of the Chair and apologies for absence submitted by the Vice Chair, SACRE AGREED to appoint Councillor Robert Johnson as Chair for the duration of the meeting.

The meeting opened by noting that apologies had been received from Shaun Cremin (Associate Member), Kyriacos Papasavva (CoE), Kim Wilson (Association representing Teachers), Ian Slade (Vice Chair), Malcolm Deboo (Zoroastrianism), Yazadh Bhadha (Zoroastrianism).

To consider and approve the minutes from the last SACRE meeting held on Thursday 8 February 2024.

It was AGREED to approve the minutes of the previous SACRE meeting held on Thursday 8 February 2024 subject to the correction of Amanda Whelan’s surname.

Members are asked to note there are no applications for determinations to be considered at this meeting

Members noted that there were no applications for determinations to be considered at this meeting.

To receive and comment on the draft SACRE Annual Report 2023-24.

Nadia Nadeem (SACRE Advisor) introduced the item, which presented a final draft of the 2022-23 Annual Report.

Members were advised that by statute, every local authority was required to adopt a Locally Agreed Syllabus (LAS) for Religious Education and to review it every five years.  The previous LB Brent LAS had been in place for some time, but in recent years had been undergoing a rigorous process of review and revision.  In 2021-22, this process was completed successfully and a new LAS for Brent was approved by the Agreed Syllabus Conference on 6th July 2023.  The syllabus was successfully being implemented across schools within the local authority.

SACRE Members considered the various national and local developments concerning the provision of RE.  Their discussions were prompted by the information provided to the SACRE through the regular updates from Teacher Members, the SACRE Adviser and NASACRE briefings.  During 2023-24, SACRE gave particular attention to various areas, such as the embedment of the new Locally Agreed Syllabus and strategies to promote its implementation as well as making it accessible to schools by promoting it through the Head Teachers bulletin.

SACRE explored meaningful ways to engage with the RE Hubs website as a means to build bridges between Brent’s SACRE and Brent’s Multi Faith Forum, in order to support Teachers and schools collectively.  Training opportunities were available for Members of both Brent’s SACRE and Brent’s Multi Faith Forum.  Empowering everyone to effectively engage with schools, thus providing purposeful experiences whereby pupils could engage with religious and non-religious worldviews.

SACRE monitored RE Hubs and NASACRE training uptake and promoted this to SACRE Members for the purpose of executing SACRE roles more efficiently.

Since September 2024, the RE advisor (Nadia Nadeem) had issued newsletters for schools on a half termly basis.  The newsletters provided additional support and guidance for schools and Teachers in delivering a high quality, rich and inclusive RE curriculum with the delivery of RE across schools in Brent also subject to ongoing monitoring involving LA’s school advisors and surveys of both primary and secondary schools.

SACRE regularly reviewed the world religion summaries on the Brent website to ensure that these were reflective of the diverse lived experiences of our Members and local communities.

A ‘Good Practice Network’, for community primary and secondary school subject leaders in RE, continued to run on a termly basis during the 2023-24 academic year.  These sessions were led by Stacey Burman, the RE Consultant supporting the work on the embedment of the agreed syllabus.  Agreed areas of focus were pedagogy and the OFSTED report to ensure schools were meeting the requirements.

There had been no complaints or withdrawals from RE or collective worship and schools with a determination were listed in the report.

The Chair thanked Nadia Nadeem for her report and welcomed questions from the Members with the following points noted:

Members requested to see the monthly newsletters that were sent out to schools every half term.  Nadia Nadeem also asked for any materials from SACRE Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive an update on issue relating to RE provision and NASACRE.

SACRE received an update from Nadia Nadeem (SACRE Advisor) which covered the following issues:

NATRE Survey on the provision for RE in Primary Schools (Autumn 2024) had identified that fewer schools were meeting their statutory duty to teach RE to all pupils.  In 2022, almost all schools (96%) reported that all pupils were being taught religious education but by 2024, this figure had fallen to 87%.

In contrast, leaders of RE in primary schools were now more likely to be more experienced Teachers than in the past.  The greatest concern was that too many primary school Teachers were not adequately prepared to teach RE, either in their initial teacher training or as part of their continuing professional development.  Consequently, they reported a lack of confidence in delivering some aspects of the curriculum.  This was needed to be addressed urgently by the Department for Education as part of a National Plan for RE as well as the lack of opportunity to study RE at A Level.

Focussing on Brent, SACRE noted and welcomed the work being undertaken to deliver the current RE syllabus across schools in the borough, which members were advised would continue to be kept under review and SACREs attention drawn to the suggestions included within the paper in seeking to develop their impact and role.

Naomi Franks, a volunteer at Willesden Jewish Cemetery, which was an orthodox cemetery wanted to make SACRE and schools aware that the cemetery offered a range of activities for both Jewish and non-Jewish schools.  They would like to make contact and offer twilight sessions to Brent Teachers to explain how to teach about Judaism as well as offer relevant activities through the RE, English, History and RSHE curriculum and they support all Key Stages.  Twilight sessions for Teachers and education workshops can be found at https://www.willesdenjewishcemetery.org.uk/schools

Sally Strauss wanted to share a new resource ‘Jewish Living Online’.  A digital education initiative jointly produced by the Board of Deputies and the Anti-Defamation League: https://jlo.org.uk

Anna Silver had shared an invitation from the Faith and Belief Forum to help shape the future of Inter Faith Week, which was not funded by the government this year but various RE organisations banded together to fund the initiative.

In terms of training opportunities, Places of Interest and School Speaker Training was available on the RE Hub and free to participants.  The comprehensive training would be held online and last for 1.5 hours.  It was recognised as an opportunity to develop knowledge about hosting schools in a place of worship/interest or going into a school to speak to pupils.  It was also an opportunity to meet other people who offer a similar service and share ideas, practice and experience.  The training was valid for two years and participants who complete the online training receive the RE Hubs Kitemark.  This was a recognised kitemark in the education community, which allows the participant or their organisation to be registered on the RE Hubs directory for schools to contact them.  More information  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

SACRE is asked to note the date for the final meeting during the 2024-25 academic year as follows:

·             Thursday 10 July 2025 at 5pm – to be undertaken online

Members were advised that the next meeting would include the election of Chair and Vice Chair for the 2025-26 Academic Year with any members interested in standing for either position invited to submit expressions of interest or contact Shirley Parks for further details.

It was agreed that Shirley Parks and Jen Haskew would contact the current Chair to discuss the going chairing arrangements prior to the next meeting.

SACRE NOTED the date for their final meeting during the 2024-25 Academic Year as follows:

·            Thursday 10 July 2025 at 5pm to be undertaken online.