Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair commenced the meeting by thanking Susan Kambalu for allowing and arranging the SACRE meeting to be held at St Thomas More RC School. 

The Chair also agreed to vary the agenda to take item 10 after item 5 and to consider a further item,  The Humanist Unit after item 4.

Apologies for absence were received from:

Group A:         Sara Joy Leviten, Abdool Alli and Lano Akiwumi

Group B:         John Shannon

Group D:        Cllr Sheila Rainger

Apologies for lateness were received from:

Group A:         K Ranganathan

Group B:         Eddie Griffith

Group C:        Andy Yarrow

Group D:        Cllr Emma Jones

The committee was informed that Mr Horatio Ward had moved out of the area and therefore had resigned as a member of the SACRE.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgment of the public interest and if it does not affect your financial position or the financial position of a person or body as described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct and does not relate to the determining of any approval, consent, licence, permission or registration in relation to you or any person or body described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct.”

None received.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2007.

Matters arising:

SACRE 06

Ms Parmar advised that the last sentence on page 3 should read “Ms Parmar offered to identify elements of some work she had been doing linked to the use of ICT and teaching about places of worship-BECTA programme.”

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 18 June 2007 were approved subject to the above amendment.

Tuesday 25 September 2007.

The Chair tabled a draft outline schedule of events to take place at the launch of the Haringey RE Agreed Syllabus on 25 September 2007 at 4:00pm to 6:00pm at the Professional Development Centre.  Ms Stonhold also confirmed that the Hornsey Gospel Choir would be singing and that she had spoken with Brother Alli who would be arranging a reader for the Qura’n in Arabic and English.

The Committee was informed that John Keast, Deputy Chair of the RE Council and Sharon Shoesmith, Director of Children and Young People’s Service in Haringey would both speak. The Chair requested members to inform Ms Breed if they were to attend the launch and let her know the names of any other invited guests who would also be attending.

Future Events & Training Sessions at the PDC

Date                                        Time                           Event

Tue 13 November                 12:00 to 5:00pm        Resources Fair and Workshop

Wed 3 October                      1:30pm to 4:30pm    Primary RE Syllabus

Wed 6 February                    1:30pm to 4:30pm    Secondary RE Syllabus

March 2008                           TBA                            Visit to the East London                                                                                           Mosque & Britain’s Museum of                                                                               Immigration & Diversity.      

It was agreed that the IT RE project carried out by Naina Parmar be presented at the Resources Fair and Workshop on 13 November 2007, instead of at the launch of the New Agreed RE Syllabus.

The Chair and Ms Chaplin both thanked Lisa and her team for all their hard work on the design of the disc and folder for the New RE Syllabus.

The Committee considered the Unit and enquired whether members had any comments.  It was noted that the unit was not in the same format as the other units within the New Haringey Agreed RE Syllabus. 

The Committee discussed in detail each of the sessions and their content and in principal accepted the document as a Unit however, agreed it required more work on it.  The Committee agreed that a group of members should look at the Humanism Unit in detail.

RESOLVED

That the Chair of SACRE identify a date on a Thursday after 3:30pm to meet with a small number of members to review the Humanism Unit.

Ms Chaplin advised that she had had a meeting with Dan Warner from Haringey ICT and they had looked at the SACRE websites and the links to the faith pages of the Haringey website.  Though there had been considerable information about the different religions, the RE pages needed to be more dynamic.  There was a requirement for the New Agreed Syllabus to be accessed, a list of places of worship and make links to the Haringey website on faith.

Ms Chaplin advised that Dan had completed some early work on this task and was in the process of loading the New Syllabus onto the Council’s website but the system had crashed and work had subsequently been lost.

Ms Chaplin went on to demonstrate the new disc of the Haringey Agreed Syllabus for RE.  It was noted that every section was developed with a divider page.  Ms Chaplin explained the layout of the Syllabus and the Units on the disc.  The Committee viewed the Haringey SACRE home page and Ms Chaplin further explained the links to the faith which would take viewers to the Haringey website and other RE sites.

Ms Breed thanked Ms Chaplin and Ms Stonhold on behalf of Haringey Children and Young People’s Service for all the hard work undertaken to get the Haringey/SACRE website up and running.

To receive a presentation from the Head of RE

The Committee viewed a video of students in an RE class and received a presentation from Ms Kambalu who gave an overview of RE at St Thomas More RC School. 

Ms Kambalu explained the areas each year group studied and students had been given an opportunity to go on retreat to the All Saints Pastoral Centre in Hertfordshire.  The RE department raised awareness of charities and the Christian celebration of Lent.  The school predominantly taught Catholicism, and did touch on other religions.  The RE syllabus followed the church year.

Ms Kambalu also informed the Committee that there were currently in the RE department:

• 6 members of staff
• 5 class rooms
• 10 periods a week of RE
• 2 interactive white boards

The school did follow the key stage 3 national strategy.

The Chair thanked Ms Kambalu for her presentation and invitation to the RE Department as it had given an insight into RE not only in a school but also the classroom.

To receive feedback from the meeting.

Ms Chaplin reported back from the meeting of the NASACRE Chairs of London SACREs meeting held recently.  The aim of the conference was to bring together the Chairs of all London SACREs to network and work  together.  The meeting had discussed the following topics in workshops:

• The future of RE
• The future of SACREs
• What are the SWOTs(stengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
• How can we improve RE

Interesting feedback from the discussion groups had been received.  The main issues that came out of the  workshops were:

1. How does SACRE monitor RE in schools.
2. There was no mechanism for getting information from schools.

It was recognised that the National Strategy for RE should be used nationally. However, it was noted that there was not a national RE curriculum but a framework as each SACRE set its own Syllabus.

This item was not considered and deferred to a future meeting of SACRE.

30+ things a good SACRE can do.

This item was not considered and deferred to a future meeting of SACRE.

The Committee considered whether they should invite young people as a group to come to a meeting of the SACRE to talk about their experience of RE or whether young people should also be appointed as SACRE members.

Several suggestions were put forward:

Ø      A group could attend and discuss what they like about RE.

Ø      The Chairs of School Councils could attend and talk about RE.

Ø      Arrange focus groups to look at teaching and learning, challenges for students in the community around them.

Ø      Ask young people how relevant Is RE today?

Mr Yarrow informed the meeting he held a list of all school coordinators and would email this to the Chair and Ms Chaplin.

The Chair and Ms Chaplin agreed to send a letter out to all secondary schools to invite their school councils to discuss questions about their RE experiences and their answers would be brought to a future meeting of the SACRE.

RESOLVED

That a letter be sent to all secondary school councils with questions about their RE experiences.

1. The Chair announced that she had received an email from Mr Ian Bailey, Deputy Director, Children and Young People’s Service, Haringey Council regarding the funding of the Committee’s Clerk.   Mr Bailey had advised that Member Services would no longer be facilitating SACRE and SAF and that this was a budgetary matter.   He had reassured the Chair that the Children and Young People’s Service would continue to provide a clerk and venue for future meetings of SACRE.

The Chair and  Ms Chaplin both expressed concern over this proposed change in service provision and raised concern that the level of service currently provided would not be maintained.

Cllr Jones stated that she had not been made aware of this change in provision, expressed her concern at the proposal and would take the matter up with Mr Bailey to ascertain exactly what the future arrangements would be.

2. The Chair requested all members to ensure they attended the December meeting of the Committee to consider Exam Results and the Annual Report.  It was agreed that a group of members including Andy Yarrow would meet with Denise Chaplin and the Chair at Hornsey School to look at exam results prior to the December meeting.

All meetings start at 7:00pm:

Thursday 13 December 2007

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Thursday 6 December 2007 ~ Provisional date

Tuesday 4 March 2008

The meeting ended at 9:30pm