Agenda and minutes

Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education - Monday 22 March 2021 1.00 pm

Venue: Microsoft Teams

Contact: Julie Barker Email: Julie.barker@plymouth.gov.uk

Items

No.

Item

28.

Declarations of Interest

Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest from Members in accordance with the code of conduct.

29.

Minutes PDF 99 KB

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 2020.

Minutes:

Minutes agreed from last meeting on 9 November 2020 by Liz Hill, seconded by Cllr Ian Tuffin.

30.

Chair's Urgent Business

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

Minutes:

No urgent business was raised by the Chair.

31.

Welcome to new and visiting Members

The Chair will welcome new members to the forum.

Minutes:

Chair welcomed new and visiting members David Evans SACRE’s new representative from the Baptist Community and Carol Townsend from the United Reformed Church who was observing the meeting today.

Kate Brimacombe from Marjon unable to attend and Gem Tsanga from the Buddhist Community hoping to join the meeting later.

32.

Recruitment of new members and update on staffing changes (Michael House)

Minutes:

·	Heather Ogburn and Jono Madeley have left Plymouth City Council. Michael passed on his thanks to both members of staff for their hard work and wished them all the best in the future.
·	Michael has taken over Heather’s role to support SACRE and ensure all groups are represented across the city.
·	Make up of SACRE, it’s Constitution and membership is currently being reviewed by Michael and Chair.
·	Contact will be made by Michael to members and their communities who haven’t attended 3 meetings in a row.
·	Chair asked all members if they have any contacts they can approach or that she or Michael can that may wish to be involved in SACRE
·	Chair and Jonathan have contacted the Islamic Community, PIETY are currently looking for a new Imam, once appointed they will be the SACRE rep.
·	Contact has been made with the Greek Orthodox Community regarding a possible representative, waiting to hear back from them.
·	Liz Hill will be retiring Mrs Denise Raisey the new Head is keen to be involved with SACRE. Liz wishes to continue to be involved with SACRE, via a different role.
·	Suggestion for Annmarie to move to Head teacher role, a teacher could join in the Natre seat, Denise could then join in a union seat(NAHT).
·	Special school representation is currently being investigated by Claire who is making contact with her links to arrange representation.
·	Members are asked to check current working membership list document to check and confirm details are correct.

33.

LTLRE-What is LTLRE and how are Plymouth SACRE supporting it? (Ed Pawson)

Minutes:

·	LTLRE is an Extension of SACRE, one of SACRE’s roles is to support RE in the local area, which is what the LTLRE Network does.
·	LTLRE are teacher hub groups in local areas which are representative of work we want to do – Develop teachers and improve RE in schools, SACRE and LTLRE’s work closely together.
·	Primary and Secondary schools take part and work together, all are welcome to attend. LTLRE continue to look for a Secondary lead in Plymouth.
·	Each hub has a meeting 1-2 times a term, twilight sessions that are free, and a way any teacher can access training/CPD on RE training.
·	It is vital there are wider stakeholders to ensure RE remains broad, varied and with a vision moving forward. Within the steering group, LTLRE work closely with Higher Education establishments, Marjons, University of Plymouth and different dioceses’ to ensure steering group members are given a breadth of understanding.
·	LTLRE has been supported in the past by St Lukes Trust, who donated grant money towards the annual cost of £900.00 to run LTLRE.
·	Do we think this is a good way to support RE Teachers? There are 40 teachers in our hub and they all receive regular training.

34.

Feedback from SW SACRE Conference 2021 - Religious Education in Schools: Supporting, Evaluating and Inspiring, 1/3/32 (Lesley Clark)

Minutes:

·	Lesley fedback her experiences to the group regarding the SW SACRE Conference 2021

35.

HMD Update (Katie Freeman)

Minutes:

·	Following a discussion in the group, it was decided to postpone the launch of the poetry book due to Covid-19.
·	Lesley Clark to investigate financial support needed for the book when ready to launch.

36.

Local and National Developments Updates including the Plymouth RE Hub - Learn, Teach, Lead (Katie Freeman)

Minutes:

Updated previously by Ed Pawson.

37.

Election of the next Chair/Procedure and Discussion (Michael House)

Minutes:

·	Chair is nearing the end of her term.
·	Way forward - Everyone to think about if they would like to put themselves forward for the Chair role
·	A member of the group needs to be Chair, this hasn’t been a normal year, we may want to look at the Chair role this year, and discuss in summer meeting.
·	Chair summarised a plan to help aspiring chairs
·	The group discussed future shadowing opportunities to support the role of the Chair.

38.

Plymouth SACRE Constitution (Michael House)

Minutes:

·	Plymouth SACRE to gain insight and be involved in the regional working group, to aid production of Plymouth Constitution
·	SACRE Constitution is a draft document, moving forward needs to ratified and adopted by SACRE group
·	Ed Pawson, we share a similar constitution in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay. We are all part of the same SACRE, is out of date. A working party will be in place next term or in the autumn term to look at sample NASACRE constitution to ensure model of SACRE constitution and membership criteria is being followed
·	Proposal to send out Draft to members to comment on, working party arranged to look at in depth
·	To discuss in the summer meeting when more work been undertaken on the draft document by the working group

39.

Non-Complaint Schools (Michael House)

Minutes:

·	PHSG has been contacted
·	Following contact with school Michael House reports that the school has just joined the thinking schools trust/MAT and are returning to normality of provision. Michael House will feedback at the next meeting and is contacting the school directly.

40.

SACRE Annual Report, Forward Planning and Budget (Michael House)

Minutes:

·	Michael House put forward his proposals regarding the annual report forward planning for finance.
·	Michael House will work with Chair to draft the 2020/21 report which will be presented for discussion at the summer SACRE meeting.

41.

Update from members

Minutes:

No updates from members

42.

Any Other Business

Minutes:

No other business raised.

43.

Meeting dates 2021/22

Meeting dates for 2021/22 are as follows:

·	12 July 2021
·	15 November 2021
·	7 March 2022

Minutes:

	Meeting dates for 2021/22 are confirmed as follows:
·	12 July 2021
·	15 November 2021
·	7 March 2022