(a)

the new inspection framework came into effect in January 2012 and specified that inspections continued to report on the quality of education provided in the school, focusing its priorities on the following four objectives –

the achievement of pupils at the school;

the quality of teaching in the school;

the quality of the leadership in and management of the school;

the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school;

(b)

in addition to the four objectives OFSTED would also take into account the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils, as part of assessing the overall effectiveness of the school;

(c)

although the framework was in its early days it was considered important that SACRE continued to support and develop RE locally as this could make a significant contribution to promoting the opportunity for pupils to be able to develop their spiritual, moral, social and cultural awareness;

(d)

recently Lipson Community College were awarded an outstanding rating in relation to its spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.. But under the same objective no reference was made to SMSC during the inspection of a local primary school.

(e)

on 15 February 2012 the Queen had addressed the Archbishop of Canterbury and senior Faith leaders from the other eight world religions in a speech which spoke of religion and the role of the Church of England. The Queen’s speech raised issues and, in some quarters, caused some controversy which led to RE being a major source of national debate;

(f)

the RE debate had been discussed on a number of media programmes including Radio 4 and the BBC’s Andrew Marr show as well as being discussed during a Faith lecture series at Westminster, hosted by Charles Clarke MP; one lecture was on “the place of faith in schools”;

(g)

this debate has raised the question nationally about ‘what is RE for’ and ‘what is the place of faith in schools’;

(h)

the government launched a new strategy in February which set out its approach to creating the conditions for integration. This approach replaced the previous Government’s community cohesion policy;

(i)

“Creating the conditions for integration” was seen as a vital issue for local communities and focused on five key factors;

common ground – a clear sense of shared aspirations and values, which celebrates what we have in common rather than our differences;

responsibility – a strong sense of our mutual commitments and obligations, which brings personal and social responsibility;

social mobility – people able to realise their potential to get on in life;

participation and empowerment – people of all backgrounds have the opportunities to take part, be heard and take decisions in local and national life;

tackling intolerance and extremism – a robust response to threats, whether discrimination, extremism or disorder, that deepen division and increase tensions;

(j)

SACRE could have a role to play in promoting the creating conditions for integration programme in schools through the development of the RE syllabus.

(k)

the RE syllabus would be reviewed in 2012 as it had now been five years since the last review, although, it would only be slightly amended as it was recognised nationally as a very good syllabus;

(l)

Barry Keel, Chief Executive Plymouth City Council would be stepping down from his post after the local elections in May 2012 and Bronwen Lacey, former Director of Children and Young People had left the authority in early 2012.Colin Moore, the Assistant Director for Lifelong Learning has also moved on;

(m)

fourSACRE members and the RE Adviser would attend the south west regional SACRE conference at Dillington on 27 March 2012.