North Yorkshire County Council

 

North Yorkshire Standing Advisory Council

on Religious Education (SACRE) –

 

June 2022

Update from the Local Authority

 

1.0

 

Purpose of the Report

 

1.1

To inform Members on work undertaken by the Local Authority since the last SACRE meeting.

 

 

2.0        Communication and resourcing

 

2.1         Local Authority Officers have met with the Professional RE Adviser in order to co-ordinate the publication of the Annual Report.

 

2.2         The termly newsletter is continuing to be distributed to schools via the Red Bag system, and occasional and ad hoc information is also posted via Red Bag.

 

2.3         School leaders have been communicated to both via Red Bag and SEAs to encourage participation in the annual survey on RE and Collective Worship in schools. This data forms a baseline for inclusion in the Annual Report. To date 66 schools (56 primary, 10 secondary) have responded, which is a 50% increase in responses to last year.

 

3.0        Support for Senior Leaders and Governors

 

3.1         The Professional RE Adviser briefed school improvement SEAs in the early part of the summer term in order to maximise feedback from schools in collating data for the annual report.

 

3.2         The commissioned Professional RE Adviser reports separately on training, and advice given to schools. This report is a separate agenda item at this meeting

 

3.3         The Local Authority facilitated the administrative and bookings of subject leader networks and are continuing to update the resources pages on http://nyes.info

 

4.0        Ofsted inspections

 

4.1         Since the last SACRE meeting Ofsted have published 31 Section 5, 8 and monitoring reports;

           

 

Primary

Secondary

Special

PRS

Maintained

13

3

1

 

Academy

  8

5

 

 

Independent

 

 

1

 

 

4.2       There has been two deep dives in Religious Education, however the narrative in one report did not refer to any observations by the Inspector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.3       Narrative in other inspection reports refers to religious education and collective worship is as follows;

 

·           In the ‘life curriculum’, pupils have the opportunity to learn about a wide variety of topics that include themes such as staying safe, values, beliefs and responsibilities.

 

·           The Christian ethos of the school helps to develop and underpin the need to respect others. The inspector saw a powerful and positive assembly encouraging pupils to carry out ‘random acts of kindness’ based on stories from the Bible.

 

·           The Christian ethos remains central to leaders’ improvement plans. Pupils are taught to respect each other and to be kind. Pupils say there is no bullying. Pupils behave well consistently.

 

·           The curriculum in some subjects, such as history and religious education, is not as well developed. It does not include all aspects of knowledge that pupils need to acquire. In addition, pupils’ ability to apply their knowledge in different subjects is varied. Leaders know that these subjects need further refinement. Subject leaders have begun this task but it is not completed.

 

·           Leaders are aware of the narrow cultural context of the school and have taken steps to address this. The religious education curriculum, for example, teaches pupils about six different faiths.

 

·           All pupils are taught religious studies to GCSE. Through religious studies, pupils gain a good understanding of different world religions. Pupils explore moral and philosophical issues, such as immigration and racism. (Deep dive)

 

·           Some pupils also help to plan collective worship.

 

 

 

Adrian Clarke

Principal Education Adviser (Support)

County Hall, Northallerton

 

08/06/2022

 

Report Author: Adrian Clarke

 

Background documents:  None