North Yorkshire County Council

 

North Yorkshire Standing Advisory Council

on Religious Education (SACRE) –

 

20th September 2022

Update from Professional RE Adviser

 

1.0

 

Purpose of the Report

 

1.1

 

1.2

To inform Members on work undertaken by the Professional RE Adviser since the last SACRE meeting.

 

To provide members with local and national updates on RE

 

     2.0       Training

 

2.1       The Professional Practice Groups for Primary for 2022-23 will focus on subject knowledge for a range Religion and Worldviews across the year.  The sessions will include a look at substantive knowledge progression, use of vocabulary, knowledge organisers and key resources to support teacher subject knowledge and curriculum development. 

 

2.2       The subject leader course will run again in the spring term 2023.

 

3.0       SACRE Newsletter

 

3.1       The autumn term newsletter will go out to schools at the beginning of October.  A copy will be circulated to SACRE members.  I would be grateful for volunteers to write a short introduction to themselves and the group they represent for the next newsletter.

 

4.0       Regional RE Hub Lead for Religious Education Yorkshire and Humber

 

4.1       Olivia Seymour has been appointed as Regional RE Hub Lead for Yorkshire and Humber and will be working with the regional leads for the other 8 regions under the direction of the National Lead Claire Clinton.  The role includes:

 

·         Building relationships through one-to-one meetings with stakeholders such as Advisers, Dioceses, Universities, SACREs, LAs, Governors, MATs, Teaching School Hubs in the region

·         Acting as a conduit between the regional providers of CPD, research, resources, and places of worship providing opportunities for those groups to network.

·         Intentionally seeking out new providers of and networking opportunities for CPD, research, resource and support providers in the region

·         Updating and sharing information of national and regional developments, funded project opportunities and best practice across the region through the Regional Hubs website

·         Promoting the Regional Hubs website to regional providers of CPD, research, resources, support networks and places of worship and encourage them to promote their events, training and resources on the website

 

4.2       The press release will be circulated to Members in due course.

 

 

 

 

 

5.0      Still Standing: The Future of SACREs Report

 

5.1       This report is an analysis of a joint REC/NASACRE project which ran from May 2020 to June 2021. The ‘LAN Project’ aimed to test out the recommendations of the Commission on RE regarding SACREs. For the project, funded by Culham St Gabriel’s Trust, four SACREs engaged in action-research into the Commission on Religious Education’s report recommendations on the future viability of SACREs.

 

5.2       In September 2018 the Commission on RE gave a call to government and RE bodies for wide ranging reforms to the present law around RE in English schools. In section 7, their report details what is positive and important in the work of SACREs which the Commissioners would want retained in a modified form, as local area networks. The Commission report goes on in its recommendations in section 8, to suggest a number of possible changes to improve the make-up of SACREs and their work within local communities and schools. Over a one-year period, May 2020-July 2021, this local area network project has sought to investigate the proposals in recommendation 8, specifically 8b and 8e of the CoRE report, through analysis of case studies produced by four SACREs.

 

·                The case study in Barking and Dagenham showed how a small amount of funding to a SACRE/LAN can be highly effective and impactful for teachers of RE, providing opportunities for support to all schools and connect schools with faith/belief/other support groups.

·                The Bath and NE Somerset action research project demonstrated that the National Entitlement is useful for structuring a renewed Agreed Syllabus. A SACRE Agreed Syllabus review tool was created as part of this research project.

·                The work in Hampshire suggested that the democratic involvement of the LA was essential in an effective and fully representative SACRE

·                Richmond SACRE found that SACREs could and should review their membership within the current legal framework to ensure that it is representative. A diverse range of voices with specific roles making up a SACRE/LAN is essential if an LA is to be able to discharge its legal responsibilities. A SACRE membership tool was created as part of this research project.

 

5.3       The fact is that schools have changed enormously over the last 70 years, and so has religious and non-religious practice and its place in our society. Having analysed the action-research, this project has discovered that, with proper funding, section 8 recommendations from the CoRE report could be useful in ensuring that there is effective support for RE/Religion and Worldviews in schools.

 

5.4       However, this report concludes that without a significant change in funding to SACREs the ambitious and positive recommendations from CoRE will fail and systemic change will not be possible. A SACRE cannot be expected to carry a wider remit without new funding streams being secured for their work. The RE community must come together to ensure current SACREs find their place in this new educational system.

5.5       This report makes a number of recommendations and can be read in full here: https://nasacre.org.uk/file/nasacre/1-58-final-still-standing.pdf

 

 

Olivia Seymour

Professional Adviser to North Yorkshire SACRE

County Hall, Northallerton

 

06/09/2022

 

Report Author: Olivia Seymour

 

Background documents: