North Yorkshire County Council
Children and Young People’s Service
Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education – 20 April 2021
Local Authority Report
1. Purpose of Report
1.1 To update Members on developments from the Local Authority’s perspective.
2. Update
2.1 During the latter half of the spring term schools reopened to all pupils. This was staged for secondary schools to ensure that lateral flow testing could be carried out prior to all pupils returning. By Easter all schools had fully reopened to all pupils. The expectation from the Department for Education (DfE) is that the normal curriculum is resumed, with remote learning options available as needed if cohorts of pupils are required to self-isolate. This includes full resumption of religious education and collective worship, although this will be carried out with regard to the latest DfE operational guidance for schools.
2.2 Ofsted have confirmed that there will not be a return to full inspection activity until September 2021. However, they have resumed planned visits to schools and will also carry out visit where safeguarding concerns are raised.
2.3 Newsletter distribution to all schools has been carried out via the electronic Red Bag and a review of resources on the NYES RE and Collective Worship pages has been carried out. Further resources and guidance for schools have been distributed on an ad hoc basis.
2.4 Local Authority officers have met with the Professional RE Adviser and SACRE Chair, Vice-Chair and Secretary in order to plan a programme of works regarding updating resources for schools and other support work.
2.5 The DfE acknowledged receipt of the Annual SACRE report for 2019/2020 and a copy was lodged with NASACRE.
2.6 Three primary RE network meetings and a Developing RE leadership course were carried out remotely in the spring term. Further networks and courses are planned for the summer term. These will all be carried out via video conferencing software.
Adrian Clarke
Principal Education Adviser (Support)
12th April 2021