Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: via Zoom
Contact: Committee Administrator Email: democratic@denbighshire.gov.uk
No. | Item |
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POINTS OF NOTICE (i) Due to the current restrictions on
travel and requirement for social distancing as a result of the coronavirus
pandemic the meeting was held remotely by video conference and was not open to
the general public (ii) In the absence of a teacher representative the
Council’s quorum requirements had not been met. It was agreed to proceed with the meeting on the basis that
any decisions made would need to be formally ratified at the Council’s next quorate
meeting. Report recommendations
were taken as read and agreed by consensus with no formal vote undertaken. |
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SILENT REFLECTION The meeting began with a few minutes silent reflection. |
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APOLOGIES Minutes: Apologies for absence
were received from Mr. Dominic Oakes, Rev. B H Jones
and Councillor Cheryl Williams |
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DECLARATION OF INTERESTS PDF 116 KB Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: The RE Advisor informed members if members were governors of
schools that were discussed in detail to declare an interest at that point. |
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URGENT MATTERS AS AGREED BY THE CHAIR Notice of items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972. Minutes: No urgent matters had been raised. |
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MINUTES OF LAST MEETING PDF 378 KB To receive the minutes of the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education held on 14 October 2020 (copy enclosed). Minutes: The minutes of the Standing Advisory Council
for Religious Education (SACRE) meeting held on 14 October 2020 (previously
circulated) were submitted. RESOLVED that the minutes of the SACRE meeting held
on 14 October 2020 be received and approved as a correct record. |
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DEFERMENT OF DENBIGHSHIRE SACRE QUESTIONNAIRE PDF 22 KB ·
To discuss deferring sending out the
Denbighshire SACRE questionnaire. Minutes: The RE Advisor
informed members that SACRE received limited data from an Estyn report.
Discussions had taken place to assess how SACRE could receive information from
schools about good areas of Religious Education or any areas of improvement. It
was decided that a questionnaire would be published to schools to ascertain
what support schools required, promote good practices and keep in contact with
schools in the County. It was explained due to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools
were inundated with new regulations and keeping both pupils and staff safe. It
was felt a little insensitive to be producing a questionnaire at the present
time. The RE Advisor asked
for support from members to defer sending the questionnaire to schools until
later in the year, when schools are hopefully in a more positive position. RESOLVED that
members agreed to defer sending the questionnaire to schools until the summer
term at the earliest. |
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WG AND NEW CURRICULUM UPDATES PDF 162 KB ·
To receive a verbal update regarding the WG
consultation updates. ·
To receive a verbal update regarding the
supporting Framework for RE. ·
To receive a verbal update regarding the
Professional Learning offer for Religious Education. Minutes: Members were provided
with an update from the two consultations that had taken place in the summer
and spring. Members heard the first consultation had been to discuss the
removal of the parental right to withdraw children from sex education and
religious education. The second had been to discuss the requirement for schools
of a religious character to provide agreed syllabus religious education
alongside the Church based curriculum. Confirmation that the
Curriculum and Assessment Bill was currently being moved through the Sennedd.
Confirmation that further information was available online. It was stressed the
Bill was currently in the second stage of development. The RE Advisor
updated members on the supporting framework for Religious Education. It was
confirmed that Welsh Government had included Religious Education within the
humanities area of the curriculum. It was stressed that Religious Education was
still statutory and SACRE was still required to have an input into the new
syllabus, Welsh Government would supply the supporting framework for Religious
Education. It was hoped that this guidance would be published so SACRE could
agree for schools to adopt the supporting framework. The Law behind the
Curriculum for RE remained unchanged. It was stressed that WASACRE continued to
communicate with Welsh Government to stress the importance of the guidance and
the need to receive it as soon as it was available. Members were informed
that a commitment from Welsh Government to provide professional learning as a
result of developing the new curriculum. WASACRE had met with Welsh Government
to discuss the training that would be offered. The potential to have five
specialists across Wales to support teachers may be offered. Further
information would be presented to members when acquired. In response to
members questions the RE Advisor expanded upon the following: ·
Ethnicity
and culture was included in RE in schools. It provided an understanding of a
range of beliefs that impacted the way people behave and interaction with
others. ·
RE in
schools included a range of different faiths that were studied by pupils. In
the main it was Christianity but to include others. It was felt a good
understanding of different faith’s was important for children’s education. ·
The
constitution of SACRE states education in schools should represent the belief
systems within the locality. ·
The
history of RE in the UK has been linked to Christianity and the Church. Members
discussed the responsibilities of the faith and families to teach young people
the beliefs of the faith. Changes within society had taken place and RE in
schools needed to adapt and change with the views of the stakeholders involved
with RE in schools. ·
Members
discussed the need to have an understanding of the other faiths and beliefs in
our society. The Chair thanked
members and observers for the good debate and conversation on the update to new
curriculum in Wales. RESOLVED, that
members note the verbal update. |
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RE AND BLENDED AND DISTANCE LEARNING PDF 72 KB ·
To receive a presentation on resources available
to schools to support distance and blended learning. Minutes: The RE Advisor
presented to members some of the RE resources available for schools to access.
Members were shown on screen the information available on the GwE website. It
was explained that a vast amount of resources had been made available for
schools and teachers to access. It was stressed the information and resources
were available in both Welsh and English. The website and
information offered a range of activities for pupils to complete. The website
was very interactive and allowed users to download tasks and adapt as needed.
Members were shown a range of activities and different units available. It was also expressed
that within the newsletter issued to teaching staff information on the ‘airport
faith and belief route’ activity had been included free for schools. It gave an
opportunity for teachers/ schools to design a multi-faith and belief room
within an airport. Members heard the
Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) provided schools with the licence to copy 5%
of a textbook to issue to pupils. The CLA had created a portal to allow
teachers to access textbook information online. It was found to be very helpful
for teachers at present. Members were very
supportive of the resources that had been made available for schools and
teachers to aid distance learning. Members were pleased to see the expansion of
the GwE website and resources available. RESOLVED that
members note the verbal report. |
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·
To receive the minutes of the last meeting of the
Association on 7th October 2020.
·
To agree attendance to the next WASACRE - Date TBC. Minutes: The Chair confirmed she had attended the beginning of the
last online WASACRE meeting that was held on the 7th October 2020. The RE Advisor informed members the minutes of the meeting
had not been made available for members discussion. He informed the committee
there had been 3 main areas of discussion ·
The new curriculum and the place of Religious
Education within it; ·
The supporting framework and ·
Professional learning – WASACRE wanted to
support teachers with the learning of the new curriculum. It was confirmed that blended learning and examinations had
also been discussed but they change regularly with Religious Education
currently being awarded from teacher assessment. The Chair asked the RE Advisor for some further understanding
and information around the number of humanist services conducted in
Denbighshire’s crematoriums from last April. In response to the Chair’s question the RE Advisor confirmed
the Humanist Association had requested if they could have a membership on SACRE
committees. Members heard lots of constitutions of the SACRE had stated the
membership of the committee had to represent the individuals within that
locality. It was noted that it may be difficult to obtain numbers of the
different Christian denominations in society, due to the options on the census
data it states Christian / Non-Christian and other religions. There was no
option for certain denominations of the different faiths. Local knowledge from
Councillors had aided the collection of data to provide the constitutional
representation on Denbighshire’s SACRE. It was highlighted that it may have
changed, with an increasing number of pupils and families claiming no faith. The RE Advisor raised the assumption that an individual that
identified as being non-religious did not mean that they had no belief in a
deity or the supernatural, rather they did not subscribe to belonging to a
major world faith. It was stressed the
difficulty in ascertaining numbers of beliefs and people’s way of life. It was
felt that if figures of the amount of humanist crematorium services was
attained it would may demonstrate the prevalence of the Humanist belief in
Denbighshire. Members thanked the RE Advisor for the view of obtaining
information about the Humanist belief. Members questioned if as a SACRE would
information on other beliefs and groups also have to be obtained to be seen as
fair to all. Members asked if a survey could be done in Denbighshire that
included ‘other’ with a text box to allow residents to state beliefs
clearly. It was felt that other
religions and beliefs were followed in Denbighshire. Members heard that other SACRE committee’s in neighbouring
authorities had also held similar discussions. The RE Advisor advised members
that a question could be sent to local Councillors to enquire information from
the community including what belief systems do people follow, what buildings
are used to congregate, what meeting rooms are used. SACRE could use that
information then to request information from Full Council for a piece of work
around that information to potentially look at the Constitution and make up of
SACRE membership. The Chair and the Re Advisor suggested it might be best for
an email to be circulated to all councillors to enquire what groups and faiths
are in each ward. From that information a directory could be formed to
illustrate the findings. The directory would be useful for Denbighshire and
SACRE. The Chair stated she would liaise with the RE Advisor to form
an email to councillors to request further information. The questionnaire would
be circulated to members for feedback before sending to all councillors. RESOLVED that, ·
members
note the verbal update; · and the Chair and ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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DATE OF DENBIGHSHIRE'S NEXT MEETINGS ·
24th June 2021 ·
29th October 2021 Minutes: The dates of future SACRE meetings in 2021
had been confirmed as follows– 24 June (Thursday)
and 20 October (Wednesday). It was confirmed
that next meeting of WASACRE would be Tuesday 13th July 2021 |
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The meeting concluded at 11.20 a.m. |