Agenda item

·         To receive the minutes of the last meeting of the Association on 7^th October 2020. 

·         To agree attendance to the next WASACRE - Date TBC.

The Chair confirmed she had attended the beginning of the last online WASACRE meeting that was held on the 7^th 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 RE Advisor liaise to form a questionnaire to send to all Councillors requesting information on faith and belief systems in each ward.