Agenda item

To consider and approve the draft SACRE Annual Report 2022-23.

 

The RE Advisor guided members through the draft Annual Report for 2022/23 (previously circulated).

 

Members were guided through each section of the report. Denbighshire SACRE included the Forward section of the report which included the principal roles for SACRE.

 

The headings within the contents page had been historically used and taken from a historic document that guided committee’s in the agreed syllabus and what was required to be reported upon. Some of that previous requirements were not as relevant now as they were previously. How the RE Advisor worked with the Local Authority would have been very different when the headings were first created. He informed Members WASACRE had been lobbying Welsh Government for an update to the requirements needed in the annual report. A request for further guidance from Welsh Government had been made.

 

Jennie Downes, who sat on WASACRE confirmed that a lot of background work was being conducted as to how WASACRE and subsequently SACRE committees were run. It was all being reviewed to make sure it was clear to all what the role of the SACRE was and how it all fit into the bigger picture. She confirmed she would inform the committee if any further developments were disclosed.

 

Currently there was two work streams, the SACRE for Religious Education and a SACRE for the Religion, Values and Ethics. in his opinion the RE Advisor stated currently it was all being kept together and discussed as one, in the same forum. It was felt the two areas were kept distinctively separate in the annual report. It was stressed that there was a difference between the two subject areas.

 

The annual report was currently still entitled Annual Report of the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education but some of the contents related to RE and some to RVE.

It was suggested the title could be amended to include the ‘Standing Advisory Council’. Members were in agreement with the suggested change.

 

The executive summary was presented prior to the annual report in the pack. There was a lot of detail around the agreed syllabus was included with the agreed syllabus for RE and RVE clearly separated.

As previously done, examination results had been included. If schools requested any support with RE or RVE both the principal Education Manager and RE Advisor were happy to be contacted and support as appropriate. 

There was no subject judgement within the Estyn inspection reports. Comments had been made in respect of the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural aspects which was included in the report.

The recommendations suggested by Estyn were still relevant, those recommendations were towards schools, local authority and Welsh Government.

The report highlighted the resources that had been made available to schools. This included a video that discussed the agreed syllabus and how RVE sat within the new curriculum along with links to supporting guidance looking at concepts, lenses and the journeys.

GwE had arranged events entitles ‘Unpacking the humanities for the AoLE’. There had been 2 sessions arranged, the first one focused on the understanding of the mandatory elements and second looked at approaches to planning and assessments.  The report provided links to those presentations and documents.

All of the resources that had been made available for schools previously to support RE in schools was still available on the network that had been created. Members heard although some of the language had been changed the context of the guide still provided schools with a vast amount of information and support to offer schools.

Links to the document RE and the foundation phase had also been included for to support those schools offering foundation learning.

All the links to support and activities for all the resources available had been included in the annual report, it was hoped schools would use the annual report to guide them to the resources to support delivery of RE and RVE.

 

Members were provided with details of the Religious Education Quality Mark. The RE Quality Mark recognised, celebrates and publicised outstanding

religious education in all primary and secondary schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland through its three levels of award, bronze, silver and gold. Ysgol Frongoch and Ysgol y Parc have previously applied for the bronze award.

 

Details of the HWB networks were included. Denbighshire had its own network which included around 80 teachers but there was also a HWB network available for staff to utilise. A number of resources was available within the HWB for support. As a Member of SACRE you were entitled to have access to that HWB.

 

The report provided the reader with information and links to the alternative qualifications in the RE and RVE field.

 

The European Forum for Teachers of Religious Education was an organisation that brought representatives from across European countries together to compare and contrast the different methods and teachings of RE across Europe.

 

The following section of the annual report focused on the Estyn reports that had been reported to SACRE. It highlighted the number of comments that related to the different sections of the report. 12 inspection reports had been reviewed.

 

The Chair thanked the RE Advisor for the detailed run through of all the aspects of the report. She stated the report contained numerous valuable links to a variety of resources that were available for schools and staff but also to SACRE Members. She stressed a lot of work had gone into compiling the paper and thanked the RE Advisor for the papers.

 

Officers encouraged Members to contact the support service to support access to the HWB. Details of the support were available online, alternatively contact the provider of the HWB account to support access to the information.

 

The Chair highlighted that no presentations of the provisions of ITT had been made during the last 12 months. She requested that enquiries be made to include a presentation to the committee be made for a future meeting. The RE Advisor confirmed he could make some enquires for a presentation to be delivered to the committee in a future meeting.  

 

RESOLVED that Members approve the report subject to the amendments noted above and request the LA to translate the report and make available to all schools and colleges in Denbighshire, and other recipients as required by law and as identified in the report.