Agenda item

SMSC PROVISION IN THE FURTHER EDUCATION SECTOR

Meeting of Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE), Monday, 10 June 2013 10.00 am (Item 5.)

To receive a presentation from Toni Coulton on provision for SMSC in the further education sector and discuss how SACRE could support Rhyl Sixth Form and FE College.

Minutes:

The need for chaplaincy in the further education sector had been raised previously at a meeting of WASACRE. The Systems Leader for GwE (SL) introduced Toni Coulton who had been invited to the meeting to deliver a presentation on SMSC provision and for SACRE to discuss how it could support Rhyl Sixth Form and FE College. Ms Coulton worked with FESTIVE (FE and Sixth Form Initiative), a Christian initiative to support those who worked in the further education sector.

Ms. Coulton delivered a power point presentation to SACRE entitled ‘Further Education and Wellbeing’. She highlighted that the provision of RE and Collective Worship was a statutory requirement within school sixth form but not within FE colleges. Whilst accepting that making RE provision statutory for all 16 – 19 year olds was unlikely, she believed it was possible to make a good case for non-statutory RE in further education. The presentation covered –

· anomalies in statutory and non-statutory provision of RE and Collective Worship

· the number of 16 – 18 year olds studying in schools and colleges together with a further breakdown of those in or out of education and employment

· organisations involved in supporting national work and producing resources including the National Council for Faith and Belief in Further Education; Dare 2 Engage, Faith Tutorials and AFAN (All Faiths and None)

· differences in the guidance produced by Ofsted in England and Estyn in Wales with specific reference to SMSC in England but only generalisations and a lack of clear guidance in Wales

· reference to a number of resources and publications, some of which were available at the meeting for perusal, including ‘Making Space for Faith’ and ‘Challenging Voices’

· extracts of Estyn’s quality indicators showing a focus on outcomes for Wellbeing instead of an emphasis on provision.

In considering the way forward, Ms. Coulton suggested –

· some research – maybe with the chaplains of Welsh FE colleges

· building on ‘Challenging Voices’ (how to provide chaplaincy within a college)

· seek a replacement of the FE work to be part of local SACRE

· demonstrate to Estyn that faith/belief can and should be in the guidelines as in England

Finally members’ attention was drawn to the work of Joseph George, Project Worker (details circulated at the meeting) who had been appointed to unite existing faith based work and introduce new work to areas in college where currently there were no Christian Groups. Joseph worked 16 hours per week: 8 at Rhos, 4 at Rhyl Sixth and 4 at all other sites. Opportunities provided at Rhyl Sixth included tutorials, faith room and staff and student meetings.

Members support and provision in the further education sector with Ms. Coulton and she responded to questions and comments as follows –

· a faith room had been provided at Rhyl Sixth but more work was needed to embed its use within the college

· acknowledged the importance of joined up working and highlighted relationships which had been forged with further education colleges and clergy in the area

· there was a need to raise awareness of provision/support available and to provide an opportunity for those wishing to engage in an educational setting

· advised that although Llysfasi College was in Denbighshire it was part of Deeside College in Flintshire which had little provision

· recognised the importance of providing information and provision through the medium of Welsh and progress was being made in that regard; in particular the FESTIVE website provided bilingual information and Welsh colleges had access to that information

· despite efforts no information had been included within the college prospectus regarding provision and SACRE’s help in achieving that would be welcome.

Councillor Margaret McCarroll advised that there had been a part time chaplain at Rhyl Sixth College when it had been established and she agreed to make enquiries into whether that provision was still available. Ms. Ali Ballantyne also highlighted the need to include Pengwern College when considering initiatives for further education provision. Ms. Coulton suggested that SACRE may wish to contact Pengwern College directly in that regard.

SACRE discussed the next steps and –

RESOLVED that a letter be sent to the Rhyl Sixth College –

(i) detailing SACRE’s concerns in terms of the lack of provision for RE and Collective Worship and opportunities for students to take up RE at A Level;

(ii) highlighting the work of SACRE and support it could offer together with the range of resources available, and

(iii) inviting the College to co-opt a member from SACRE.

Members agreed that details of the organisations, publications and resources referred to within the presentation together with website links be included within the minutes as follows –

National Council for Faiths and Beliefs in Education www.fbfe.org.uk

Challenging Voices - dealing with contentious issues; a joint publication with RE Council for England and Wales

http://www.fbfe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/REsilience_FE_booklet_Challenging_Voices_PDF_final.pdf

SMSC Report

http://www.fbfe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/lsis_SMSC-Report-Guidance-for-learning.pdf

Making Space for Faith - Survey of the learner voice and staff opinions from 41 FE Colleges

http://www.fbfe.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Making-space-for-faith1.pdf

NUS Interfaith tool kit - some great ideas for curriculum use

http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/asset/News/6105/NUS-Inter-Faith-Toolkit_Web-Version.pdf

Resources for Curriculum from:

Dare 2 Engage www.dare2engage.org

Faith Tutorials http://www.faithtutorials.co.uk/faithtutorials.co.uk/Home.html