Agenda item

SACRE were provided with the spring update from RE Today, which provided information on a number of areas. Lat Blaylock introduced the item drawing members attention to some key points highlighted within the document:-

Religious Education Research Review

This was published by Ofsted a year ago which included the themes the inspectorate were looking for. The paper provides a number links which SACRE members can explore.

Teacher Survey on Secondary RE and RS

Lat stated that he works for Subject Teacher Association for RE, ‘NATRE’ and a bi-annual survey is carried out for Primary and then Secondary. The paper contains the survey for Secondary from last year.

Religious Education and the lack of support by Government Funding.

Lat sought members views on whether Doncaster SACRE would like to write to Department for Education (DfE) regarding this issue. This item is looking at encouraging the Government to have a national strategy for religious education. Members were advised that the Government do have strategies for particular subjects and considerable amounts of money were spent. He reported that the RE community were eager to see the Government adopt a strategy inclusive of RE recognising that primary RE is weak because Teachers have a shortage of confidence in subject knowledge and that secondary RE is also weak because Senior School Leaders are struggling to allocate time for the GCSE. He advised that GCSE numbers for both Doncaster and nationally had fallen in the 5 year period.

It was suggested that Lat along with Paul Ruane and Sameena, draft a letter which then could be forwarded to SACRE members for their comments and further suggestions prior to sending to the Department for Education (DfE). It was also proposed that a copy of the letter be forwarded to the Doncaster MP’s.

NASACRE Conference 2022

Lat Blaylock stated that the NASACRE Conference would be held on 23^rd May 2022 and invited any member of SACRE to attend. There was capacity within the budget to fund for transport.

It was noted that the current intension was for the conference to be held face to face in Birmingham

The following Members would be attending the Conference on behalf of Doncaster SACRE:-

Mr Bob Kiddle and Tara Moxon.

Conference details would be forwarded to attendees outside of the meeting.

In relation to on-line training programme, Lat suggested that if anyone was new to SACRE then it may be worth looking at the training that’s on offer.

Lat wished to point out that one of the themes identified with the NATRE Spirited Arts 2022 was running in conjunction with the Jo Cox Foundation which was pleasing to see and he will be promoting that to Doncaster Schools.

The paper also provided further details on on-line training available. If any member of SACRE would like to take up the opportunity of training, they can click on the links and book themselves on. For those that are not supported by NASACRE, then if people could get in touch with Lat, Paul or Sameena this can be arranged.

            RESOLVED that:-

(1)        the update be noted; and

(2)        Details of the NASACRE Conference on 23rd May, 2022, be             forwarded      to Bob Kiddle and Tara Moxon