Issue details

SACRE is the statutory body responsible for advising the local authority on Religious Education (RE) and collective worship and is composed of four groups which represent:

- Christian denominations and other religions (and their denominations)
- The Church of England
- Teacher Associations
- the Local Authority (Elected Members)

In order for a SACRE meeting to be quorate, there must be at least one Member from each of the above groups, and without this, no formal decisions can be taken.

The main function of SACRE is to agree and review the syllabus for teaching religious education in Doncaster schools. It must also produce an annual report of its work and consider any requests from a head teacher to be released from the requirement for collective worship to be broadly of a Christian character. Members of SACRE have responsibility for supporting and encouraging high standards in RE and collective worship across schools in the Borough.

There have been a number of occasions over the past two years where SACRE meetings have been inquorate due to inadequate representation from the four groups. Currently there are eight vacancies across these groups. Following a recent recruitment exercise with Teacher Associations, Church of England and other religions, a number of individuals have now been identified to fill these vacancies. The Education Act 1996 Section 392 (2) states that “before appointing a person to represent any religion, denomination or associations as a members of the council, the authority shall take all responsible steps to assure themselves that he is representative of the religion, denomination or associations put in question.” These assurances have been given for each of the individuals named below, e.g. from the Bishop of Doncaster, Sheffield Synagogue and Teachers Unions.

- Father Dan Parkinson (Assistant Curate at Doncaster Minster – Church of England Representative)
- Carole Cahm (Sheffield Synagogue - Christian representative)
- Sally Faulkner (NASUWT, Sandringham Primary School, Teacher representative)
- Tara Moxon (NEU, Rowena Academy, Teacher Representative)
- Danielle Heath (NEU, Rowena Academy RE Lead, Teacher Representative)

If the appointments are approved prior to its next meeting on 21 November, 2019 it would mean that the Committee would be able to achieve a quorum and therefore ratify any decisions made and move forward with the implementation and monitoring of the revised RE syllabus.

This decision also seeks to reaffirm the current membership of SACRE until the Autumn Term meeting of 2020 as this has not been reviewed for a number of years. At this point consideration can be given to reviewing the full membership and term of office of the SACRE Members.