Agenda item

To receive a report on behalf of the Director of Children’s Services regarding the activities and discussions of the monitoring group in relation to the monitoring of RE and the implementation of Living Difference IV.

SACRE received a report from Patricia Hannam, County Inspector/Adviser, on the discussions of the Monitoring Group at its meeting on 17 May 2022 (item 6 in the Minute Book).

Patricia Hannam drew Members’ attention to the 3 Year Action Plan, paying particular attention to those sections rated as amber. In Section 1.2 she highlighted that there are a number of representative vacancies that need to be filled, including Baptist, URC and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  At 1.6 it was indicated that a review of SACRE’s constitution had been started as the last review was in 2009. Under Section 2.2 the close communication links with the four local authorities sharing the Agreed Syllabus needed to be strengthened. With the collation of research data on the implementation of Living Difference IV at 2.6 was too early to show anything.  An audit of current training provision, 4.2, was highlighted as something to be undertaken.  An additional section, 4.9, had been added as it was felt to be important to find and engage with those primary schools who were not taking advantage of training opportunities.  There had been a lot of interest in and attendance at training by schools and an increased amount of freely available guidance, plans and resources on the RE Moodle, which the primary steering groups have been involved with.

In relation to the audit of the RE packs for Living Difference IV (Section 5) Patricia Hannam wanted her thanks and appreciation expressed to Lydia Revett, the manager of the RE Centre, who had spent a large amount of time updating them.

It was noted with regret that SACRE Youth Voice, Section 6.1 and 6.2 on the Action Plan, had been a casualty of Covid.  It was hoped to restart in the next academic year and hold a conference in the summer 2023.

Some of the teachers present told of clusters of secondary schools and their feeder primary schools that were networking in their areas, but noted that the main problem is that there was no money in primary schools for teachers to be released during school hours.

Justine Ball indicated that she was involved with a national project collecting children’s voices, 7 – 11year olds, talking about RE and would bring the comments to the November meeting of SACRE.

Members were informed of a cross-phase RE conference being held on 12 October which would provide another opportunity for primary, secondary and special education teachers to meet together.

In relation to Ofsted Inspections it was noted with disappointment that there had been few ‘deep dives’ into RE and it was a concern about where the data would come from for the next subject report as the published reports were brief and written for parents and the general public in mind.  It was noted that of the twelve Ofsted inspections that one of the Members had been involved with at Church of England schools there had been no ‘deep dives’ into RE. ‘Deep dives’ were intended to provide a more in depth view of the curriculum and were part of Ofsted’s current inspection methodology.

There was concern nationally about Initial Teacher Education and RE  as fewer people were applying PGCE courses in general including RE.  There was concern that the reduction in RE PGCE applications was in a large part due to the withdrawal of the bursary.  Winchester University had changed its PGCE to mixed humanities, so RE was an option with History or Geography, which had secured its future at the moment.  There were also problems filling all the secondary RE teacher vacancies across Hampshire.

Members were informed about the RExChange Conference, a free online conference on 7 and 8 October. Both professional advisers and several Hampshire secondary teachers were taking part in and SACRE Members were encouraged to attend. . Further details and booking link here: RExChange 2022 - RE:ONLINE (reonline.org.uk)

Mention was made about the Schools White Paper and potential changes to education in England; the Monitoring Group would report to SACRE about its impact on RE in Hampshire.

Resolved:

That SACRE noted the Monitoring Group report.