STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Wednesday 18th January 2006 at 7.30pm

PRESENT: Local Education Authority Group: Councillors Payne (Chair of SACRE), Aslam, Bagha, Kang, Potts, Sharma and Mrs Ware.

Church of Group: Rev P Andrews, Mr G Edwards (Chair of Group) and Rev N Richardson.

Groups representing Religious Denominations other than Church of England: Dr J Barrow (Free Church Council), Mr S K Dhanda (Sri Guru Ravi Dasia Sabha), Dr M Izen (Jewish), Mrs B Lall and Mrs P Pank (Ramgarhia Sabha), Ms M Pourtabib, (Baha’i), Mrs V Upton (Evangelical Alliance).

Teachers’ Association Group: Ms H Keogh (NASUWT), Ms H O’Neill (Chair of Group, NASUWT) and Mr Yorke Rodda (NASUWT).

Co-opted Members: Dr A R Constable (Humanist).

Also Present: Ms N Leonard (LEA Liaison to SACRE), Ms Jan Parnell (the School Improvement Partner responsible for SACRE) and Mr D Shepherd (Consultant RE Advisor).

ABSENT: Councillor Nirwal, Mr G Burchell (NUT), Ms C Sawyer (Church of England) and Ms M Ulloa (NAHT) from all of whom apologies for absence were received.

1. Minutes of Meeting Held on 12h September 2005

Resolved: That the minutes of the previous meeting of the Committee held on 12th September 2005 be agreed as a true and correct record subject to the following amendment:

Cllr Aslam was present.

2. Matters Arising from the Meeting Held on 12th September 2005

In reference to Item 7 Nora Leonard asked for a volunteer from each of the four component parts of SACRE to make up a panel to consider proposals for the future monitoring of religious education in .

In reference to Item 8 Rev Neil Richardson, on behalf of SACRE, welcomed Nora Leonard back after her recent illness.

3. Presentation by Ronald Road on the Baha’i faith

Mr Road gave a short presentation in which he outlined the main themes of the Baha’i faith. Baha’ullah, whom Baha’is regard as one of the great Divine

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Teachers along with others such as Christ, the Buddha and Mohammad, founded the religion in 1844.

Mr Road indicated that the main teachings of Baha’i were that all messengers of God are equal and all serve the same religion, that being the religion of God. Baha’is believe that different religions are similar to a book divided into different chapters, each with its own author, and that no one author is more important than any of the others. Baha’is believe in the oneness of God, humanity and religion, and that men and women are equal.

The religion is divided into local and national organisations, with an international organisation over-arching these. Baha’is believe that the international organisation is infallible as it carries the word of God.

There is no professional clergy in the Baha’i faith. Spiritual leaders in the hierarchical structures are elected in secret ballots by their peers, for which canvassing votes is strictly forbidden.

Mr Road went on to say that Baha’is believe in the establishment of a unified language and script for the entire world, which would be used in conjunction with local languages. In this it is hoped an international society of brotherhood could be fostered in which everyone would be equal and work towards the benefit of all mankind.

Mr Road then answered questions on the Baha’i faith from SACRE members.

Resolved: That the presentation be noted.

4. Applications for Determinations

A report prepared by Nora Leonard, LEA Liaison to SACRE, detailed the application for Determination on behalf of Villiers High School.

Mr Mumin Humayun represented Villiers High School at the meeting and stated the school had the support of the teachers, parents and pupils in seeking the Determination. The pupils at the school were of a multitude of faiths and the school celebrated a range of religious festivals such as Eid, Divali and the birthday of Guru Nanak.

A report written by Rabindara Pathak (Hindu) following his visit to the school to attend an assembly for collective worship was circulated, in which he fully recommended that the Determination be granted.

Cllr Swarn Singh Kang, although in favour of the Determination, felt that the application needed to contain a greater amount of evidence concerning plans for the provision of collective worship. He also pointed out that at the last meeting he had requested to be able to visit schools that had applied for determinations along with Mr Pathak, in order to inspect their provisions for religious education and collective worship, to which the other members agreed.

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Resolved: (i) That the report be noted and the schools representative be thanked for his attendance;

(ii) That the application for a Determination in respect of Villiers High School be approved;

(iii) That Cllr Kang accompany Mr R Pathak to visit schools that have made an application for determination.

5. Ofsted Inspection Reports

Nora Leonard, LEA Liaison to SACRE, submitted a report that contained a number of excerpts from Ofsted reports relating to the religious education and collective worship, in respect of the following Ealing schools:

. Dormers Wells High School . . Springhallow High School . Wood End Junior School

Dormers Wells High School

Dormers Wells High School had received an excellent report, which indicated that the provisions for religious education were very good and that the quality of the teaching was excellent. The only slight negative was the indication that the standard of marking could have been improved, however David Shepherd, Consultant RE Advisor, did not feel this to be a serious problem, as the same could be said for virtually any school.

Dan Rosser attended the meeting on behalf of Dormers Wells High School and indicated that the teachers there were very pleased with the report. They had taken the comments concerning the standard of marking on board and hoped to improve in this area in the future.

Greenford High School

The Ofsted report for Greenford High School indicated that its achievement and standard of teaching were unsatisfactory and that standards were generally below average. However the level of achievement for pupils who took religious education at GCSE level was above average.

Jan Parnell, School Improvement Partner responsible for SACRE, indicated that the LEA was concerned with the findings of the report and had been in contact with the school, which was compiling an action plan to address the issues raised. She added that improvements had been made and that the schools results were good when compared to those of its neighbours.

Jerry Arthur represented the school at the hearing. He indicated that the staff had disagreed with some of the report’s findings. Inspections of the History and Geography departments had been carried out at the same time as the religious education department and had been classed ‘Excellent’ and ‘Good’

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respectively. He felt that this highlighted an inconsistency in the inspections as the schools processes for teaching all three subjects were identical.

Mr Arthur also felt that the amount of time pupils were taught religious education needed to be considered. In years 7 and 8 the subject was taught for 90 minutes a week, however after this it was reduced to 45 minutes a week. The standard of pupil achievement noticeably decreased for many pupils after year 8. Jan Parnell indicated that this issue would be raised with the school.

Springhallow High School

The report indicated that Springhallow High School’s provision of religious education was good overall. David Shepherd, Consultant RE Advisor, felt that the subject was taught in interesting and varied ways, which was necessary considering the educational needs of its pupils.

Wood End Junior School

The report indicated that Wood End Junior School’s provision of religious education was good overall. It also indicated that the standards it had achieved were above those set out in the local syllabus.

Resolved: (i) That the report be noted, and the school representatives thanked for their attendance.

(ii) That the Consultant RE Adviser be requested to write to the schools with regards to the findings of the Ofsted inspectors.

6. Ealing SACRE Annual Report 2004 – 2005

Nora Leonard, LEA Liaison to SACRE, presented the circulated report, which outlined the work of Ealing SACRE over the previous year.

Resolved: That the report be noted.

7. Draft Agreed Syllabus

David Shepherd, Consultant RE Advisor, outlined the circulated syllabus. It had been based on the National Framework and the members of the Agreed Syllabus Conference were happy to move forward with it. He felt the final draft would be completed by the summer and agreed by SACRE in September.

Geoff Edwards (Church of England) felt that the Agreed Syllabus Conference, although diligent, was too small and was not representative of Ealing’s schools. David Shepherd agreed that the schools could have been better represented, however he had been in contact with the schools throughout the process and they were all up to date with the contents of the syllabus.

Joy Barrow (Free Church Council) felt that the concerns she had expressed at previous meetings regarding the headings in the curriculum map had not

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been taken on board and the headings remained unchanged. She stated that she did not support the headings as she felt they contained serious flaws and did not support the Key Stage 3 strategy or the faiths of the six major religions.

Helen Keogh (NASUWT) was concerned about putting the topics in the syllabus into practice. She felt the syllabus was too proscriptive and almost dictatorial in nature as it indicated exactly what should be taught and when. She also did not feel it would be possible to implement the syllabus in time for the new school year if it was not to be finalised until September.

The Chair suggested that in order for these issues to be resolved a special meeting of the Agreed Syllabus Conference be held with a view to reaching consensus on the contents of the syllabus. The members present agreed with this suggestion. It was further agreed that representatives from each of the four sections of the SACRE would attend. Cllr Ian Potts and Cllr Swarn Singh Kang would attend on behalf of the LEA group, Geoff Edwards and Neil Richardson from the Church of England group, Joy Barrow and Rabindara Pathak from the Groups representing Religious Denominations other than the Church of England, and Alison Freemantle and Helen Keogh from the Teachers’ Associations Groups, with Helen O’Neill acting as a substitute. Rabindara Pathak would chair the meeting.

Jan Parnell, School Improvement Partner responsible for SACRE, and David Shepherd would also attend the meeting and Jan Parnell’s PA would take the minutes.

Resolved: That a special meeting of the Agreed Syllabus Conference will be held and attended by representatives of the four sections of the SACRE, with a view to resolving any disputes over the contents of the syllabus.

8. Collection of Pupil Data: DfES Consultation

Nora Leonard, LEA Liaison to SACRE, gave a verbal report on the latest situation concerning the collection of pupil data. In April 2005, Fiona Bradley, the LEA officer responsible for helping schools make changes to their School Information Management systems, wrote to the DfES requesting some additional codes for religious categories. She was advised that the DfES was about to launch a consultation on inclusion, equality and diversity data and that she should wait until the results of the consultation were collated.

This consultation was launched on the 17th May and closed on the 9th August. Following the consultation it was decided that the DfES would not recommend to Ministers that faith data should be collected as a mandatory item in schools. It was therefore unlikely to appear as an item in the 2007 Annual School Census.

Nora and Fiona had agreed to revisit this question, and hoped to have designed new guidance for schools that could be used for the autumn 2006 intake.

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Resolved: That the verbal report be noted.

9. Caspian Learning Project: Development of RE Module by Ealing CLC

Nora Leonard, LEA Liaison to SACRE, gave a brief verbal report on Caspian Learning, a type of games software in which students were immersed in a sensory 3D computer-generated environment and required to interact with a variety of characters, artefacts and objects that are dependant on the subject matter of the particular module concerned. These interactions were meant to encourage the students to acquire and manipulate information to complete specific learning tasks.

Each module was designed to support an area of the curriculum, and a group at Ealing CLC had contracted with Caspian to design an RE module. This module would be available to all schools that buy the software. There were five environments envisaged: a church, a mosque, a synagogue, a temple and a gurdwara. The player entered these environments and was able to interact with both a religious figure (e.g. priest) and a member of the congregation.

It was hoped that a demonstration of the application would be available at the next meeting.

Resolved: That the verbal report be noted.

Cllr Chris Payne, Chair

The meeting finished at 8.50pm.

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