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City of York Council |
Committee Minutes |
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Meeting |
SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) |
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Date |
15 May 2025 |
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Present
In Attendance |
Group A Karen Vincent Penny Coppin-Siddall Ben Rich Mark Jones Colin Lewisohn
Group B Joseph Everdell
Group C Taco Michiels Diane Norton
Group D Cllr Robert Webb (Chair) Cllr Emilie Knight Cllr Sarah Wilson (City of York Council)
Maxine Squire (Assistant Director Education and Skills, City of York Council)
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Apologies |
Councillor Rowley, Sue Bland, Fleur Kennedy and Dee Boyle |
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100. Apologies for Absence and Declarations of Interest (5.04pm)
Apologies for absence were received and noted for Fleur Kennedy, Dee Boyle, Sue Bland and Cllr Rowley. There were no declarations of interest.
101. Minutes and matters arising from the minutes (5.08pm)
Resolved:
i. That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 October 2024 be approved subject to the following changes:
· Under minute 78 regarding the minutes of the meeting held on 8 July, the last sentence of under minute 71 to change to ‘A Member noted that James Holt, a person of their faith had spoken at York Interfaith and that he may be useful as a guest speaker.’
· Under minute 84 it was agreed that the newsletter would be quarterly and this would be amended in the minutes.
ii. That the minutes of the meetings held on 3 February 2025 and 24 February 2025 be approved as correct records.
Matters arising:
It was confirmed that the SACRE Annual Report had been submitted to the DfE and SACRE.
102. School Survey 2025 (5.11pm)
Maxine Squire explained that the school survey had been slimmed down the previous and she proposed remaining with that version. She asked Members would like specific themes including in the survey. She reported that the Agreed Syllabus would need to be agreed in 2026. She noted that she would ask business intelligence to put the surveys online for schools to complete.
During discussion about content of the survey it was suggested that a question related to the GCSE syllabus and faith the person studying the GSCE could be included. Maxine Squire was asked and confirmed that the survey went to all schools. The Chair suggested that a question regarding how schools found the Agreed Syllabus and Maxine Squire added that Humanism would be included in the new Agreed Syllabus. The Humanist Member noted that Humanists could help shape the Agreed Syllabus. It was suggested that the survey could include a question on what type of CPD would be useful for RE teachers. Following discussion it was:
Resolved: That Maxine Squire would work with the Chair on the school survey questions and with business intelligence on sending the survey out to schools:
Reason: In order to get the school survey completed.
103. Update from Interfaith (5.19pm)
Maxine Squire explained that she had reviewed other SACRE agendas and many had Interfaith as a standing agenda item. A Member noted that the update needed to be relevant and suggested that the SACRE Member who was a Member of Interfaith would be the most suitable person to contact.
Resolved: That Maxine Squire contact the SACRE Member who was a Member of Interfaith.
Reason: For an Interfaith update to given at future meetings.
104. RE Hubs Update (5.21pm)
Maxine Squire explained that the RE Hubs were a rich resource for school and that their events could be opened for SACRE Members to attend. She noted that the primary school group met termly and the secondary group met intermittently. Two Members who were secondary RE teachers noted that they had no experience of the secondary meetings and it was noted that there had been attempts in the past for the meetings to be arranged and it was suggested another secondary teacher noted that due to staffing changes in schools and not having the time to meet meant that he had not been a part of that group.
A Member noted that there were online opportunities to meet. It was noted that there had been an online meeting for the launch of the Agreed Syllabus during Covid and it was suggested there could be an online meeting for the relaunch of the new Agreed Syllabus. A Member noted that schools usually taught did Christianity plus another religion. Maxine Squire noted that non specialists were teaching RE and SACRE could look at how they were supported. It was then;
Resolved: That Maxine Squire email secondary RE teachers to see if they would like an online meeting.
Reason: In order to support secondary RE teachers.
105. Review of SACRE development plan (5.31pm)
Maxine Squire suggested that the new development plan ran from 2025 to 2027. She explained that the five key functions of SACRE were included in the development plan. She noted that there was a small budget attached to SACRE and Members could consider putting together an RE conference to start the process of reviewing the Agreed Syllabus to get the views of RE teachers. It was suggested that SACRE could partner with York St John University on this and Member who was a lecturer there noted that partnering up was a possibility.
[Penny Coppin-Siddall joined the meeting at 5.36pm]
Maxine Squire suggested pulling together a small working group to look at a possible conference and she noted it would come priority 2. The Chair noted that the point regarding school visits could be changed to green on the development plan. Members were asked to email the Democracy Officer their profile for the SACRE page of the council website. It was noted that the action to support the logo for the Interfaith competition had been achieved and the Chair suggested that there could be points added to the development plan to redevelop links with Interfaith, an RE conference and school visits. It was suggested that a youth element could be added to a conference. Maxine Squire noted that when the new development plan was completed it would be added to the SACRE page on the council website.
Resolved: That the Chair, Vice Chair and Maxine Squire put together a 2025-27 SACRE development plan.
Reason: To update the development plan.
106. NASACRE Update (5.43pm)
The website link to NASACRE updated was included on the meeting agenda. It was reported that NASACRE was now a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).
107. Correspondence on complaints/determinations (5.44pm)
It was noted that there had been no complaints to SACRE. Maxine Squire noted that schools needed to be reminded about determinations as when there had been a request for a child not to be included in RE, schools needed to inform SACRE of determinations. The Chair suggested that schools could be asked about applications for determinations in the schools’ survey. A Member suggested that this could be a qualitative question about the reasons for reasons for withdrawals and a Member noted that it would interesting to see if schools’ websites included information on the need to notify SACRE of determinations.
108. Any other business (5.49pm)
Further discussion took part on the school survey. A Member suggested that a small prize could be offered for schools completing the survey. Maxine Squire was asked and confirmed that there had been 19 responses out of 63 schools of which from maintained schools and primary academies. She noted that Faith schools followed their Diocesan syllabus.
The Chair offered to meet with new Members and asked them to contact him if they would like to meet. Maxine Squire noted that the induction information could be sent to new Members.
109. Future meeting dates (5.53pm)
15 July 2025 at 6.00pm at West Offices (Apologies from Ben Rich)
14 October 2025 at 6.00pm at West Offices
10 March 2026 at 6.00pm at West Offices
21 April 2026 at 6.00pm at West Offices
Cllr Webb, Chair
[The meeting started at 5.00 pm and finished at 5.54 pm].