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Agenda and minutes

Venue: This will be a Virtual Meeting. For the joining instructions please contact the Clerk for further details.

Contact: Gerry Rufolo 01392 382299  Email: gerry.rufolo@devon.gov.uk

Note: To be conducted in line with The Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020: To see the live stream, copy and paste this link into your browser:https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZmM1MzhjZGMtZWYzMC00YWRmLTlkNDgtNWJiYjM5YjZmMGNk%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%228da13783-cb68-443f-bb4b-997f77fd5bfb%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%223d9c340a-0429-4b53-a982-1317fcf719c1%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d 

Items
No. Item

125.

Minutes

Minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2020, previously circulated.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 25 November 2020 were signed as a correct record.

 

The Chair also wished to place on record, appreciation of the continued hard work of Headteachers and school staff in delivering the curriculum during the challenges of the ongoing pandemic.

 

126.

Co-option of Mr J Gooddy

Items which in the opinion of the Chair should be considered at the meeting as matters of urgency.

Minutes:

(The Chair brought this item forward as Mr Gooddy was not able to attend the whole meeting). 

 

Members considered appointing Mr Gooddy as a Co-opted Member, as he had relinquished his role as a NEU (Teacher Association) SACRE representative at the last meeting. 

 

Mr Gooddy explained both his professional and SACRE experiences to date.

 

(Mr Gooddy then withdrew from the meeting whilst Members discussed his co-option).

 

It was AGREED:  that Mr Gooddy be appointed as a Co-opted Devon SACRE Member. 

127.

Devon SACRE Membership: Updates

Jeremy Roberts to report

Minutes:

Ed Pawson reported that Penny Rouvas, Co-opted Member of the Sikh community had resigned.  In considering outstanding SACRE vacancies, there would be a focus upon better ways of working with Exeter Mosque and the local Sikh community.  A recruitment campaign would be timed to have new Members in place for the new academic year. 

 

The amalgamation of Devon Association of Secondary Heads (DASH) and Devon Association of Primary Heads (DAPH) into one Teacher Association, Devon Schools Leadership Services (DSLS) was also to be updated within the SACRE Teacher Association membership.

128.

SACRE Administration: Devon County Council Charges

Jeremy Roberts to report

Minutes:

Jeremy Roberts reported on the proposal by Devon County Council to charge for Democratic Services Officer support for the meetings of (statutorily established) SACREs, in line with other committee meetings. Ed Pawson had now discussed the matter further with Babcock and Devon County Council and whilst any charge to the SACRE budget would impact on funding available to spend on schools, the wish to maintain strong links with the County Council was recognised and a fair rate had now been negotiated.

 

In maintaining strong links with Devon County Council, SACRE also valued the appointment of County Councillors with experience and expertise in this area, noting the forthcoming County Council elections in May 2021.

129.

Update on Schools: Monitoring and Support during Covid 19

Ed Pawson to Report

Minutes:

Ed Pawson reported that since March 2020 due to the pandemic, it had been  difficult to fulfil a full monitoring role at present with no objective evidence of schools’ performance available, (i.e. no data on current public exam entry or results and with Ofsted inspections paused).

 

Schools were to be reminded that a ‘catch-up’ curriculum should not push RE down the priority list within Department for Education key principles for catch-up (i.e. for the curriculum to remain broad and ambitious: with all pupils continuing to be taught a wide range of subjects, maintaining their choices for further study and employment support).  SACRE support was currently being offered through half termly RE newsletters, guidance on home learning and LTLRE hub meetings and Continuing Professional Development via Zoom.

 

Members discussed how RE in schools could help in mental health and other life and education skills at this time, also noting local schools celebrating RE, including competitions at Ivybridge CC and S Dartmoor CC.

 

Ed Pawson also indicated that the S Dartmoor CC RE Lead could be invited to a future SACRE meeting.

130.

RE and Anti-Racism: Free Resources to Schools

Ed Pawson to report

Minutes:

Members supported recommending to schools that they integrated some of the anti-racist RE learning materials, produced by RE Today, into their RE syllabus. 

 

They also considered how schools could discuss ethical and anti-racism values amongst pupils.  Examples of high quality anti-racism teaching resources not linked to RE included Devon Development Education resources.

131.

Understanding Christianity: Offer to Community Schools

Ed Pawson to report.

Minutes:

Members noted that a subsidy of £150 per school had been made available for the cost of the Understanding Christianity course starting 5 February 20201 (i.e. a teaching resource giving detailed support for the Christianity units in the Devon RE syllabus).

 

The subsidy was specifically for community schools with 8 schools currently using this offer.  This course would be offered again in the Autumn 2021.

132.

Learn Teach Lead RE: Update

Ed Pawson to report

Minutes:

Ed Pawson and Belinda Twiggs (South Devon and Torbay Hub) gave an update on the operation of the Hubs during the pandemic:-

 

-All meetings were held online, with most hubs offering meetings

-There was good attendance for LTLRE Autumn 2020 talks and interactive training sessions (and attracting new Members);

-Some hubs offered separate primary and secondary meetings;

-Some hubs joining together to run meetings; and

-New hub leaders were being inducted into the programme.

 

(LTLRE website https://www.ltlre.org).

133.

National Developments: Religion and Worldviews

Ed Pawson to report

Minutes:

Ed Pawson and Ruth Flanagan reported that the Religious Education Council of England and Wales had organised a series of online seminars and interactive discussions over the last month to explore a worldviews, bridge across approach to RE.

 

SW RE professionals involved included: Katie Freeman (Plymouth LTLRE), Ruth Flanagan* (Exeter University), Rob Freathy (Exeter University) and Ed Pawson.

 

The worldviews lens was used to explore unconscious bias (e.g. how have different worldviews influenced personal perspectives/fixed views).

 

Two published papers were also referred to:-

 

* “Worldviews: overarching concept, discrete body of knowledge or paradigmatic tool?” Ruth Flanagan.  Available at

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40839-020-00113-7;  and

 

“The World Religions Paradigm Time for a Change” Suzanne Owen

(Leeds Trinity University College, UK).  Available at

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1474022211408038

134.

Holocaust Memorial Day: Report

Jeremy Roberts to report.

Minutes:

Ed Pawson reported that the January 2021 commemorative event at Exeter Cathedral was cancelled due to the pandemic, however online planned support for schools continued and anecdotally, schools had enjoyed the variety of these resources available (i.e. films of talks and resources for lessons and assemblies.

 

Films (available at https://devonfaiths.org.uk/resources/) were as follows, (including some personal and local experiences of the narrators/ interviewees):-

  • Lizzie Small: Porrajmos film, the untold story of the Romani genocide at the hands of the Nazis (Y8 +)
  • Stuart Raine: the story of Otto Deutsch, Kindertransport child (Y5 +)
  • Anastasia Somerville-Wong: Genocide in Cambodia, when the darkest side of our nature prevails (Y8 +)
  • Helen Fry: the story of the Jewish refugees living in North Devon during WW2 (Y5 +)

 

Jeremy Roberts advised that in planning future commemorative events and in looking at what had worked well, a combination of both online and a physical event would be considered.

135.

SW SACRE Conference 2021

Ed Pawson to report

Minutes:

Ed Pawson reported on this virtual conference, “Exploring new visions for SACREs in the 2020s,” to be held on 1 March 2021, as organised by SW RE advisers.

 

The keynote speaker was Dr Farid Panjwani (UCL and Aga Khan University, Pakistan), on “Decolonising the curriculum, achieving greater awareness of historical and worldview literacy.”

 

There would also be a number of Workshops being run.  Approximately 8 Devon SACRE Member delegates were due to attend, (including Jeremy Roberts and Ed Pawson). 

 

Feedback on the conference would be made to the next SACRE meeting.

 

136.

Future SACRE Meetings

Thursday, 1st July 2021 at 10 am (Venue to be confirmed).

 

Minutes:

Thursday, 1 July 2021 at 10 am

 

(at County Hall/virtual – to be confirmed).


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