Bradford SACRE

Minutes of SACRE Meeting

Wednesday 30 April

Future House – 01274 378405

Committee A / Committee B / Committee C / Committee D / Others
Attendance / Farha Patel
Wendy Ridley
Sheila Kaye
Ayub Laher
Tina Frances Rowe
Robert Hallam / Fiona Beevers
Cathy Davie
Michael de Villiers / Wahid Zaman
Hayley Bennet
Mike Binder / Cllr Alex Ross Shaw
(substitute for Cllr Michelle Swallow)
Ghazanfer Khaliq / Co-optees
Ros Garside (Chair)
Mohinder Singh Chana
Dermot Bolton
Rizwana Saleem
IEC
Geraldine Cooper
Apologies / Sharif Kaf Al-Ghazal
Sue Hobson*
Tamar Yellin
Helen Sellers / David Mallard* / Cllr Michelle Swallow
Cllr Geoff Reid
Absent / Govinder Singh Dhaliwal
Meg Henry
Azhar Iqbal
Balu Lad
Pam Mullarkey
Sushma Puri
Kashmir Singh Rajput
Sukhdev Singh
Edward Stirling
Adam Woodhouse / Alison Way / BecOsbourne / George McQueen
Vacancies / Hindu (1)
Muslim (1)
OrthodoxChurch / (1)
1. Welcome and Disclosures
of Interest / Ros welcomed all those present in particular Cllr Alex Ross Shaw
2. Apologies / As above
3. Minutes of SACRE Meeting
held on 12 February 2014 / Dermot Bolton requested that the minutes record that he is a Humanist representative not the representative of the Humanist Association.
It was proposed by Cathy Davie, seconded by Wendy Ridley and unanimously agreed that he minutes be accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting.
4. Matters Arising from the
Minutes / Letter from Elizabeth Truss – GC has contacted Philip Davies MP to ask permission to share this letter with other SACRE’s.
The Diocesan Board of Education has been advised of the resignation of Revd Stephen Lees, Fiona reported that this would be addressed at the next Diocesan Board of Education.
5. Correspondence / No further items of correspondence.
6. Humanist representation on SACRE / Ros described the difference between co-opted and full membership of SACRE. A full member is a voting member of a specific committee. A co-opted member may choose to participate in any committee for the duration of a meeting but does not have the right to vote in committee. Each committee has a single vote in a full meeting.
Arguments for and against the principle of full membership for the Humanist representative were presented by Mike Binder and Fiona Beevers respectively.
Members met in committee to decide whether or not full membership of SACRE should be conferred on the Humanist representative.
Committee A – against Humanist representative being given full representation.
Committee B – against Humanist representative being given full representation.
Committee C – qualified approval as long as SACRE is acting within the law.
Committee D - against Humanist representative being given full representation until the legal situation is clarified.
Therefore the Humanist representative on SACRE will continue to be a co-opted member.
Action – Geraldine Cooper to clarify the legal situation with regard to full membership.
7. Reports – G Cooper / The All Party Parliamentary Group on RE has published its second report ‘The contribution of RE to Community Cohesion’ – it was suggested that this be a future agenda item.
G Cooper has spoken at Governor Area Briefings in Bradford and Keighley. The power-point presentation which outlines the educational, as well as statutory, importance of RE and collective worship will be made available on the SACRE page of BSO.
Faith tutors have developed joint planning for faith worship which maintains the integrity of the teachings and practices of each faith whilst sharing a common purpose of promoting positive values on common themes.
A document outlining the work of the Interfaith Education Centre; number of visits to places of worship, schools, faith worship etc was tabled. It was clarified that this is a record of the work of the Interfaith Education Centre and does not capture visits that schools arrange independently.
8. Development Working Group – M Binder / M Binder reported that the development plan working group had met on 8 April.
The RAG system is not proving to be an effective means of recording progress because .
Particular attention had been given to objective 4, the promotion of the work of SACRE.
The chair of the working group had requested that time be given for committees to discuss how members can take corporate responsibility to be representatives of SACRE in the wider context.
The Chair and Clerk haverequested that RE be the topic for a Future Public Forum for Education, members will have an important role in disseminating this in their constituent communities.
Waheed Zaman suggested that RE and collective worship be an agenda item for the Bradford Primary Improvement Partnership.
Collaboration with other SACREs will be a future agenda item.
9. Examination Results 2013 / An analysis of Bradford public examination results in Religious Studies (RS) broken down f ethnicity and social deprivation was presented to SACRE.
Following discussion in committee it was agreed thatSACRE would be better informed if analysis of examination results:

identified trends within individual schools,
measured social deprivation by eligibility for pupil premium not by free school meals
compared performance in RS with geography and history (English Baccalaureate subjects)
identified the proportion of students for whom RS is the subject that enables them to meet the target of 5 A*-C grades
monitored entries by percentage of ethnic group within each school.

10. Any Other Business / Cllr Alex Ross Shaw alerted members to “ Remembering Srebreniza” which aims to encourage schools to recognise the anniversary of the genocide through projects and events which develop community cohesion.
Ayub Laher – asked if information is available on the schools that are required to have a determination. It was explained that it is the decision of the headteacher and the governing body whether or not a school applies for a determination. The clerk agreed to provide numbers of schools which currently have a determination. about the number of schools with a determination exempting them from collective worship ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character’. Determinations will be the main agenda item at the next meeting of SACRE.
Dermot Bolton – informed SACRE of the forthcoming launch of the Calderdale and Kirklees agreed syllabus for RE.
A conference for Humanist SACRE representatives is to be held in Leeds with keynote speakers Alastair Ross and Dr Mark Chater talking about curriculum development.
The meeting ended at 21 00
The next meeting will be held onThursday 19 June at 7.00pm at Future House
* apologies received too late to report at the meeting

S:\Diversity_and_Cohesion\Interfaith\Admin\SACRE\Minutes\51.30April2014Draft.doc