Agenda item

Jo Fageant, Professional Advisor, updated SACRE on the recent launch of a briefing paper on “A New Settlement: Religion and Belief in Schools”, part of the Westminster Faith Debates in the House of Lords. The paper focussed on three issues:

1. Collective Worship
2. Religious Education
3. Faith Schools

Ms Fageant advised that the paper contained some controversial suggestions for changes, including the implementation of a National Syllabus for RE together with a National SACRE, and a rethink on compulsory RE within schools. Some of these changes would require amendments to current legislation, and could have an impact on the remit of local SACREs.

The NASACRE paper on the briefing paper had raised questions regarding the proposals, and had asked whether local SACREs would like to respond to these questions, in order to present a collective response by the end of 2015.

It was agreed that SACRE would convene a Sub-Committee to discuss the proposals and formulate a draft response. The draft response would then be forwarded to all members of SACRE for further comment, before the final response was sent.

The Sub-Committee was confirmed as:

Jo Fageant

Rob Simpson

Sue Elbrow

Lynda Bussley

Cllr Preston Brooker

The date of the Sub-Committee meeting was to be arranged between the attendees, outside of the SACRE meeting.