Agenda item

The Democratic Services Officer (DSO) introduced a report on the review of the SACRE Terms of Reference (TOR) and proposed revised membership of Committee 3 – from ‘Associations representing teachers’ to ‘Representatives of Teachers and Teacher representatives (in primary, secondary and special schools)’  in Slough, so far as is reasonably practicable.

At its meeting on 4^th March 2020, the SACRE had discussed and agreed a proposal to review the current SACRE membership of Committee 3, due to the long standing issue of the high level of vacancies and the fact that many of the associations were out of date.

The SACRE was therefore requested to consider and agree the proposal to replace the current named Unions with six teachers and teachers’ representatives from any union in primary, secondary and special schools in Slough. The recommended changes would be reported to the Member Panel for the Constitution for endorsement and subsequently reported to Council for approval.

The Vice-Chair welcomed the proposed change and considered that teacher representatives would provide primary and secondary schools with a greater insight into the work of SACRE.

Members discussed the need to be flexible in order to ensure fair representation from each sector and to encourage and promote regular attendance at meetings.

It was noted that there had been a campaign to promote greater awareness in schools, and teachers had been encouraged to join SACRE through the SACRE newsletters and SACRE network meetings for RE teachers that had taken place this year.

The Chair recommended that the proposals be put to the vote and the Vice-Chair advised that each group was entitled to a single vote. It was agreed that this could be conducted by members sending a text to a nominated person within their respective groups. Following brief exchanges between groups, the proposal was put to the vote and unanimously agreed by each representative group.

Resolved:

i)  That the proposal to review the SACRE Terms of Reference to    amend Committee 3 category ‘Associations representing teachers’ to ‘Teachers (representing primary, secondary and special schools)’ be approved.

ii)  That the proposed changes be recommended for endorsement by the Member Panel on the Constitution and reported to Council for approval.