Minutes:
The Chair indicated that the school where he worked were expecting an Ofsted inspection and he had heard that Religious Education could be one of the subjects to be inspected for a Deep Dive. He commented that preparing for the inspection had created a lot of work and was keeping him busy.
He then wished to convey his thanks to Phil Hodgson, Education Durham, who had recently provided professional support to SACRE but retired from the authority at the end of August 2023.
He continued by referring to SACRE Membership and indicated that he had received the resignation of V Bain who was representing the NEU and he had also received correspondence from the RE Curriculum Group representatives expressing their desire to resign. He had asked both colleagues to rethink their resignation and indicated that if they still wished to resign then they would look to appoint new representatives to the RE Curriculum Group. He commented that this may be linked to the timing of the SACRE meetings, and this may need to be reviewed at a later date.
He then read out the summary of an article in the Daily Telegraph on 17 September 2023, around pupils receiving a tokenistic Religious Education, warn cross-party MPs and peers.
He continued by raising his concerns about the lack of trainees coming through to Religious Education and provided examples of what was happening in the SCITT linked to the Academy Trust, where he worked, in particular that they received no applications for Religious Education vacancies for a number of years and stated that SACRE should be concerned.
The Chair then referred to the RE Hub and asked K Passmore for an update who provided Members with an update and indicated that the Hub launched in August 2023, and they already had 120 local groups registered. She indicated that she was creating a presentation for teacher networks, and she was happy to share this with Durham SACRE for circulation.
Members discussed the Hub and the issues around the lack of trainees for Religious Education, in particular for secondary schools.