Dear Father,

We thank You for everyone here and we ask for Your blessing and help as we are gathered together.

Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, guide us and inspire our hearts.

Fill our lives with Your love and Fill our conversations with Your grace and truth.

We ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen

The opening prayer was read by Miss Gale Waller.

The Chair and Vice Chair shall be chosen from the members of the Rutland SACRE and shall be elected at the first meeting in each academic year

At the start of this item the meeting was not quorate, it was decided to postpone this Action until the meeting was quorate.

Mrs Eileen Ray joined the meeting at 5.20pm making the meeting quorate.  The Minutes of the last meeting were approved and Item 2 was taken next.

It was proposed by Mrs Stephenson that Miss Waller would continue in her role as Chair.  This was seconded by Ms Walker and carried unanimously.

Mrs Crellin nominated Mrs Stephenson as Vice Chair.  This was seconded by Mrs Ray and carried unanimously. 

AGREED:

1.    Miss Waller would be Chair of the Rutland SACRE for 2016-2017

2.    Mrs Stephenson would be Vice-Chair of the Rutland SACRE for 2016-2017

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Rutland SACRE held on 12 July 2016 (previously circulated).

Deferred until the Meeting was quorate.

SACRE: Actions from meeting held 12^th July 2016

1.            Mrs Snodin had contacted the local branch of the NUT and had been given a contact name for the Rutland Representative, Mr Steve Kelly.  She had e mailed Mr Kelly and invited him to tonight’s meeting but had not received a response.  She will send a further e mail inviting Mr Kelly to attend the next SACRE in January 2017.

ACTION:  Mrs Snodin

2.            Miss Waller confirmed that Lord Nash was still in post and had not yet been replaced under the new administration.  This will be revisited when a new person is in post.

ACTION:  Miss Waller

3.            No response from Diocese regarding the training of RE teachers.  Mrs Crellin said there was a new person in post who is very good.  There was a big push towards REQM for which there will be some funding.  Mrs Crellin will forward the Diocese information leaflet to Miss Waller.  The two main training events will be “Understanding Christianity” and “Islam in Britain”. 

ACTION:  Mrs Crellin

4.            Dr Sharif reported that there had been a delay in setting up the initial networking meeting.  The feedback she had received from head teachers was that September was a difficult time to set up a new meeting as the academic year had just started and the school timetable was extremely busy between beginning of term and half term. Following this feedback, Dr Sharif will organise this event for between half term and Christmas.  She will draft a letter to head teachers inviting them to the event.  Dr Sharif also suggested mentioning the networking meeting in the fortnightly newsletter sent out by Mr Nick Brenton, Team Manager of the Learning and Skills Department to give it wider publicity within Rutland schools.  Dr Sharif also suggested feeding this through the Rutland Teaching Alliance to invite external authorities.  This was supported by the group

ACTION:  Dr Sharif

AGENDA Item for next meeting

5.            The content of the networking meeting was discussed.  Miss Waller asked Dr Sharif to e mail Ms Walker and Mrs Megan Davis as active heads on SACRE and agree what should be included.  Ms Walker said that PSHE/Prevent would need to make up a significant part of any networking group.  Mrs Crellin said that we should let the group know about the agreed syllabus update.  She also suggested asking participants to suggest three positives and three negatives to give the networking group an idea of where future training is needed.

ACTION:  Dr Sharif

6.                Action completed

7.             Action completed

8.            Action completed

9.            Miss Waller confirmed that she had deliberately not yet spoken to the Leader and Chief Executive as no new syllabus had yet been agreed.  Miss Waller and Mr Menzies had met with Ms Amanda Fitton, SACRE/RE Adviser to Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough the previous day and had requested that Rutland be allowed to participate in the writing of the new agreed syllabus which was currently underway.  Miss Waller said that she would request funding so that we can pay for some  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Discussion led by Councillor Gale Waller

Miss Waller said that she had e mailed the Diocese regarding membership of SACRE to see what they wanted to do about sending representatives.  It is understood that Michael Kee is unwell but other Church of England representatives had not been present at the last 3 SACRE meetings.  She has not yet received a reply.  Mrs Crellin said she knew of people within the Deanery who were keen to come on board, namely Andrew David Rayment of St Mary the Virgin in Ketton.  Miss Waller to write to the Deanery Synod to ask if anyone would like to join SACRE.  In the meantime, the following people have been removed from the membership based on them not attending for 3 successive meetings:

Mrs Sue McGrath, Mrs Mary Anne Marples, Mrs Rebecca Gray and Mrs Sarah Reseigh.

 ACTION:  Miss Waller

Discussion led by Councillor Gale Waller and Mrs Barbara Crellin

Miss Waller and Mrs Crellin had worked on the 2016-2017 Development Plan.  The members were happy with the general vision statement which Miss Waller stated we were entitled to make as aspirational as the members liked.  The members then went through each section.  Mrs Stephenson represented Mr Sharpe’s views during the discussion.  Dr Sharif stated that she had received feedback from the Head of Learning and Skills to say that the Development Plan was too ambitious in terms of support from the local education authority member as there is limited capacity to support some of the items on the plan.  Miss Waller made the point that officers are answerable to elected Members and not to implement elements of the plan would be doing a disservice to the children of Rutland.

During discussions the following changes/observations were made:

·                                1.1       Miss Waller to send a short letter to heads of schools asking about compliance and time allocation with the agreed syllabus.  ACTION:  Miss Waller

·                                1.2       Considered outside SACRE’s control but doesn’t mean we do not monitor trends

·                                1.3a     Welcome return of this item on the Development Plan.  Despite short notice everyone gave levels of progress.  Ms Walker to develop a proforma.  ACTION:  Ms Walker

·                                1.3b     Put in because we thought we would have had an agreed syllabus by now.  AGENDA Item for next meeting

·         1.4       This is obligatory

·                                    1.5       Leave date as July 2017 as SACRE are only developing a strategy at this stage and does not need to be a long document

·                                2.2a     Ongoing – Mr Sharpe’s comments were noted.  Miss Waller plans to respond.  If we manage to get an active non-Christian member then the opening prayer will be revised.  ACTION:  Miss Waller

·                                2.3       Development Planning – deleted

·                                2.4a     Essential we carry out our statutory duties – agreed by all

·                                2.4b     SACRE have a duty to deliver but needs to be funded

·                                2.4c     Consideration to be given to whether Annual Report should be presented to Full Council.  If it went to Full Council it would raise the profile land gravitas of SACRE.  Miss Waller and Mrs Stephenson could present as Council Members.  In the meantime Dr Sharif to work on the 2015-16 Annual Report for presentation at Children’s Scrutiny in April 2017.  ACTION:  Dr Sharif.  AGENDA Item for next meeting

·                                2.4d     Already happening.  Dr Sharif to write to all schools advising them to carry on with the current syllabus until further notice.  ACTION:  Dr Sharif

·                                2.5       Could be done through Rutland Head Teachers Forum.  Action:  Ms Walker

·                                    2.6       Partners need to be identified so that we can learn from others who do not follow the Northamptonshire syllabus, i.e., English Martyrs who follow the Diocese of Nottingham Roman Catholic syllabus.  Miss Waller has asked the Head of English Martyrs to come to a future SACRE meeting

·                           3          Contact Northants – will have contacts we don’t have, for example, there must be a Jewish presence in Rutland, even though there is no synagogue.  Is Mr Sharpe saying that interfaith relationships  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Discussion led by Katy Walker and Megan Davis, on the ways primary and secondary schools approach collective worship (deferred from 12^th July 2016)

Ms Walker presented a paper entitled “Rutland Schools Approach to Collective Worship”.  Overall Ms Walker is delighted with the quality of collective worship in Rutland schools with strong emphasis placed on the amount of time spent on collective worship.  Ms Walker suggested that it terms of development, collective worship could be incorporated into the networking meeting alongside RE.  Miss Waller said details of the networking meetings could be included in the SACRE website and she would also like RE and collective worship to be included as part of the Annual Report.  Miss Waller and Mrs Stephenson agreed to have a pre-meet before taking this to the meeting with the Leader.  Mrs Snodin to update the website in due course.

ACTION:  Miss Waller

Mrs Stephenson

Mrs Snodin

Miss Waller congratulated Great Casterton CofE Primary School on an exemplary Ofsted Report.  A recent monitoring visit to English Martyrs reported that they were maintaining their “good” status.  Miss Waller to write to the head teachers to congratulate them on behalf of SACRE.

ACTION:  Miss Waller

Ofsted inspection report of June 2016

Dr Sharif presented a paper highlighting the GCSE results for RE courses for all three secondary academies.  Overall progress was positive with Casterton coming in for particular praise as the top performing secondary school.  Dr Sharif said it was a shame that more students were not given the opportunity to get a qualification in RE.  Miss Waller to write to the academies to congratulate them on their results.

ACTION:  Miss Waller

The next meeting will be held on 24^th January 2017, 4.30 – 6.30 p.m. in the Council Chamber, Catmose.

The next meeting of the Rutland SACRE will take place on Tuesday, 24^th January 2017 at 4.30pm in the Council Chamber.  Miss Waller requested that Mrs Snodin feed through to the person responsible for compiling the Calendar of Meetings for 2017-2018 that the 4^th Tuesday of every month be avoided for SACRE meetings as one of the members is unavailable at that time.

ACTION:  Mrs Snodin

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The Chair declared the meeting closed at 6.45 p.m.

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