The Chairman welcomed the Members of the Committee.

Apologies were received from Carol Fletcher, Duncan MacPherson, Prem Chand Sondhi, Vivien Sunlight and Pauline Thomas.

To approve the minutes from the meeting of SACRE on 7 November 2011 attached.

The minutes from 7 November 2011 were agreed and the Chairman authorised to sign them.

Humanists and their role within Religious Education.

Marilyn Mason gave a presentation on Humanism and its role within Religious Education. She explained that Humanism presented a non-religious world view. Humanists made ethical decisions based on reason, empathy and concern for human beings and other sentient animals.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) valued RE in education. The BHA had been a founding member of the Values of Education Council in 1995, and participated actively on the Religious Education Panel. They were concerned with the positive moral and spiritual development of all young people, and had participated in discussions and conferences on “Spiritual development” in schools.

Humanists participated in over 60 SACREs including Wandsworth, Hounslow and Merton.

Marilyn highlighted the virtues of inclusiveness that were to be found in good RE teaching. Modern RE involved addressing ultimate life questions, ethical issues and the chance for pupils to share their beliefs and values with others.

She believed that people did not need to be religious to have strong morals and values. It was important that non-religious children participated in RE so they could compare and discuss their views with others.

The British Humanist Association had representatives which could visit schools to give an insight into their beliefs and contribute to teaching RE. 

To include an update on a joint letter from the RE Council and NATRE to Michael Wilshaw – Chief Inspector for Schools in England.

Pat explained the ongoing problem for RE; there was a requirement for schools to teach RE, but this was dependent on their funding arrangements. It was important that the boroughs schools continue to be monitored to ensure they were teaching RE.

NATRE had written to the Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, to notify him of the problems facing RE. A coherent method of communication needed to be established between RE and the government. Previous channels of communication had dissolved following a change in the Ofsted framework.

The All Party Parliamentary Group for Education had recently been established to safeguard and support Religious Education. They would also be encouraging RE as a priority in schools.

The NASACRE, 2012 Annual General Meeting was due to take place on Wednesday May 23^rd. Committee Members were encouraged to consider attending. 

The NASACRE, winter 2011, News Letter had recently been published and Pat advised SACRE members to read it. The News Letter included information to help define Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural Values, and explained how Ofsted would be measuring it in schools: http://www.nasacre.org.uk/publications.html.

·         To consider ways to implement objectives from the action plan (attached).

·         To note the “SACRE RETool: Reporting and Evaluating Toolkit”, produced by NASACRE.

It was noted that, Katherine Pearce and Kallum Brunner had resigned from their roles as co-opted members on the SACRE. The Committee considered how to develop the Youth Parliament’s involvement with the SACRE. It was suggested that the Youth Parliament should be contacted to see how they would prefer to be involved in SACRE. This could include an annual survey of their views on how RE could be improved and what RE means to them.

A list of agreed visitors to monitor the standards of RE and CW in schools needed to be produced. The visitors would need to be trained to achieve their objectives.

The Committee asked that the Action Plan be amended and return to the next meeting of the SACRE to be formally agreed.

To receive any announcements from members of the Committee.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the next meeting of the SACRE had been moved to 27 June 2012.

The Committee noted that the SACRE Consultant, Pat Alden, would be standing down after the next meeting.

Charanjit Singh announced the following events:

·         29 February, Women’s Interfaith Group meeting organised by Hounslow Friends of Faith.

·         26 May, Westminster Interfaith Pilgrimage at St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC3N 4AG.

·         14 and 15 July, a 2 day Interfaith Pilgrimage in Richmond, Twickenham and Kingston was being finalised details of each would be posted on  www.hounslowfriendsoffaith.org