ENGAGING WITH LEICESTER'S FAITH COMMUNITIES: HINDUS

Meeting in the Welcome Centre this afternoon of a small working group, progressing the latest booklet in the series, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". These are being produced under the aegis of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education). This booklet, the fourth in the series is on the city's Hindus. The earlier booklets (on Sikhs, Muslims and Christians) are virtually finished.

While I wouldn't call the Hindu booklet "nearly finished", I would say that with the good will that characterises the collective approach to this series of booklets, it's not far off it. An important byproduct of the process is the collaborative network that has spread pretty wide to take in all the faith communities, schools and other stakeholders involved. The creative process is valuable, as is the product created.

In the photo, some members of the working group dealing with the Hindu booklet (left to right): Jill Carr, Secretary of SACRE; Kishan Devani, teacher and education consultant; Hiten Bhatt, Director of Be Great Training & Development Ltd; Dr Angela Jagger, Associate Lecturer in Religious Studies with the Open University and member of Leicester Council of Faiths.

Service Level Agreement with NHS Leicester City

Meeting this morning at St John's House, East Street, with Abida Hussain, Equality and Human Rights Officer with Leicestershire NHS Partnership Trust. We're discussing the Service Level Agreement with Leicester Council of Faiths. It took us a long time to get this agreement, now we're looking at pieces of work that need to be done before the end of the current financial year. Most relevant among these is a booklet which addresses needs of patients and their families when individuals of diverse backgrounds first present for examination or treatment. It coves some of the standard topics for this sort of publication (diet, dress code, modesty, end of life care) but in a very succinct form (and, in this "field trial" version, on laminated, wipe-clean pages). There are many versions of this sort of thing out there, of course, but more often than not, they're over-complicated with much too much information in them. Sometimes, you can't see the wood for the trees - and those compiling such guidance them don't know where to stop, as they're often fearful that the thing they omit will be the thing that catches them out!

I'll be helping bring it up to date, ensure an accurate list of local contacts, and import whatever learning may be relevant from other projects, such as the booklet series, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester".

Engaging with faith communities in Leicester (7)

A meeting at Soar Valley College this afternoon (starting 1630 - on a Friday?!?) to work on the text of the Christian booklet in the series, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester".

The meeting is led by Jill Carr, Secretary of SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) and RE Adviser with Leicester City Council. this is my second meeting with Jill this week on this project. We got together to work on the Muslim text on Monday afternoon at Forest Lodge Education Centre.

Apart from Jill and me, there are seven others, all members of SACRE, representing a variety of Christian denominations. Considering we're trying to put together something on which we can all broadly agree, the meeting is pretty productive. I feel that my role today has more to do with ensuring consistency with the other titles we've been working on in this series - and to help make sure (along with Jill) that the text serves the practical purposes which the series is intended to serve.

Engaging with faith communities in Leicester (5)

Meeting Jill Carr, RE Adviser to Leicester City Council and Secretary of SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) in Costa Coffee, Waterstone's, Market Street. We're discussing the texts for the series, "Engaging with Leicester's Faith Communities". We began working on these since January. Back then, there were five of us involved. Along the way, for one reason or another, RE Today Services, St Philip's Centre, the Schools Development Support Agency (SDSA) have dropped out and now it's just the two of us.

A meeting was held recently with representatives of the Muslim community, so that they could respond to the text that we've come up with to date. I wasn't able to attend that meeting. so Jill fills me in on the work we have to do tho bring that text up to date. We should have held a similar meeting focusing on the Christian text, but that was postponed due to lack of support.

Jill recommends that I send information about the Highcross exhibition in National Inter Faith Week to SACRE so that it can be circulated around membrs.

SACRE AT ABBEY COMMUNITY PRIMARY SCHOOL

At Abbey Community Primary School, Belgrave, this afternoon for a meeting of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education).

Peter Greaves, deputy head of Dovelands Primary School addresses us on how to improve the experience of school parties visiting places of worship (or "centres", so that we can include other venues, such as Secular Hall). Such visits are taking on increasing significance in the context of pupils and students learning outside the classroom and of schools' responsibility to promote community cohesion. He offered a few principles that could be observed by the school and the place of worship before, during and after arranged visits.

BEFORE THE VISIT

For the place of worship

Good communication - contact details

A "clued-up" person who can make knowledgeable arrangements - time, facilities, available adults etc

Should say what they can offer, not ask the school to say what they want

For the school

A clear age-appropriate focus for the visit - why is the school group visiting?

Clear timings

A pre-visit by a member of staff (identified as the single most important thing on this list)

For both

Confirm all arrangements in writing, with a telephone call the day before

DURING THE VISIT

For the place of worship

Sticking to arrangements and focus

Being ready

Somewhere to put stuff (coats, lunchboxes etc)

Well-stocked toilets!

Enough leaders

Keep communicating any concern to teachers/leaders

For the school

Keep communicating any concern to staff in the place of worship

AFTER THE VISIT

For the school

Notes of thanks and examples of work and photos

For both

Any feedback that would help to make future visits better

We also consider three significant difficulties on this topic. Firstly, the environment within a place of worship is normally set up for adult users and visitors. This may mean that some material (e.g. images of historical conflict between faiths and cultures) may be difficult for children to see or for adults to explain to them.

Secondly, we hear anecdotal evidence that some (unspecified) places of worship don't allow wheelchair users access to certain parts of their sites, because of concern about dirt on their wheels. This will have to be addressed (by SACRE?) to ensure that places of worship abide by legislation.

Thirdly, we discuss the common difficulties of persuading or reassuring parents (of all religions and denominations) to allow their children to visit places of worship of faiths other than their own. Schools need to make it clear that the classes will visit a place of worship for all faith communities as part of a cycle of education that is as inclusive as possible and doesn't favour any particular religion(s) over any other(s).

Jill Carr, Secretary of SACRE, gives a brief report on progress with the new series of information booklets, entitled "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". The Muslim text is just about finished. The Sikh text is in advanced draft form. The Hindu text is just getting to the draft stage. The Christian text hasn't been started yet. A meeting with the Presidents of Leicester's seven gurdwaras has been called at Leicester Tigers next month (see blog, Wednesday 19 May) to discuss issues raised in the Sikh text, particularly the wearing of the Kirpan (dagger) by Sikh pupils, students and staff in schools.

Under Any Other Business, our Chair brings to our attention Celebrating RE - a month-long celebration of religious education in England and Wales in March 2011. It strikes me that this is something Leicester Council of Faiths might be able to accommodate in its 25th anniversary year.

Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester (3)

At the Schools Development Support Agency this morning, to continue our work on "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". That's the overall title for a new series of texts for schools, which (hopefully) will also be the basis of a programme of training for school staff. We've just about finished the text on Muslims and are advancing into the second, on Sikhs. This material might end up being published electronically, allowing schools to print off their own hard copy if they want to. Jill Carr (Secretary of Leicester SACRE); Fiona Moss (of RE Today Services), Robert Vincent (of the Schools Development Support Agency) have been at it since 0830, when I arrive, just after 10. We make good progress till we call it quits around midday.

Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester (2)

At the Schools Development Support Agency this afternoon, for a third meeting on a new series of texts for schools, with the overall title, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". First in the series is a text on the Muslim community; we're hoping to agree a final version of the content today. There are four of us meeting today: Jill Carr (Secretary of Leicester SACRE); Fiona Moss (of RE Today Services), Robert Vincent (of the Schools Development Support Agency) and me. Jill has printed out a version of the second booklet in the series, on the Sikh community, ready for us to start work on just as soon as we can sign off on the Muslims text.

Glad to recognise a kindred spirit in Robert, as far as caring about good writing goes!

SACRE @ Friends Meeting House

To the Friends Meeting House, Queens Road this afternoon, for a meeting of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Committee on Religious Education).

This is the second SACRE meeting I've attended on behalf of Leicester Council of Faiths. The Inter Faith Network for the UK is encouraging local inter faith groups to become more closely involved with SACRE in their area. But SACREs have very particular functions and responsibilities and it can be difficult to see just how local inter faith groups fit in with that. But there's a good spirit of cooperation between the Council of Faiths and SACRE in Leicester and we're considering the best fit between us. SACRE is rewriting its constitution and an appropriate place for the Council of Faiths can be found within the new one.

This meeting is a good example of the kind of role we can play alongside or within SACRE. Leicester City Council has become concerned about the effect on school attendance of time taken off for religious observances. Such time taken off was not visible before because of the use of an "R" code in school registers. This marked days off for religious reasons and the school had discretion about whether this had to be included in the overall number of absences. In effect, a pupil could be off school for purposes of religious observance, but could be considered as being present on those days. Recent changes in recording absences in school have done away with the "R" code, so schools no longer have that discretion. Now if a pupil is off school for religious reasons, it must be shown as an absence - even if an authorised one, it still contributes to the school's record of total absences. So, all of a sudden, the number of absences has leapt for the city as a whole - from 15,858 sessions missed in 2007-08 to 45,453 session missed in 2008-09 (figures are for all schools, primary and secondary). That's a 300% increase in one year, all due to a new method of recording. The City Council is considering a range of options that would allow schools in Leicester to be more responsive to the pattern of life of the city's faith communities, thus ameliorating the effect on children’s education of missing so many sessions. Several practical (and a few impractical) options are discussed at this meeting today. One step that was agreed on was to engage leaders and representatives of the city's faith communities on this topic. The Council of Faiths recently hosted a focus group with representatives of the City Council on the current review of bereavement services (see blog entry, "staying in focus", below). We may be able to offer the City Council something similar on this issue. It's not my place to commit the Council of Faiths to doing such a thing on this occasion, but I will pass this on to our officers for them to make a decision. I gave my calling card to the two representatives of the City Council who brought their paper on this topic to this meeting and said we'd be in touch.

Noel Singh, Policy Officer with Leicestershire County Council, speaks about relations with Leicestershire SACRE and the Interfaith Forum for Leicestershire. It's gratifying to see that Noel's notes are written on REDP notepaper!

We also get an update from Jill Carr on the booklet series project, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester", which I'm helping write, along with the Schools Development Support Agency (SDSA).

Find out more about Leicester SACRE:
http://www.leicester.gov.uk/your-council-services/education-lifelong-learning/school-staff/curriculum-subjects/religious-education/sacre/

Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester (1)

Back to Leicester from Oakham for a meeting at the Schools Development Support Agency (SDSA). They're based at 6 Bishop Street, just two doors down from the Welcome Centre. A number of us are working together on a new series of booklets entitled "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". These will be for use mainly in schools and colleges, offering a clear practical guide for staff on how to understand and appreciate the distinctive qualities of the faiths in their schools and help them deal with the kind of religious and cultural issues that might arise in those settings. The booklet on Islam is well advanced in content, some of it based on the leaflet produced two years ago by the Council of Faiths. Our principle aim today was to agree on the format, which will allow the series to grow. The text on Sikhism is in development and work will start soon on one on Hinduism. It was decided that there will be an introduction written jointly by the Chair of SACRE and the Chair of the Council of Faiths.