SACRE AT SOAR VALLEY COLLEGE

At Soar Valley College, Gleneagles Avenue, this afternoon for the regular scheduled meeting of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education).

We hear Sandfield Close Primary School's petition for determination, presented by Head Teacher Amanda Dhillon.

We have the third presentation in our ongoing series, Faith Focus, in which one of the members of SACRE is given the opportunity to introduce the group to their religion or belief. Today it’s a presentation on Humanism by Allan Hayes.

We’re brought up to speed with the latest developments in our series of electronic booklets of guidance for schools staff, Engaging with Leicester’s Faith Communities.

We’re presented with the SACRE Annual Report and with the SACRE development plan, January 2011 – January 2013. This plan describes the following five key priorities:

1. To monitor the impact of the Leicester Agreed Syllabus on raising standards of RE in schools
2. To raise the profile of SACRE and the positive contribution it can make to community cohesion
3. To support the work of the Youth SACRE
4. To provide guidance and support for schools of effective provision for Collective Worship and support for determinations
5. To develop links between Leicester SACRE and schools as well as local / national bodies

SACRE AT SOAR VALLEY COLLEGE, JANUARY 2011

At Soar Valley College this afternoon, for a meeting of SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education), starting 1630. Thanks to Kelly for getting me here on time from Nottingham, where our REDP Equality Update Event finished at 1500.

One of the main purposes of Leicester SACRE is to receive requests for "Determinations" from city schools. If the head teacher of a school feels that the provision of collective worship within the broadest interpretation of the law is not suitable for that particular school, then the head teacher should consider whether it might be appropriate to ask the SACRE to grant a "determination" in accordance with the law. A determination is the decision of the SACRE as to whether it is appropriate to lift the requirement for wholly or mainly broadly Christian collective worship to be provided for the school, or any class or description of pupils at the school, having regard to any circumstances relating to the family background of the pupils for which the determination is requested. The SACRE must review the determination if the school so requests and, in any event, within five years of the date when the determination was made or last reviewed. Members of SACRE discuss such requests in fixed blocks, reflecting their own interests and associations before voting on whether or not to grant the determination. Leicester Council of Faiths doesn't have voting rights at SACRE. We're involved as an invited observer; we have the right to speak and query, and can get involved in all sorts of activities and projects (e.g. Leicester SACRE's two-year development plan, which we discuss today), but we don't vote on determinations or any other processes.

Our booklet series, "Engaging with Leicester's Faith Communities" is on the agenda, but far enough down to prevent us from reaching it till five minutes after the meeting is scheduled to finish. Rather than rush it, it's decided that we should hold this over till the next meeting in March.

ENGAGING WITH LEICESTER'S FAITH COMMUNITIES (6)

At Forest Lodge Education Centre this afternoon, meeting with Jill Carr (photo above), Leicester City Council's RE Adviser and Secretary of SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education). We're working on the latter stages of the text of the Muslim booklet in the series, "Engaging with Leicester's Faith Communities".

SHOULD YOUNG SIKHS WEAR THE KIRPAN IN LEICESTER SCHOOLS?

Meeting at the Tigers, early evening, to discuss the Sikh text in the series currently under development, "Engaging with Leicester's Faith Communities". Representatives of all Leicester's gurdwaras have been invited, Head Teachers (or Deputy Heads) of the six primary schools and four secondary schools with the biggest numbers of Sikh pupils in the city and a small number of others identified as stakeholders.

More specifically, the major topic for discussion is the wearing of the kirpan (one type of which is illustrated in the photo above) in Leicester schools and colleges. The steering group (of which I am a member) have gathered advice and information from other local authorities (e.g. Bedford, Birmingham, Redbridge) who have gone through a similar process. We want our text to contain intelligent and definitive guidelines that can be followed in the city. There's an hour-and-a-half of mature, trusting and friendly consultation among around 25 of us and I believe everyone went away happy. One good result was that more people wanted to have a read of the whole text before it is approved for publication. More work for those of us involved in writing and editing it, but it definitely brings a better sense of engagement all round - and that, in itself, is one of the intended results of creating this series of texts.

I'm not going to try and present the content of our discussion here. That would not do justice to the topic or to the quality of contributions that were made round the table. I count myself privileged to be involved in this kind of work with such people.