HINDU WOMEN VIE FOR SPORTS TROPHIES

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Hindu women vie for sports trophies

Women from the Hindu community will be gathering for an annual cultural sports day this weekend.

Hindu Sevika Samiti UK, a Leicester voluntary organisation that encourages girls and women to practice and preserve Hindu values, is staging the event at Soar Valley College, in Rushey Mead, on Sunday.Representatives from the city's four branches will compete in South Asian games such as kabaddi, kho-kho and ring, against counterparts from 25 other branches across the country.

Spokeswoman Kirti Vekriya said: "This year, being the host country for the Olympics, we feel that promoting sports through our annual competition is a great opportunity to get everyone into the spirit of the games."

Ms Vekriya said: "More than 100 girls and ladies will be taking part. All the teams have been training really hard."

Members of the public are welcome to cheer on participants, between 9am and 5pm.

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

TOP PERFORMANCES AT POPULAR FESTIVAL

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Top performances at popular festival

The Vaisakhi sports festival at St Margaret's Pastures proved a big hit.

Organised by former Olympic hockey player Ajaib Singh Matharu, sports included athletics, badminton, hockey and table tennis.

The hockey attracted huge interest, with teams from Coventry, Derby, Birmingham and Leamington competing alongside Leicester sides.

Soar Valley College beat South Leicester in the under-14 final, but it was roles reversed in the under-16 final.

In the veterans final, Coventry beat Leeds after a close contest.

In athletics, Satvir Singh was the star of the day in the junior section, winning two under-seven races and finishing second in a third. The outstanding girl was Raveen Kaur.

In the under-14 age groups, the best performances came from Raj Singh and Amandeep Kaur.

The Vaisakhi (birth of Khalsa) festival is celebrated by Sikhs all over the world.

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 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.

ELIZABETH & ALAN'S WEDDING

At St Andrew's Church, Jarrom Street, for the wedding of Elizabeth Wayne and Rev Alan Hawker.

Elizabeth is Head of Religious Education at Soar Valley College, long-standing member of Leicester Council of Faiths and a mainstay of Leicester SACRE. She's been very supportive of me in my post and was particularly helpful when I was writing the series of leaflets on each of our member faith communities and putting together my first training presentations. Her dress is very distinctive, having a lovely Pre-Raphaelite look about it.

I'm here with Harry and Grace and there's a good turnout of members of the Council of Faiths (about a dozen of us I'd say, from a variety of religious backgrounds). The three of us arrive early (very early by Ballerntyne standards, with more than ten minutes to spare before the start time of twelve noon) but there's standing room only, in what is a pretty big church. The service is conducted by Canon Barry Naylor (afterwards I tell the ubiquitous Barry that I'm beginning to believe there's more than one of him ).

I've never been to a Church of England wedding ceremony before - and St Andrew's seems very High Church. There's something in the service that I've not heard before: after the bride and groom have exchanged vows, the congregation is asked, "Will you, the families and friends of Alan and Elizabeth, support and uphold them in their marriage now and in the years to come?" to which we all respond "We will!" If that's normal in a Church of England wedding ceremony, then how nice; and if it isn't - then how nice!

It's such a pleasant afternoon and the kids have a lovely time too. I'm grateful to Elizabeth and Alan for inviting us to share in their special day.