Venue: Siambr Hywel Dda, Council Offices, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH
Contact: Glynda O'Brien 01341 424301
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PRAYER Minutes: The meeting was commenced with a prayer by Dr Gwyn Lewis. |
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ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN To elect a Chairman for this Committee for 2018/19. Minutes: Recommended: To
re-elect Councillor Paul Rowlinson as Chair of this Committee for the year
2018/19 subject to the Committee's approval at its next meeting. |
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ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN To elect a Vice-Chairman for this committee for 2018/19. Minutes: Recommended: To
re-elect Councillor Elin Walker Jones as Vice-chair of this Committee for the
year 2018/19 subject to the Committee's approval at its next meeting. |
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APOLOGIES To receive any apologies for absence. Minutes: Councillors R. Medwyn Hughes and Mike Stevens, Anest Gray Frazer (Church
in Wales, Alwen Watkin, Cathryn Davey, Miriam Amlyn and Heledd Jones (Teachers'
Unions). (a)
The Members' Support Officer reported that
there was no quorum at the meeting due to the absence of members of the
education sector. It was discussed whether or not SACRE should carry on without
a quorum and in accordance with the guidance of the Senior Solicitor it was
agreed to continue but to note that the meeting did not have the power to make
decisions, in accordance with the SACRE Constitution. (b)
It was suggested that an e-mail be sent to all
SACRE Members to explain what happened in terms of not meeting not being
quorate and to appeal to Members in future to contact the Members' Support
Officer in good time if they were unable to attend. |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive any declaration of personal interest. Minutes: There were no declarations of personal interest. |
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URGENT ITEMS To note any items that are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration. Minutes: No urgent items were received. |
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The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of SACRE held on 8 November 2017 be signed as a true copy. (Copy enclosed) Minutes: Submitted - the minutes of this committee held on 8 November 2017. Resolved: To defer approving the minutes until the next meeting in
light of the fact that the meeting was not quorate. |
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MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MINUTES PDF 360 KB Item 8 (b) – The New Religious Studies GCSE To receive, for information, (a) Copy letter dated 21 November 2017 sent to the Minister of Education, Welsh Government. (b) Copy letter dated 6 December 2017 of the Minister of Education’s response. (Copies enclosed) Additional documents: Minutes: Submitted - a copy of a letter dated 21 November 2017 that had been sent to the Minister for Education, Welsh Government, along with her response dated 6 December 2017 regarding the lack of Welsh language resources for the new Religious
Education GCSE course. The letter referred
to a further meeting and it
was suggested that we should receive feedback from the outcome of the Minister for Education’s meeting with the WJEC Chief Executive. It had been given to understand
that Welsh copies were still not available. Recommended: To note the above and ask the Assistant Education Resources Officer and the SACRE Clerk to look into
the latest on the situation and to report back to the next meeting of SACRE. |
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SACRE SUPPORT To consider the way forward following the announcement from GwE that they are withdrawing the support service provided by the Improvement Support Advisor to the Gwynedd SACRE from now on. Minutes: It was reported
that GwE had sent a notification of the withdrawal of the support provided to
Gwynedd SACRE by Miss Bethan James, Supporting Improvement Adviser, from now
on. The Assistant
Education Resources Officer explained the background and noted that it was the
CYNNAL company that had provided the Service and that GwE had inherited the
work. It had been given to understand that providing support to SACREs was not
within the national model. It was added
that it was Miss Bethan James who provided the annual report to SACRE and also
attended Wales Association of SACREs meetings. This involved approximately 12 -
15 days' work for her in a year. The Members
expressed their concern of losing the invaluable contribution of the
Improvement Support Advisor and her guidance was crucial to SACRE discussions.
Without her contribution, SACRE would be a committee without any real
direction, and there was a need to press for some way to get the support back,
be that on a commission basis but more specifically to provide the annual
report for 2017/18. It was suggested
that the Chair should write to the Head of Education Department to convey
SACRE's concern and to ask him to look into ways of being able to receive the
support of the GwE Supporting Improvement Advisor or to buy in expertise from
the field of religious education to provide guidance to SACRE. Recommended: To ask the Chair to write to the Head
of Education Department to convey SACRE's concern as outlined above and to ask
him to look into ways of supporting SACRE. |
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(a) To receive an up-date regarding the application from a Humanist to serve on the Gwynedd SACRE as a voting member. (Copy enclosed) For information: Link to Circular 10/94 published by the former Welsh Office in 1994: http://www.wasacre.org.uk/publications/wag/E-circular10-94.pdf (b) To receive Mr Gwyn Rhydderch’s resignation as a co-opted member of SACRE. (c) To receive nominations of co-opted members. Additional documents: Minutes: (a)
An application had
been received from a Humanist to serve on Gwynedd SACRE as a voting member. (b)
The Senior Solicitor explained that local
authorities had a statutory responsibility to create SACREs and the
Constitution was the responsibility of the Cabinets of those Authorities. Of
course, SACRE was allowed to co-opt Members. He referred to circular 10/94
(published by the former Welsh Office in 1994) which noted that “including the
representatives of belief systems that were not tantamount to religion or a
religious denomination, on SACRE A Group, was contrary to the legal provisions
referred to in paragraph 102 of the circular." It was noted that the membership /
constitution had not been reviewed since 1996 and therefore it was asked
whether or not there was need to hold a review in light of the questions raised
as to allowing people of non-religious beliefs (such as Humanists) to be full
members of Group A based on the Human Rights Act 1998. It was suggested that
the natural step would be to submit a report to Cabinet outlining statistics of
the situation and to ask the Cabinet Members to consider reviewing the
Membership and the constitution. (c)
The Chair referred to the following figures of
Gwynedd statistics deriving from the 2011 Census: Christianity 59.5% Buddhism 0.3% Hinduism 0.2% Judaism 0.0% Islam 1.1% Sikhism 0.0% Other religion 0.5% No religion 29.7% Religion not noted 8.6% Recommended: To ask the Senior Solicitor /
Education Department to submit a report to the Cabinet with a request that they
review the membership / constitution. (d)
It was reported that
Mr Gwyn Rhydderch, who was a co-opted member, had resigned from CYSAG due to
his role at Coleg y Bala. It had been given to understand that Nia Williams,
the Education Resources Officer for Children and Young People for the
Presbyterian Church, was eager to serve on SACRE as a co-opted member. It was further
suggested that it would be useful to invite young people from School Councils
to be co-opted members. It could be possible, initially, to arrange for pupils
to be invited from the schools of the teachers who represented the Unions and
who served on SACRE so they could travel together, and then in time,
arrangements could be established for representatives to vary from area to
area. Recommended: That
the Assistant Education Resources Officer: ·
Contacts Nia
Williams, Education Resources Officer for Children and Young People of the
Presbyterian Church, to ascertain her intentions to be a cop-opted member of
SACRE. ·
Contacts the
teachers representing the Unions on SACRE to ascertain whether any pupils at
their schools would be interested in being co-opted to serve on SACRE. ·
Contacts Reverend
Aled Davies to ascertain whether he wishes to continue as co-opted member |
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IMPLICATIONS OF ESTYN'S NEW INSPECTION FRAMEWORK ON SACRE'S MONITORING PROCESSES PDF 996 KB To receive a report on the above. (Copy enclosed) Minutes: Submitted - a
report outlining examples of what SACRE could monitor in light of changes to
the ESTYN inspection framework that was based on five fields, namely 1.
Standards 2.
Welfare and attitudes to learning 3.
Teaching and learning experiences 4.
Care, support and guidance 5.
Leadership and management Recommended: To
note the above. |
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SCHOOLS' SELF-EVALUATION PDF 276 KB (a) To receive, for information, monitoring forms in respect
of schools’ self-evaluation for: ·
Autumn 2017 to Spring 2018 period ·
Spring 2018 to Summer 2018 period (Copies enclosed) (b) To receive
a presentation from Suzanne Roberts, Religious
Education Department, Ysgol y Moelwyn. (Copy of self-assessment
enclosed) (c) To present
a summary of the following schools’ self-evaluation: (i)
Ysgol
y Moelwyn (ii)
Ysgol
Friars (iii)
Ysgol
Baladeulyn (iv)
Ysgol
Cwm y Glo (v)
Ysgol
Sarn Bach (vi)
Ysgol
Nebo (vii)
Ysgol
y Gelli (viii) Ysgol O M Edwards (ix)
Ysgol
Abererch (Copies enclosed) Additional documents:
Minutes: (a) Submitted - the school self-evaluations over two terms, namely autumn
2017 to spring 2018: Ysgol y Moelwyn Ysgol Friars Ysgol Baladeulyn Ysgol Cwm y Glo Ysgol Sarn Bach Ysgol Nebo Ysgol y Gelli Ysgol O M Edwards Ysgol Abererch Particular attention was drawn to the Ysgol Abererch self-evaluation
which was especially good. (b) Suzanne Roberts of Ysgol y Moelwyn was welcomed to the meeting and she
guided the Members through the School self-evaluation and noted that the
departmental development plan intertwined with the self-evaluation and the
School's priorities. Attention was drawn
to the five questions and the evidence gathered in response such as the pupils'
forum, scrutiny of written and practical work and lesson observation. In response to questions, the following was noted: ·
In terms of contact
with the governing body, that governors had a discussion with the Department on
what was being done to gain a better understanding which included looking at
work plans, observing books and tasks. ·
In terms of the
Professor Donaldson Report, it was felt that Religious Education fitted into
some elements but that more training and more time was needed to plan. Recommended: (a) To accept and note the contents of the
inspections and self-evaluations and in accordance with procedure to request
that the Education Resources Officer sends a letter to the above schools
congratulating them on their success and to note SACRE's appreciation of the
efforts made by them in achieving the grades. (b) To note and
thank Suzanne Roberts for attending the meeting and for her presentation. |
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Up-date in relation to Religious Education and the Humanities Area of Learning and Experience currently being developed as part of the new curriculum for Wales (Copy enclosed) Additional documents:
Minutes: Submitted - an
update on Religious Education and the Humanities Learning and Experience Field
which was being developed as part of the New Curriculum for Wales. During the
meeting, Members were presented with the comments made by NASUWT on the
proposals noting that Religious Education, History, Geography and Business
should receive equal attention in terms of time and resources such as the
number of lessons, specialist teachers etc.
It must be ensured that the qualification requirements of Religious
Education received priority and that provision was made for the Donaldson
principles at secondary schools. The
principles to meet were suggested as follows: ·
Endeavour to get schools
to appoint Religious Education subject teachers ·
Ensure that religious
education was a Key Stage 3 subject and not a supplement for other subjects ·
Ensure that religious
education received the same resources and time as the other humanities subjects ·
Ensure that qualification
requirements (GCSE etc.) received priority on Donaldson requirements Recommended: To
ask the Assistant Education Resources Officer to send a letter to Manon Jones,
Curriculum, Assessment and Education Sub-division, Welsh Government, to convey
the above-mentioned comments, and to approve them at the next SACRE meeting. |
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COLLECTIVE WORSHIP - FEEDBACK BY MEMBERS To receive Members’ feedback on monitoring Collective Worships at schools. Minutes: Submitted - the feedback form of Councillor Mike Stevens after he attended
collective worship at a school in his ward. Councillor Dewi Roberts reported that he
had also attended two Schools and the worship in both
schools was very different. There was a need to revisit one other
School. Recommended: To accept and
note the above. |
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GWYNEDD SACRE ANNUAL REPORT 2016/17 PDF 664 KB To receive, for information, the final copy of the Gwynedd SACRE Annual Report 2016/17. (Copy enclosed) Minutes: The Gwynedd SACRE final
Annual Report for the 2016-17 academic year was submitted for members’ information,
as they had adopted the report at the last SACRE meeting. A copy would be sent to the Wales Association
of SACREs. Recommended: To accept and note the above. |
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WALES ASSOCIATION OF SACRE PDF 1 MB (a) To receive minutes of the Wales SACRE Association’s meeting held on 9 March 2018 (Copy enclosed) (b) To note that the next meeting of the Wales SACRE Association will be held on 6 July 2018 at Oriel Môn, Llangefni. (c) To consider WASACRE’s draft constitution. (Copy enclosed) (d) To consider a nomination for the Executive Committee of WASACRE. (Copy enclosed) Additional documents:
Minutes: (a) Minutes of the
previous meeting The draft minutes of the previous Association meeting, held on 9 March 2018, were submitted. (b) To note that the next
meeting of Wales Association
of SACREs would take place on
6 July 2018 at Orel Môn,
Llangefni, and members were
encouraged to attend. (a) Submitted - draft constitution of the Wales Association of SACREs (ch) One nomination was submitted for a seat on
the Wales Association of SACREs
Work Committee. Recommended: To note
all the above-mentioned matters. |
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MANAGING THE RIGHT OF WITHDRAWAL FROM RELIGIOUS EDUCATION To receive, for information, a copy of the above published
guidance document. (Copy of document to be circulated at the meeting) Minutes: Submitted - for information, a copy of the above-mentioned document that had been published
recently. |
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ESTYN'S REPORT ON RELIGOUS EDUCATION PDF 1001 KB To consider the above report. (Copy enclosed) Minutes: Submitted - a thematic report published by ESTYN on 12 June 2018 and attention was drawn to the recommendations. It was reported that an
e-mail would be sent to all
Gwynedd schools to draw their
attention to the report. Recommended: To accept
and note the above. |