(a) To receive, for information, the monitoring form in respect of
schools’ self-evaluation for the Spring to
Summer 2017 period.
(Copy enclosed)
(b) To present a summary of the following schools’ self-evaluation:
(i) Ysgol Glan y Môr, Pwllheli
(ii) Ysgol Talysarn
(iii) Ysgol Bro Hedd Wyn
(iv) Ysgol Llanllyfni
(v) Ysgol Bro Tegid
(Copies enclosed)
Minutes:
(a)
The Assistant Education
Quality Improvement Officer guided Members through the handout circulated in
which a summary of school findings was set out, drawing attention to the fact
that five primary schools and one secondary school had been inspected by ESTYN
during the 2017 Spring term.
(b)
Members were guided
through the self-evaluations of the schools of Ysgol Glan
y Môr, Bro Hedd Wyn, Llanllyfni and Bro Tegid.
The GwE Challenge
Adviser praised Gwynedd schools for their readiness to share their
self-evaluations of religious education and collective worship, and emphasised that monitoring the standard of religious
education was one of Gwynedd SACRE's responsibilities. It was explained that
they sought to accept the self-evaluations from schools during the inspection
term or shortly thereafter. As religious
studies was not a national curriculum subject, it can be seen from the
self-evaluations that the schools were fulfilling the requirements of the Cytûn syllabus which was produced locally by the SACRE.
From the
self-evaluations presented, it was seen that the schools had deemed that the
standards and the education provisions were good and the collective worship was
meeting statutory requirements. Ysgol Llanllyfni's self-evaluation was presented based on work
conducted over a long period of time, but reference was made to ESTYN's recent
inspection report which noted that the provision in key stage 2 was fully
meeting the agreed syllabus. The school
would be producing an an action plan in order to
tackle the work and it was hoped that SACRE would see an improvement will along
with examples of work in October.
Reference was made
to improvement issues that were noted by the schools:
·
Ysgol Glan y Môr was eager to help boys
to achieve improved standards in religious studies by developing literacy,
reading and writing.
·
Ysgol Talysarn was eager to ensure that pupils could demonstrate
progress by studying various religions; ensuring that religious education was scrutinised regularly by the School's Curriculum Panel
·
Ysgol Bro Hedd Wyn was eager
to ensure that the Foundation Phase received a broader and richer experience
In response to an enquire regarding SACRE monitoring
arrangements, the Challenge Adviser explained that this is carried out as
follows:
·
Scrutinise external results in October or in the Spring meeting
·
Browse
through inspection reports
·
Invite
schools to present self-evaluations by ensuring that the content is evaluative
and quantitative
·
Invite
schools to give presentations on the work completed in the classroom
In terms of
collective worship, it was explained that was was
conducted daily, but that there is no requirement for a mass Assembly, it can
be conducted in classes and there was no specific time for it. In accordance with the Act, the sessions must
mainly be Christian and schools were requested to be sensitive to other
religions. It was explained that parents
had a right to exempt their children from collective worship as they had the
right to exempted them from religious education classes. Schools had a right to conduct Christian
collective worship, but from a religious education perspective, it was not the
school's duty to make children religious.
Historically and
traditionally, situations where staff had refused to lead collective worship in
schools had been very rare, and it was noted that a stock of useful resources
had been published and were available to help staff lead sessions. In addition, schools could invite local
religious leaders to lead collective worship sessions and schools welcomed this
link. It was also noted that some
schools made use and appreciated the "Open the Book" scheme, where a
group of people would tell a story or act out a biblical story to pupils.
RESOLVED: To accept and note the contents of the
inspections and self-evaluations and in accordance with procedure to request
that the Assistant Education Quality Improvement Officer sends a letter to the
above schools to note SACRE's appreciation of the efforts made by them in
achieving the grades.
Supporting documents: