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Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education
What is Waltham Forest SACRE?
The Law states that every local education authority (LEA) must set up a Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) to take the responsibility to advise them on matters concerned with the provision of religious education and collective worship.
The Broad role of the SACRE therefore is to support the effective provision for Religious Education and collective worship. In order that they can bring a wide range of interests and talents to this work, a SACRE is made up of four groups:
- Christian denominations and other religions and religious denominations
- The Church of England
- Teachers' Professional Associations and teachers representing local schools
- The LEA
There may also be additional places for co-optees.
The revised Waltham Forest Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education KS1 & 2 has been launched and is available to download. (This is a large PDF document. PDF documents require Adobe Reader software on your computer in order to read them. If you do not already have Adobe Reader installed, you can download it for free from www.adobe.co.uk -- see the link entitled 'Get Adobe Reader'.)
What does the SACRE do?
Waltham Forest SACRE usually meets four times annually. At these meetings SACRE does some or all of the following:
- Consider sections from current OFSTED reports on Religious Education and collective worship in order to gain information about the status of these areas in individual schools and across Waltham Forest.
- Congratulates schools whose OFSTED reports on Religious Education and collective worship are good.
- Seeks further information or ways to offer support to those schools where Religious Education and/or collective worship are indicated as areas for improvement.
- Works on the production of support materials for schools.
- Reviews training being provided for teachers or for faith community representatives.
- Considers and comments on new or urgent local or national initiatives or issues.
- Discusses and decides on ways that it can support teachers in a range of ways including setting up or arranging exhibitions for pupils, teachers and community groups.
- Develops or maintain links with and between faith communities locally and nationally.
- Produces an annual report of its work.
Waltham Forest SACRE believes...
that religious education is a vital subject for the promotion of core values, it enhances understanding and discourages prejudice. Religious Education helps pupils to make sense of the world in which they are going to take their place as adults, to know and understand what it is that people believe and how this affects how they live alongside each other.
Religious Education is part of the curriculum by law. The Agreed Syllabus is the method by which that law is implemented. It deals with one of the most important parts of the curriculum, yet one of the hardest to define and plan. It attempts to deal with the fact that people in all societies have tried to recognise ultimate values and to grapple with the meaning of life.
It is not the place of religious education to nurture pupils into a particular religious standpoint, still less into a system of belief that they will be required to accept. The task of nurturing of a particular faith is that of the home and/or the faith community who wish to do so. Schools are, however, required to promote the spiritual and moral development of pupils so that they may develop their own views as believers or non-believers as they move into adult life and take on the responsibilities of citizenship.
The Agreed Syllabus promotes the belief that religious education should play a central role in the promotion of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils.
Waltham Forest SACRE also believes that collective worship, appropriately planned and sensitively delivered can make a positive contribution to pupils' spiritual, moral, social and cultural development.
Further Information...
For information on how schools can access funding to develop a garden with a spiritual theme visit www.reep.org
