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PRAYER Minutes: The meeting was commenced with a prayer by Mr Cynrig Hughes. |
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ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN To elect a
Chairman for this Committee for 2017/18. Minutes: Resolved: To
elect Councillor Paul J. Rowlinson as Chair of the committee for 2017/18. |
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ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN To elect a
Vice-chairman for this committee for 2016/17. Minutes: Resolved: To
elect Councillor Elin Walker Jones as Vice-chair of this Committee for 2017/18. |
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APOLOGIES To receive
any apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies were received from Cllr. Mike Stevens, Dr. Gwyn Lewis (Union of Welsh Baptists), Eirian
Bradley-Roberts (The Catholic Church), Alwen Watkin, Heledd Jones (Teacher
Unions) |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive
any declaration of personal interest. Minutes: No declarations of personal interest were received from any members present. |
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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: There were no urgent items. |
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The Chairman shall propose that
the minutes of the meeting
of SACRE held on 9 March 2017 be signed as a true
copy. (Copy enclosed) Minutes: The Chairman
signed the minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on 9 March 2017, as a
true record. |
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SCHOOLS' SELF-EVALUATION PDF 265 KB (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) Additional documents:
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 ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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PRESENTATIONS To receive
presentations by representatives from various schools on good practice /
concerns on delivering Religious Education. Minutes: (a)
The
Challenge Adviser explained that she had invited the four following teachers to
give a presentation to the Committee on the work of religious studies in the
key stages: Nia Hughes, Ysgol Talysarn - Foundation Phase Heulwen Jones, Ysgol Bro Hedd
Wyn - KS2 Miriam Amlyn - KS3 Heledd Jones - KS4 but unfortunately, due to confusion and error
about location, only two teachers were present. (b)
Nia
Hughes from Ysgol Talysarn, Foundation Phase Teacher
who was responsible for teaching religious studies to the Nursery, Reception,
Year 1 and 2 classes, was welcomed. An
interesting presentation was received, and good examples were seen of the work
that was done in Ysgol Talysarn based on language,
experience, empathy, morning assemblies etc.
It was noted that the Foundation Phase
required teachers to have significant skills which were to follow the child,
decide upon different areas in the classroom, which ere all based on their
experiences. In response to an enquiry from an individual
member, she noted that it was very rare for nursery children to have knowledge
of biblical stories when they began at the school, and that the school did not
work with the Church or Chapel in Talysarn. She added
that it was challenging for some schools that were eager to use local resources
as it was not always easy if the communities did not have many places of
worship or were not faith communities.
The Member noted, when looking at future
education arrangements in the Bangor area, that it might be an idea for the
Committee to give input into the discussions so that any new school would be
inclusive from the perspective of taking the faith backgrounds of Bangor's
population into account. (c)
Miriam Amlyn from
Ysgol Eifionydd (who was a member of SACRE as a representative
for the NASUWT Union) was welcomed to share information about cross-curriculum
presentation as a Head of Department of Religious Education. She noted that the situation was slightly
different in the secondary sector as the subject was presented for an hour a
week in KS3, but varied from school to school and the pupils experiences
differed, but, on the whole a regular academic lesson was presented teaching
about religion. A unit of work completed
with Year 7 on the subject of Hinduism was seen, which had then been developed into a series of lessons about worship, worshipping and the buildings. Stemming from this work,
85 pupils created a film and an
example was shown to the Committee. Attention was drawn to the fact that there was an emphasis in
the secondary sector, as in
the primary sector, on developing work which can develop cross-curricular skills (literacy, numeracy and digital competence)
and the teachers successfully collaborated in order for
the work to correctly intertwine and contribute towards religious education. Resolved: To accept, note and congratulate the teachers for the interesting presentation and thank them for their work and dedication to the ... view the full minutes text for item 9. |
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WALES SACRE ASSOCIATION PDF 412 KB (a)
To receive the draft minutes of the Wales SACRE Association’s meeting held on the 3 March 2017. (Copy enclosed) (b) To consider nominations 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 3 March
2017, were submitted. It was noted that the above Association's next meeting would be held on
7 July 2017 in Wrexham and that Gwynedd SACRE had the
right to nominate one representative from amongst the Elected Members, one
representative from amongst the denominations and one representative from
amongst the teachers, to attend this meeting. (b) Nominations for the Wales Association of SACRE's Executive Committee
were submitted. Resolved: (a)
To accept and note the contents of the minutes. (b)
To note that the Association's next meeting will be held on 23 June 2016 in
Rhyl. (c) To request that the GwE Challenge Adviser votes on
behalf of Gwynedd SACRE as follows: Executive Committee: Gill Vaisey Alison
Lewis Vice-chair Gill Vaisey |