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Contact: Glynda O'Brien 01341 424301 Email: GlyndaOBrien@gwynedd.gov.uk
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PRAYER Minutes: The meeting was commenced with a prayer by Dr W. Gwyn Lewis. |
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APOLOGIES To receive apologies for
absence. Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillor Dilwyn Lloyd, Mrs Miriam Amlyn (NAS/UWT), Mr Rheinallt
Thomas (Co-opted Member). |
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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 or 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 10 June 2015 be signed as a
true copy. Minutes: The Chairman
signed the minutes of the meeting of this committee that took place on 10 June
2015, as a true record. |
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GWYNEDD SACRE's DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT 2014-15 PDF 628 KB To consider a draft annual
report prior to publishing the final copy. Minutes: The Draft Gwynedd
SACRE Annual Report for the 2014-15 academic year was presented for the
members’ approval, prior to the publication of the final report. (A) Miss Bethan James explained that the purpose
of the Annual Report was to summarise the work undertaken by SACRE over the
previous year and it was important that the recommendations within the report
were drawn to the authority's attention. Members were guided through the
contents of the report and attention was drawn to the fact that 14 primary
schools had submitted self-evaluation reports during 2013-14. In terms of the
three key questions in the ESTYN common inspection framework and specifically
the provision for collective worship, it was noted how important it was for
SACRE Members to visit the collective worship sessions in schools in order to
satisfy themselves that schools were in compliance with the statutory
requirements. It appeared that one
secondary school in the Bangor vicinity was anxious for a member of Gwynedd
SACRE to visit that school and therefore it would be useful for a member to
visit when the invitation was received. Attention was
drawn to the fact that ESTYN inspections were a focus of last year's
discussions in terms of Ysgol Crud y Werin, Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle and Ysgol y Gader. A
presentation was received by Ysgol Crud y Werin and
an improvement was seen in the quality of the plans of the school in
question. Perhaps it may be timely to
invite Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle
and Ysgol y Gader to support SACRE by showing the
progress made in both schools. Attention was
drawn to the SACRE work evaluation and satisfactory progress was seen against
the majority of the priorities. It was noted that
one of the recommendations referred to the offer of seasonal workshops for
subject coordinators as they self-evaluate religious education and collective
worship in their schools. Miss Bethan
James explained that she had conducted half day workshops in Anglesey for any
School that required support and it would be possible to make similar
arrangements in Gwynedd if this was desired. In response to a
query regarding the process of implementing and monitoring SACRE
recommendations for the authority, it was noted that the recommendations would
be submitted to the Head of Education. Miss Bethan James
explained that it was the responsibility of SACRE to draft a religious
education Agreed Syllabus for Gwynedd Schools.
Members were reminded that SACRE adopted a common framework as the
Gwynedd Agreed Syllabus in 2008 and in accordance with the regulations the
Agreed Syllabus should be revised every five years. Gwynedd SACRE took the decision to wait
prior to review until it was known what would happen with the new curriculum
stemming from the recommendations of Professor Donaldson. It was trusted that, through the new members
of Gwynedd SACRE and a group of teachers to advise, this would assist SACRE to
respond to the principles of the 'Successful Futures' report by Professor
Donaldson. Resolved: (a) To accept and note the contents of ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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SCHOOLS' SELF-EVALUATION PDF 280 KB (a)
To receive, for
information, the monitoring form in respect of schools’ self-evaluation for the
Summer to October 2015 period. (b)
To present a
summary of the following schools’ Self-evaluation: (i)
Morfa Nefyn Infants’ School (ii)
Beddgelert School (iii)
Hirael School (iv)
Llanaelhaearn School (v)
Llanelltyd School (vi)
Ysgol y Traeth School (Barmouth) (vii)
Dyffryn Nantlle School (viii)
Ysgol y Gader School Additional documents:
Minutes: (a) The SACRE Clerk guided Members through the sheet submitted giving a
summary of school findings and attention was drawn to the fact that five
primary schools had been inspected by ESTYN during the 2015 Summer term. Reference was made to extracts taken from
ESTYN reports under indicator 2.3 and heading care, support and guidance of the
Common Inspection Framework. Miss Bethan James explained the vocabulary used specifically by ESTYN
about collective worship and they had to be careful regarding how the sentences
were interpreted e.g.
"successful" meant good, "appropriate" meant sufficient. Members were also reminded that they should
not be too critical of the schools that had received unsatisfactory /sufficient
for the care, support and guidance element as it was possible that this
referred to other elements apart from collective worship and pupils’ spiritual
and moral development. (b) Members were guided through the self-evaluations of the schools of Morfa Nefyn, Beddgelert,
Hirael, Llanaelhaearn, Llanelltyd, Y Traeth and two
secondary schools namely Dyffryn Nantlle
and Y Gader by referring to the three key questions,
namely: 1. How good are outcomes in Religious Education? 2. How good is provision in Religious Education? 3.
How good is provision
for collective worship? SACRE Members
appreciated the self-evaluations and Miss Bethan James gave an explanation
regarding the gap that notes the standards of literacy, numeracy, ITC and
thinking skills and this had been included to encourage schools to
differentiate between religious education standards and skills and to be more
specific regarding the type of elements presented in the report. Attention was
drawn to interesting elements in some schools and they would welcome schhols to attend future SACRE meetings to share good
practice with Members. RESOLVED: (a) To accept and note the contents of the
inspections and self- evaluations. (b) To
approve for Miss Bethan James, GwE Challenge Adviser, to invite a school to
give a presentation on any element of the self-evaluations that would be of
interest to SACRE. |
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2015 RELIGIOUS EDUCATION RESULTS PDF 686 KB To receive a report by GwE Challenge Adviser on the above. Minutes: The results of
Summer 2015 were submitted and Members were guided through them. These were teachers' assessments for Key
Stage 3 and it was seen that 94% had attained level 5+. It was anticipated that there would be more
pressure in the future to attain levels 6 and 7. The schools were congratulated and it was
seen that 25 pupils from Gwynedd merited Level 8 which was a credit to those
schools. In terms of GCSE,
it was explained that every child followed a statutory religious education
course, however, religious studies referred to the optional course. It had to be borne in mind that some schools
offered the course in collaboration with other schools and they shared
resources. Attention was drawn to the
fact that the number of candidates remained fairly consistent bearing
demography in mind, with 371 sitting the
examination and a third of these attaining an A*. It was explained that it was difficult to
compare national results since the arrangements were not known as some pupils
followed the course after School and some undertook it in Year 10, as well as
the variety in teaching hours available to candidates. In general, it was
noted that the results for the full course were good with the girls' results
exceeding those of the boys. However,
some schools maintained the boys' interests in religious studies probably due
to the nature of the contemporary subjects.
In response to a
question by a Member regarding the gap between girls and boys, it was noted
that this was a challenge for schools, however, the Specification B course had
increased in popularity with the boys perhaps because of the elements of
current issues etc., and these subjects should be introduced earlier in their
religious education career. It was
recognised that an effort was being made in the schools and very often
Departments competed against each other for the same pupils when choosing
subjects. It was explained
that in the past pupils had been given a choice of two courses namely the
traditional course (Specification A) and a contemporary course studying
contentious issues in terms of different religions (Specification B). The Specification B course had increased in
popularity and was successful even with boys.
However, the WJEC intended to present a new course in 2017 which
combined the traditional and the contemporary course. Resolved: To
accept, note and thank the officer for the above information. |
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WELSH GOVERNMENT'S PLANS FOR RELIGIOUS EDUCATION PDF 180 KB To consider a letter received
from the Minister for Education and Skills regarding the changes to Religious Education
within the curriculum. Minutes: Reference was made
to a letter from the Education and Skills Minister regarding changes to
religious education as a result of the amendments to the curriculum stemming
from the report of Professor Graham Donaldson. Attention was
drawn to a paragraph that stated that there was an invitation for regional
education consortia (namely GwE) to work with primary, secondary and special
schools in order that they try to be Innovative Schools. These schools would lead on the design and
developing the new curriculum, as part of a partnership throughout Wales,
together with relevant stakeholders. It was felt that
this would be a burden on the innovative schools and in terms of Gwynedd, SACRE
should conduct discussions with the schools in order to ensure that the brief
in the field of religious education was suitable and relevant. Resolved: To
accept and note the above. |
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GWYNEDD SACRE ACTION PLAN 2014-2015 To consider the Gwynedd SACRE
draft action plan for 2015-16. Minutes: Miss Bethan James
reported that SACRE had developed an action plan last year outlining what SACRE
had achieved during the year. The action
plan had not thus far been drafted for 2015-16, however, this was discussed and
it was decided to include the following matters as part of the plan: (a)
Develop knowledge, understanding and managerial
skills of coordinators and subject leaders (b)
Encourage Gwynedd religious education teachers
(primary and secondary sector) and Gwynedd SACRE Members to contribute fully to
any review of the curriculum and the assessment arrangements (c)
Ensure that the challenge adviser offers term
workshops in order to offer guidance to subject coordinators as they
self-evaluate religious education and collective worship in their schools. (d)
Ensure that schools respond to any deficiencies
that have become evident during the self-evaluation exercises and/or ESTYN
inspection visits In relation to (d)
above, it was noted that the Schools at Dyffryn Nantlle and Y Gader had worked
hard following recent inspections and it was trusted that they would be ready
to welcome SACRE Members to the schools to see the progress made or to give a
presentation in the next SACRE meeting. In the case of
Ysgol y Gader, there was a reference in the ESTYN
Inspection that some teachers had not undertaken collective worship daily and
the Challenge Adviser suggested that she would visit the school in the future. Resolved: To
approve that the Challenge Adviser: (a) drafts an action plan
for the year 2015/16 (b) organises that she,
together with the SACRE Chair, visit the schools of Dyffryn
Nantlle and Y Gader when
convenient. |
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WALES ASSOCIATION OF SACRE PDF 444 KB To receive minutes of the
Wales SACRE Association’s meetings held on the: (a)
25 June 2015 in Mold, Flintshire. (b)
25 November 2015,
Ebbw Vale Additional documents:
Minutes: (a)
Submitted minutes of previous meetings of the Wales
Association of SACREs that took place on:
25
June 2015 25
November 2016 (b)
Attention was given
to a letter received from Libby Jones, Secretary of the Wales Association of
SACREs inviting nominations for the Executive Committee of the Wales Association
of SACREs. Attention was
drawn to the fact that Mrs Ruth Davies was the Gwynedd SACRE representative on
the Executive Committee, however, she had resigned since November 2015 and in accordance
with the constitution of the Wales Association of SACREs that Gwynedd had the
right to nominate a member to attend the meetings in her place until the annual
meeting that will take place in June 2016.
It was noted that
the next Association Meeting was on 8 March 2016 in Monmouthshire. It was suggested
that if any Member was interested in attending Wales SACREs Association
meetings then they should directly contact the Chair of Gwynedd SACRE and / or
Miss Bethan James, GwE Challenge Adviser
Resolved: (a)
To accept and note the contents of the minutes. (b) To approve for Members to contact the
Clerk if they are interested in attending meetings of the Wales Association of
SACREs on behalf of Gwynedd SACRE. |