To comment and agree the SACRE Annual report for the academic year September 2018 to July 2019.

SACRE considered a report by the RE consultant which provided the draft annual report for the 2018/19 academic year. The RE consultant outlined a change to the wording in paragraph 3 to explain that the funding for SACRE had been retained at the same level as 2017/18. The RE examination results also needed to be added to the document which would be undertaken once available.

The element of the annual report relating to the statutory duty of schools to provide RE was raised. It was felt that this was a significant issue particularly in light of the workforce data which showed a number of schools failing to provide RE. The head of learning and achievement explained that the issue had been raised with secondary schools however there was some doubt concerning the accuracy of the information contained in the workforce data. Those head teachers of schools with a zero percentage of time spent teaching RE would be asked to comment on the accuracy of the information and explain how RE was being taught in their school. The RE consultant explained that it was important that the information provided by schools to the school workforce survey was accurate. NATRE would request and publish the data in an annual basis and Ofsted would also consider the data in the survey.

The data contained in the examination results outcomes was also queried and the apparent lack of an educational record for some pupils who had been taught RE. It was explained that there had been some consideration of the value of requiring all pupils to take RE; it was felt that there was a significant advantage teaching RE to pupils who had opted to study the subject.

RESOLVED: That SACRE approves the annual report for the academic year 2018/19 subject to the changes outlined above.