Apologies were received from Mrs S Catlow-Hawkins, Mrs A Daniel and Mrs E James.

To inform the Conference of a number of issues relating to the role of an Agreed Syllabus Conference and agree the formulation of an Agreed Religious Education Syllabus.

The Conference noted the Guidance for the Agreed Syllabus Conference.   The RE Consultant highlighted the following areas, that:

·         In accordance with Section 35, Schedule 31 of the Education Act 1996 the Local Education Authority (LEA) was obliged to establish an Agreed Syllabus Conference to produce and recommend to the LEA an agreed Religious Education Syllabus for the county.

·         At the meeting of SACRE held on 21 November 2014, it was noted that Herefordshire Schools were using the Herefordshire Agreed Syllabus introduced in September 2011 and it was a requirement that the Syllabus be reviewed every 5 years. SACRE agreed to recommend that the Local Education Authority re-establish the Herefordshire Agreed Syllabus Conference, and bring forward the Implementation of the Agreed Syllabus to September 2015

Resolved:

THAT:

(a)          the report be noted;

(b)          the key principles and timetable for the Review, as set out in Appendix 2, be adopted and recommended to the Local Authority; and;

(c)       the Herefordshire Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education be recommended to the Local Authority for implementation in September 2015

To receive a report on the background work undertaken on the Agreed Syllabus Review and propose areas to be addressed.

The RE Consultant provided the Conference with an update on progress on the Agreed Syllabus Review.  The following points were made:

·         That there would be an exemplar unit available for secondary schools at the launch of the syllabus.  All units would be finalised within the next twelve months

·         That the launches for both the Primary and Secondary schools would be held at Whitecross School in Hereford

Resolved: That the update be noted.