To report on the Multi-Faith Event held on 19 October 2009 at Holmer CE Primary School, Hereford.

SACRE received a report on the Multi-Faith Event held on 19 October at Holmer CE Primary School, Hereford.

The Chairman thanked Mrs Judy Cecil, Headteacher at Holmer, her staff and the workshop leaders for running the event and commended the pupils who had acted as excellent ambassadors for the school.

At various times in the afternoon the event had also been attended by ten Herefordshire Councillors, including the Cabinet Member (Children’s Services), who had all appreciated the event and hoped that the event would be developed further.

Mrs C. Ault, Multi Faith Group member and Baha’i workshop leader, commented that the pupils had shown reverence for each session and had appreciated the unity, or thread, that ran through each of the different faiths.

Responding to a suggestion that Christianity be added to the 4 faith workshops, thereby enabling pupils to get a greater appreciation of the commonality between faiths, Mrs Ault commented that the intention had been to provide encounters with those faiths that children do not normally meet – access to Christianity was less problematical.

In response to a comment from the Diocesan schools advisor who asked that all schools should have access to this event the RE Consultant commented that 5 out of 6 primary schools had been involved in the last 3 years.  Wigmore High and its feeder schools had just had a similar event, as had Whitecross High and its pyramid schools.

SACRE noted that the Multi Faith Group had secured a small grant for 2010/11 and had written to all high schools and the County Cohesion Inspector offering to assist them on projects put forward by schools. 

The Lead Officer for SACRE thought that, in view of the financial situation, working through cluster groups could be a good model to follow.  This could be taken further by arranging events over the space of a few days thereby hopefully saving on the cost of getting workshop leaders to the County at different times.

SACRE noted that special schools were not part of the school cluster arrangements. The Special schools representative requested that these be included in the events.

It was commented that the Multi Faith Group had probably taken the initiative as far as they could at present and it was asserted that as multi faith events contributed to both schools and the local authority’s community cohesion agendas it was for the Local Authority to take the multi-faith initiative forward and to disseminate the pyramid idea.

It was suggested that a note of the event, and future aspirations, be communicated to all members of Herefordshire Council.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted and

a)      SACRE recommend that the local authority give further consideration to supporting Multi-Faith Events in schools to support the community cohesion agenda;

b)     The local authority give consideration to promoting the pyramid idea with schools as one means of providing a multi-faith event; and

c)      Notes of the Multi Faith event, and future aspirations, be communicated to all members of Herefordshire Council.