SACREis the Standing Advisory Council for Religious
Education. It is attached to the
Children Services department of Derbyshire County Council.
The 1988 Education Reform Act contained
provisions to set education within the context of the spiritual and
moral, social and cultural, mental and
physical development of pupils. It also
restated the requirement for a daily Act of Worship and made
Religious Education (RE) an integral part of the
curriculum.
SACREs were
set up in 1989 through the 1988 Education Reform Act to be legally
responsible for the locally agreed syllabus of religious education
and for overseeing the provision of collective worship in
maintained schools within each education authority. SACREs were to be made
up of representatives from each of the different groups of people
connected with the subject of RE and the teaching of it in
schools. The compilers of the Act
believed that RE should not be controlled by a national body,
because local control gave an identity and flexibility to the RE
syllabus, and also offered support to
local schools through the SACRE.
Members are appointed through their respective
organisations. There are four
Committees representing these different interests:
- Committee A -
Christian and other religious denominations
- Committee B - The
Church of England
- Committee C - The
Teachers’ Professional Associations
- Committee D - Members
of Derbyshire County Council, which is the Local
Authority
The
SACRE can also make co-options to its membership. For example, the Multi-Faith Centre at the
University of Derby and the British Humanist Society send
representatives to our SACRE.
What kind
of things does the SACRE discuss and do?
·
A major recurring item on the agenda is the revision
of the Agreed Syllabus, which takes place every five
years. The SACRE sets up an Agreed
Syllabus Conference for this purpose and there is a good deal of
preparation and follow up work to be done.
·
Members of SACRE also give short presentations
during the meetings, for example on different faiths and on visits
made to local schools.
·
There are contributions from groups of pupils who
come along to tell us about the work they are doing in RE, and the
special places they have been to see.
·
On our development day we usually have an outside
speaker to take about current topics of interest, and sometimes
there is an active presentation of RE themes from individuals and
actor groups.
·
Members have the opportunity
to review the progress of the SACRE’s own work during the previous school
year, and to decide on priorities for the coming year.