Useful Documents

The analysis of SACRE annual reports for 2022 written by Dr David Hampshire 

Dr David Hampshire spoke to this report at our AGM back in May, and we are delighted to be able to release it, in partnership with the DfE. The report will give your SACRE an overview of what SACREs around the country have achieved, along with the barriers they have faced. Please share it with your SACRE membership and we hope it will help you in your work as a SACRE. 

Charles Clarke, Linda Woodhead

This policy pamphlet was launched at the House of Lords on 15th June. NASACRE has provided a briefing paper to support SACREs in discussing its implications.

A New Settlement Revised: Religion and Belief in Schools, Westminster Faith Debates, July 2018

Charles Clarke, Linda Woodhead

NASACRE Patron the Rt Hon Charles Clarke and Prof Linda Woodhead launched the revised version of their proposals at the House of Commons on Tuesday 17th July 2018.

Charles Clarke, Linda Woodhead

NASACRE Patron the Rt Hon Charles Clarke and Prof Linda Woodhead launched the revised version of their proposals at the House of Commons on Tuesday 17th July 2018.

Drawn up by an RE Council working group with representation from NATRE, AREIAC, NASACRE, this code aims to complement the GTCE’s general code for teachers. When that code was being drawn up, there was some concern about the implications of ‘demonstrating respect for diversity and promoting equality’ and whether that principle might ever come into conflict with a teacher’s sense of integrity in relation to his or her own beliefs. This proposed code for teachers of RE is designed to help reassure teachers of RE themselves as well as pupils, parents and colleagues that a professional approach to such issues can and will be observed.

Full and summary reports available from the RE Council Website.

Guidance for local-authority-maintained schools on providing a daily act of collective worship.

handy FAQ sheet, giving advice about the statutory position of Collective Worship in schools.

This is a very useful document for SACREs and schools, especially in light of Recommendation 11 of the CoRE report.

Derek Holloway, from the Church of England’s Education Office, has written a review of the guidance.

The guidance can be purchased via the Books at Press website or from Amazon, priced £8.99

This report is the result of an inquiry carried out by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on RE.

Neil Lawson from the Curriculum Unit of Department for Education has written to our Chair, Paul Smalley, setting out the expectations of the government with regards to school compliance in RE.

Article written by Dr Kathryn Wright CEO, Culham St Gabriel’s Trust

The Commission on RE published its final report in September 2018. You can read an initial response from our Chair, Paul Smalley here.

The full response of the NASACRE Executive to the Commission on RE can be read here.

Papers encapsulating the presentations by Dr Abdullah Trevathan and Bob Reiss from the Religions are not Monoliths conference, held jointly with AREIAC in March 2017, prepared by Dilwyn Hunt.

Advice often quotes The Non-Statutory Guidance for RE (January 2010 – ‘The Guidance’) which provides links to the legislation relating to religious education and SACREs and interpretation of that legislation.

Ofsted published its Research Review series: religious education on 12th May 2021. Here is our initial response, written by NASACRE’s Executive Assistant, Paul Smalley.

This report is the result of an inquiry carried out by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on RE to investigate the supply of and support for teachers of religious education. The report draws on over 400 sources of evidence and concludes that there are some serious issues which need to be addressed if schools are to provide high quality religious education for every young person.

RE: The Truth Unmasked Final report
RE: The Truth Unmasked Summary report

Dr Barbara Wintersgill, has produced two briefing papers for governors (one each for primary and secondary) which outline schools’ responsibilities with regard to RE, give an overview of the problems identified by the report and suggest some actions governors might undertake to bring about improvement in their schools.

Primary
Secondary

Commissioned by the RE Council (REC) funded by Culham St Gabriels (CStG), in partnership with NASACRE.

This report was commissioned by the REC through funding from CStG and in partnership with NASACRE. The report sought to investigate whether recommendations for SACREs contained with the CoRE report would help to develop/change SACREs work for 21st century.

The project was based around a participatory action research method, and each SACRE that took part in the project started with answering two key questions:

1. What is working well within the present SACRE system?

2. What needs changing and how might this be changed for the better?

Each SACRE that took part in the research project tackled a different aspect of present SACRE practice, e.g. training, pedagogy, recruitment and it’s legal framework. The report details each SACREs project and draws recommendations for government, SACREs and NASACRE to consider going forward.

Appendix 1 LAN Guidance and Resources

Appendix 2 SACRE initial questions form

Appendix 3 Barking & Dagenham action research CPD in RE

Appendix 4 Bath & NE Somerset research project

Appendix 5 Pen portrait from Hampshire SACRE

Appendix 6 Richmond SACRE action research project

Executive Summary

As part of their monitoring of RE in their LA, SACREs sometimes discover information that leads them to have grave concerns about RE provision in some schools. This useful paper explains how SACREs can use a complaints procedure to encourage schools to meet their statutory obligations.