The Standing
Advisory Council shall be called the Lewisham SACRE (Standing
Advisory Council on Religious Education). It is established under
Section 3.90 – 3.97 of the Education Act 1996 as amended.
Interpretation
In this Constitution
‘Local
Authority’ means Lewisham Council acting either independently
or through the Education Lead Member and Children and Young
People’s Directorate.
‘The
council’ means Lewisham’s SACRE.
‘Member’ means a member of SACRE and includes a
substitute or co-opted member.
‘Elected
member’ means an elected member of the Lewisham Council
sitting on Committee D as a SACRE member
All questions of
Interpretation are governed by the “Interpretation Act”
1978 as may be subsequently amended.
Role and functions
(i) To advise the Local
Authority (Lewisham Council) on the religious education to be given
in its schools in accordance with an Agreed Syllabus. In
particular, the SACRE can offer advice on methods of teachings, the
choice of materials and the provision of training for teachers.
(ii) To advise the Local
Authority on matters pertaining to school worship in its
schools.
With regard to (i) and (ii), the Local Authority may refer
matters to the SACRE, which the latter must then consider and
advise on. The SACRE may also take the initiative and make
recommendations to the Local Authority on these matters.
(iii) To receive, determine and review
applications from Head Teachers as to whether the requirement for
collective worship that is wholly or mainly of a Christian
character may not apply. This application to vary the legal
requirement for collective worship may be for the whole school or
for groups of pupils.
(iv) To require the LA to set up
a Statutory Agreed Syllabus Conference to review the Agreed
Syllabus if, in the opinion of SACRE, this becomes necessary.
(v) To produce
an annual report on its work which will, inter alia:
a)
describe the work that SACRE has
undertaken
b)
specify matters in respect of which the SACRE has
given advice to the Local Authority;
c)
broadly describe the nature of the advice given and
the response given by the LA;
d)
where any such matters were not referred to the
SACRE by the Local Authority, provide the SACRE’s reasons for
offering advice on the matter.
Copies of the report
will be made available to schools and the public on the SACRE
and/or other appropriate website.
At the discretion of the
Local Authority, the SACRE may:
(a) monitor the provision of
Religious Education in order to inform its advice and
reporting;
(b) monitor the provision of
collective worship in order to inform its advice and
reporting;
(c) be involved in
Complaints Procedures.
(d)
protect and support the
South London Multifaith and Multicultural Resources Centre
as
a means of
promoting effective religious education within the LA
Officers
The SACRE will have
an elected Chair and an elected Vice Chair.
In the absence of
the Chair or Vice-Chair at any meeting the Council can elect one of
its members to act as the Chair for that meeting.
Membership
A list of those
members deemed appropriate for the Lewisham SACRE under the legal
framework is in the Appendix 1.
All members shall
be delegates who are interested in education in general and
religious education in particular.
Delegates as
members shall remain until such time as they will have resigned or
have been removed from under the rules dictated by their
sponsorship group, Governing Body of that class of Members or for
any reason stated therein.
Members will work
within the SACRE’s agreed Code of Conduct (Appendix 2).
Terms of Office of Members
Termination of SACRE membership by reason of
non-attendance:
If a SACRE member
is absent for 2 or more consecutive meetings without apology or for
any reason not acceptable to the SACRE, the clerk will write to the
member concerned to check whether their membership has lapsed and
whether they would like to nominate a substitute or to refer their
membership back to their sponsoring body.
Should they be
absent from the next meeting without apologies or for any reason
not acceptable to the SACRE there shall be deemed to be a vacated
place to be filled by the sponsorship group / governing body for
that class of members. The SACRE clerk will write to the lapsed
member informing them of the decision and then write to the
sponsoring body requesting a new member be nominated.
Vacancies
The Clerk, working on
behalf of the LA and the Officers will approach sponsoring bodies
for new delegates as soon as a vacancy arises.
Deputies / Substitute members
There can be a
substitute member nominated by the absent member and notice of this
substitution should be notified to the clerk of SACRE at least 6
hours in advance of the meeting.
Procedure for electing Chair and Vice Chair
The Chair and
Vice-Chair of the Council shall be chosen from Members of the
SACRE and shall be
elected at the first meeting in each education (academic) year.
Nominees for these positions should have
served on the SACRE for at least twelve months so that members
would have developed a relationship with that person and have
confidence to nominate them to such an important position.
Co-options
Co-option –
SACRE has the power to co-opt members as agreed by the majority of
its members.
Quorum
A meeting will
only be quorate if the following numbers of representative/s of
the respective
groups are present: -
Group A - minimum
of 2 representatives (1 Christian and 1 non-Christian)
Group B - minimum
of 1 representative
Group C - minimum
of 1 representative
Group D –
minimum of 1 representative
Meetings
Frequency of meetings
There will be a
minimum of 5 SACRE meetings per year. These will be normally 2 in
the Autumn and Summer terms and one in the Spring term
An Extraordinary
meeting may be called or convened to deal with urgent matters of
national or local importance.
Notice of meetings
The dates of the
main meetings will be decided at the first meeting in the education
(academic) year and circulated by the clerk to all members
Sub-Committees
Occasional sub
committees or working parties will be convened for specific pieces
of work. These will report back to the full SACRE meeting for the
duration of their work.
Agendas
Matters or items
for the Agenda of any meeting shall be sent to the clerk at least
21 days in advance of the meeting. The Agenda shall be distributed
to reach members at least 7 working days in advance of the next
listed meeting.
Voting
All members are
entitled to speak and vote on any issue as invited by the Chair but
substitute or Co-opted members may speak but not vote at any
meeting. SACRE will always seek to reach decisions on a consensus
basis but when voting is to be exercised only one vote is allowed
from each group A, B, C or D as mentioned above.
In the event of an
equality of votes on any issue the Chair may exercise a casting
vote.
Minutes
Minutes will be
taken by the clerk and cleared by the Officers. The draft minutes of meetings shall be circulated
to members within one month of the meeting taking place where
possible or at the latest with the next set of meeting papers
Availability of papers to the public
Papers for each
meeting will be made available on the Lewisham Council website