The Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) is scheduled to meet to discuss updates to the agreed syllabus for RE, review its development plan, and discuss ways to celebrate inter-faith week in schools. The meeting will include an introduction to Charters School, where the meeting is being held. Councillors will also consider the election of a chair and vice-chair for the new academic year.

Draft SACRE Development Plan 2025-2028

A draft of the SACRE Development Plan 2025-2028 is to be presented. The plan sets out priority areas for action, including:

• Providing induction opportunities for new SACRE members.
• Strengthening SACRE's role as a critical friend to the local authority by reviewing General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A Level data annually and responding to school data through communication with headteachers and governors.
• Analysing Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools (SIAMS) and Ofsted reports for comments on RE and collective worship.
• Reviewing the websites of Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead schools to identify practice in relation to RE and collective worship.
• Promoting and embedding a universal approach to auditing the provision for RE in schools.
• Creating and trialling a simple approach to auditing collective worship in interested schools.
• Using feedback from RE Network meetings and Ofsted/denominational inspections to inform debate within SACRE meetings and determine action.
• Using Network Meetings for RE leads in all schools to share effective practice and resources.
• Providing termly newsletters with a wide range of quality training opportunities and links to quality resources for RE teachers in all phases.
• Planning for the civic launch of the new Agreed Syllabus, integrating a 'Worldviews Exhibition'.
• Supporting SACRE members who are serving teachers in borough schools to meet, plan, teach and evaluate units of work from the new syllabus.
• Sharing outcomes from this work at meetings/training sessions for both primary and secondary RE leads and teachers of RE.
• Engaging actively with the Berkshire Hub to share, support and promote syllabus developments.
• Strengthening professional relationships between SACRE members.
• Promoting RE Hubs training for all faith group members.
• Establishing systems for RBWM schools to use to request faith group and humanist speakers and visits to places of worship.
• Exploring ways of working with other local faith groups.
• Ensuring the SACRE Hub representative engages fully in regular meetings and shared initiatives.

Celebrating Inter-Faith Week in Schools

Councillors will consider ways to promote Inter Faith Week in schools, which is scheduled to run from 9–16 November 2025. The theme for the week is Community: Together We Serve , which, according to the report pack, highlights:

how people of different beliefs contribute to the common good, and how service and social action build bridges of understanding.

The Faith & Belief Forum, in partnership with Religious Education organisations including NASACRE¹, AREIAC², REC³, RE Today⁴, NATRE⁵, RE Hubs, the Culham St Gabriel's Trust⁶, Facing History & Ourselves UK⁷, and The Feast⁸ are organising Inter Faith Week for Schools (IFW4Schools).

SACREs are encouraged to support schools in finding speakers, visit schools themselves, promote whole-school participation, and inspire creativity and dialogue.

SACRE Development Plan Progress Report

The Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education is scheduled to discuss a progress report on its development plan. The report details actions, success criteria, responsible parties, timelines, costs, and progress in various priority areas.

Key areas of focus include:

• Funding: Adding costings to the SACRE Development Plan and increasing the SACRE budget in line with strategic development needs.
• SACRE Meetings: Sustaining a short turnaround time for the publication of SACRE minutes.
• Membership and Training: Providing opportunities for the induction of new SACRE members.
• Information and Advice: Strengthening the role of SACRE as a 'critical friend' to the local authority by reviewing information about the quality and provision of RE and collective worship.
• Partnerships with Key Stakeholders: Continuing to hear the views of students about their experience of RE and implementing ways of involving representatives of 'key support networks' and Initial Teacher Training (ITT) providers into the work of SACRE.
• Auditing of RE Provision: Establishing a universal approach to the auditing of provision for RE in RBWM schools through the use of REQM criteria⁹ and student questionnaires.
• Auditing Collective Worship: Creating a simple approach to auditing Collective Worship in all schools.
• Diocesan Adviser Input: Ensuring the Diocesan Adviser uses feedback from RE Network meetings to inform SACRE and the LA training programme.
• Ofsted Feedback: Ensuring the LA SACRE representative shares feedback on RE following Ofsted and denominational inspections.
• Promoting High Quality RE Teaching: Continuing to use Network meetings for RE leads in primary schools to share effective practice and resources, and providing termly newsletters with a wide range of quality training opportunities and links to quality resources for RE teachers in all phases.
• New Berkshire RE Agreed Syllabus Review: Agreed Syllabus Conference meetings occur four times a year, immediately after SACRE meetings.
• Developing the Role of SACRE: Strengthening professional relationships between SACRE members and establishing systems to enable SACRE to support teaching and learning in RE in RBWM schools, including validation via RE Hubs training for all faith group members.

Ofsted and SIAMS Reports

The council will review Ofsted reports for Kings Court First School, St Mary's Catholic Primary School, St Michael's CE Primary School and St Edmund Campion Catholic Primary School. The report pack includes extracts from the inspection reports, focusing on pupils' social, moral, and cultural development.

Membership Update

The council is scheduled to discuss membership updates. The RBWM SACRE Membership List identifies several vacant positions:

• One vacant position for The Free Churches.
• One vacant position for The Church of England.
• A vacant third Councillor member.

Training Attended

The council will receive information about training attended by members. This includes NASACRE training sessions and CPD courses run by Humanist UK, attended by Dr Anthony Lewis.