Agenda item

To present the Anglesey SAC’s Annual Report for 2023/24.

The SAC’s draft Annual Report for 2023/24 was presented before the SAC for comment.

The Chair introduced the report, and paid tribute to the late Miss Bethan James, the SACRE’s RE Advisor, who sadly passed away in January this year.  The SAC’s Professional Consultant, who worked with Miss James in GwE, thanked the Chair for her kind words.

The Chair highlighted the following points in her summary: -

•  Recent changes to the SAC’s membership have widened the scope for new

   members.  

•  Estyn inspection reports over the past 12 months have shown that

   standards in RE in Anglesey schools have been excellent.

•  The Chair and a SAC member visited Ysgol Bodffordd, and were impressed

   with how RVE has blended in with lessons naturally at the school.  Other

    SAC members were encouraged to visit schools during the coming year.

•  The number of pupils taking GCSE RVE has increased.

•  To make a positive contribution to the curriculum by producing a collection

   of spiritual locations for schools, to be published online.

The SAC’s Professional Consultant referred to the following points in the report: -

•  The Chair’s Summary will be included in Section 1.1 of the report.

•  Links to Welsh Government Guidance on the Curriculum for Wales have

   been included in the report.

•  Years 10, 11, 12 and 13 in Anglesey schools are currently using the

   National Exemplar Framework as their Locally Agreed Syllabus.

•  The number of learners taking A Level Religious Studies has dropped since

   last year.

•  Estyn inspected and reported on 7 schools last year. 

•  The Local Authority has acted on actions requested by the SAC, outlined in

   Section 2.4 of the report.

•  Schools have a duty to provide collective worship sessions in schools.

   There are resources for schools on the WASACRE website to meet

   statutory requirements on collective worship.

•  The SAC’S template in Section 3.3 for schools’ self-evaluation of RE

    standards refer to RE in the old Estyn Inspection Framework.  Estyn has

    modified its Framework and now has 3 inspection areas compared to 5

    previously.  The template is outdated and will need to be removed for the

    next annual report, but may need to be re-written, if schools are looking at

    RVE through the Estyn lens. 

•  The inspection area criteria on Page 28 for schools’ self-evaluation of RE

    was relevant during the period of the report but will need to be updated.

The Chair thanked the Director of Education, Primary Senior Manager (Clerk to the SAC), and the SAC’s Professional Consultant for their work in preparing the SAC’s Annual Report.

RESOLVED: -

•  To note the information presented in the SAC’s Annual Report for

    2023/24.

•  To include the Chair’s Summary in Section 1.1 of the report.

•  That the Primary Senior Manager updates the self-evaluation template

    presented in the report, and,

•   presents amendments to the template in the SAC’s next meeting.

•  That a copy of the final version of the Anglesey SAC’s Annual Report

    for 2023/24 be forwarded to Welsh Government for information.

(Mr Richard Jones joined the meeting at 2:30 pm)