Standing Advisory Committee for Religious Education

SACRE is 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.