The Lincolnshire Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) met on 11 November 2025, and elected Chris Burke as Chairman and Cherry Edwards OBE as Vice-Chairman for 2025/26. Members reviewed the current membership of SACRE, and agreed to recommend changes to the local authority to allow for broader representation across the education sector. The council also approved the SACRE Action Plan for 2025-26, which outlines key priorities for the coming year.

Membership Review

SACRE members reviewed the current membership of the council, and agreed to recommend changes to the local authority.

Currently, Committee C (Teaching Associations) membership is restricted to union representatives. The council agreed to recommend removing the word unions from the constitution to align the wording with legislation, which refers to teaching associations rather than unions. This change would enable broader representation across the education sector, including primary, secondary, early years, special schools, Multi-Academy Trusts, and further and higher education.

The council agreed to recommend to the Local Authority that the term unions be removed from the Constitution in relation to Committee C membership and that Committee C instead be defined as:

a group of people to represent such associations representing teachers, as in the opinion of the authority .

Members further recommended that the Local Authority seek to appoint individuals to Committee C who reflected the full breadth and phases of education (primary, secondary, and tertiary).

Concerns were raised regarding inconsistent attendance by some members, and it was agreed that the Democratic Services Officer would contact members who have not attended for some time to confirm whether they wish to remain on SACRE. It was also proposed that the Democratic Services Officer liaise with relevant teaching associations and religious and non-religious world view representatives to ensure membership was representative and all vacancies were filled, particularly regarding multi-faith representation on Committee A (Religions and religious denominations and other non-religious world views in the area (other than Church of England).

SACRE Action Plan 2025-26

The council approved the SACRE Action Plan for 2025-26, which outlines key priorities for the coming year. Key priorities include:

• Ensuring that Lincolnshire schools have access to high quality RE training and support.
• Actively seeking teacher and pupil voice on the provision and impact of RE in Lincolnshire schools.
• Producing a series of regionally-specific case studies for use in Lincolnshire schools.
• Creating opportunities for SACRE members to contribute to the development of agendas and the Action Plan.
• Holding meetings in a variety of venues, including council venues, local places of worship and schools.
• Putting in place effective training for Members.
• Producing an action plan which is reviewed regularly and updated.

As part of the action plan, the council agreed to establish a working group to develop a set of questions and strategies to support SACRE members in engaging with schools to capture teacher and pupil perspectives. Members suggested a target of evaluating feedback from at least 10–15% of local authority schools by the end of the academic year.

SACRE members were encouraged to share their own experiences of faith and belief to help create practical resources that bring RE to life for pupils.

Analysis of Ofsted Reports: June - September 2025

The RE Adviser presented an analysis of Ofsted inspections of Lincolnshire schools conducted between June and September 2025, as detailed in Appendix A to the Ofsted Analysis autumn 2025 report. Concerns remained that secondary schools were not providing adequate RE provision and are not being held to account for this.

Members supported the idea of writing to schools to congratulate those with positive inspection outcomes and to offer support to those with schools where concerns had been raised. However, they felt the emphasis should be on acknowledging positive comments and encouraging schools to share more about their RE provision, particularly where things are working well. It was suggested that schools could submit positive feedback or photographs for inclusion in the RE Newsletter, enabling good practice to be shared across all schools.

Update on Locally Agreed Syllabus

The RE Adviser presented a report on the implementation of the new locally agreed syllabus. Monitoring RE provision in secondary schools continued to be challenging due to time constraints; however, plans were in place to address this in the next academic year. Future priorities included gathering evidence on the syllabus's impact and assessing the quality of RE teaching across Lincolnshire.

SIAMS Annual Report 2024-25

The RE Adviser presented the SIAMS Annual Report 2024-25. The report confirmed that all Anglican and Methodist schools inspected within the region met their legal foundation requirements¹. Nationally, however, 11 schools did not meet these standards, with nine citing weaknesses in Religious Education (RE). Improving RE remained a key priority, particularly in ensuring the teaching of diverse religious and nonreligious perspectives and strengthening provision at Key Stages 4 and 5. The Church of England was addressing these challenges through enhanced inspector training and continued support for schools.

Analysis of Catholic School Inspections - 2024-25 (Diocese of Nottingham)

The RE Adviser presented the Analysis of Catholic School Inspections for 2024–25, as detailed in Appendix A of the Catholic Schools Analysis - cover report. Catholic schools deliver Religious Education (RE) primarily from a Catholic perspective, focusing on Catholic Christianity while introducing other religions within that framework. All Catholic schools in Lincolnshire followed a diocese-approved curriculum based on the Catholic Religious Education Directory (2023), ensuring consistency nationwide.

St Mary's Catholic Voluntary Academy in Grantham, received a Good rating under the diocesan inspection, which differed from its Ofsted rating. Members noted that Catholic School Inspections assesses compliance with diocesan requirements for teaching, rather than the overall quality of the RE curriculum, which falls under Ofsted's remit.

Other Business

• Lynsey Norris gave opening reflections.
• Councillor Brenda Hazel Collier agreed to give reflections at the next meeting.
• The next meeting is scheduled to take place on 28 April 2026.