The Hillingdon Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE) met to discuss national and local updates, the Agreed Syllabus Conference, and the HSACRE action plan. The meeting was scheduled to take place at Lake Farm Park Academy school in Hayes. The public and press were welcome to attend and observe the meeting.

Agreed Syllabus Conference

The meeting included discussion of the Agreed Syllabus Conference (ASC), including defining 'Meaningful RE' in the draft statutory section.

The report pack included a draft of the Hillingdon Syllabus. The syllabus explains why there is a Hillingdon Locally Agreed Syllabus, stating that it is a legal requirement for Hillingdon SACRE to determine the Religious Education (RE) that should be taught in the borough's schools, and to advise the Department for Education (DFE) and the LA about its provision.

The draft syllabus states that Religious Education should have a minimum of 5% of annual curriculum time, which should broadly equate to:

• 36 hours at Key Stage 1
• 45 hours at Key Stage 2
• 45 hours at Key Stage 3
• 40-48 hours at Key Stage 4 and 5
• At Post 16, there should be a minimum of 15 hours a year of RE.

The draft syllabus details key components for meaningful Religious Education learning:

1. Learning in Religious Education should be an active enquiry process.
2. Enquiries should be based around a key concept or idea that allows exploration of a range of responses to fundamental and meaningful questions raised by human experience.
3. All enquiries must allow pupils to consider their own worldview and consider how all worldviews – both personal and organisational (whether a religion or not)- can change or be influenced and how these may perhaps even influence others.
4. Wherever possible, pupils should engage with original source materials and examples which originate from the worldview or religion they are investigating.
5. All three types of knowledge should be present and used interactively during enquiry learning that is not based on simplistic recalling of superficial factual information.
6. When examining source material to ascertain responses to a particular question around a key concept/idea from one particular organisational worldview or religion, it should be remembered that within it, there are also individual worldviews and perspectives.

The framework defines how schools should design their curriculum to be compliant with the Hillingdon Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. Every pupil in each key stage should be provided with opportunities to engage with the following 'Big' meaningful questions raised by human experience:

• How did we get here?
• Why are we here? What is our goal?
• Is there more?
• How do we know?

The agenda also included discussion of the development of support materials, and agreement of recommendations to SACRE.

HSACRE Action Plan

The HSACRE Action Plan for 2025-26 was scheduled to be discussed. The action plan included discussion of the annual report, budget, self-evaluation, and the action plan for 2025-2026.

The report pack included the Hillingdon SACRE Annual Report 2024-5. The annual report summarises the work of Hillingdon Borough SACRE and advises the Local Authority (LA) on matters relating to collective worship in community schools and on religious education delivered in accordance with the locally agreed syllabus.

The annual report includes the Chair's Introduction from Sumen Starr, Chair of Hillingdon SACRE, who said:

Hillingdon SACRE continues its partnership with the Hillingdon LEAP and Hillingdon Learning Partnership (HLP) to provide high quality RE specific CPD sessions and support for all subject leaders. These sessions are FREE for all schools to join, whichever type of school you are in.

The annual report also details standards and quality of provision in RE, collective worship and determinations, SACRE work with other agencies, contribution to community cohesion, and management of SACRE.

Also included in the report pack was the SACRE Self Eval for Hillingdon 2024-5. The self-evaluation covers:

• Management of SACRE and partnership with LA and other key stakeholders
• Standards and quality of provision of RE
• Effectiveness of the Locally Agreed Syllabus
• Collective Worship
• Contribution of SACRE to promoting cohesion across the community

Local Updates

Local updates were scheduled to be discussed, including:

• Hillingdon Interfaith Community Group
• School Art Competition and Interfaith Calendar
• RE in schools
• Interfaith Dialogue Event January 2026

National Updates

National updates were scheduled to be discussed, including:

• National Interfaith Week
• NASACRE¹
• RE Hubs