- Darlington
- Durham
- Gateshead
- Hartlepool
- Middlesborough
- Newcastle upon Tyne
- North Tyneside
- Northumberland
- Redcar and Cleveland
- South Tyneside
- Stockton on Tees
- Sunderland
What is a SACRE?
Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs) are responsible in law for advising local education authorities on Religious Education and collective worship. There are over one hundred SACREs in England and Wales. Each SACRE is composed of four representative groups (or three in Wales): Christian and other religious faiths, the Church of England (except in Wales), teachers’ associations and elected councillors.
What can SACREs do?
In addition to its advisory role a SACRE has two particular responsibilities:
1 it can require the LA to review its Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education. If this is required then the LA must constitute an Agreed Syllabus Conference to undertake this task. This group should reflect the same four groupings of a SACRE, but without provision for co-opted members, and in practice it often involves the same people.
2 it can consider requests from schools to lift the legal requirement to hold an act of collective worship of a broadly Christian character. Such requests come from schools with a large number of pupils from non-Christian religious backgrounds. If the SACRE agrees then the school is granted a ‘determination’ for five years, after which time the school can reapply if it so wishes.
SACREs have a very important role to play in supporting RE, and in contributing to the raising of standards in the subject. In order to maximise the effectiveness of SACREs, and to strengthen them in carrying out their responsibilities a National Association of SACREs was founded in 1993.
Contacting my local SACRE
For contact information on any of the above North East SACRE’s please visit the NASACRE Home Page:
nasacre.org.uk
Click on the ‘Members’ tab and select ‘North East’.
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