Do you have a questions that you would like to ask NASACRE? If so please mail us. Before you do check the list of FAQs below to see if there is already an answer to your questions.

Note: Whilst it would have been correct at the time of writing where a mention of Circular 1/94 arises in a response this will now be superseded by the Non-Statutory Guidance for RE published in January 2010.

Question 35 : When parents decide to home educate their children what is the guidance relating to the content of the RE that should be taught? ... more > Answer

Question 34: What authority does a local SACRE have as regards getting schools to comply with requests for monitoring information? > Answer

Question 33: Am I right in thinking that the acceptance of an agreed syllabus has to be unanimous amongst the 4 groups? What happens if this agreement is not reached or is this unchartered waters? > Answer

Question 32: As a SACRE we have been working on our publicity and have put together a leaflet that tells the public what we do and how we go about things ... more > Answer

Question 31: How best should a SACRE ensure firstly that minority faiths or their denominations are represented on the SACRE and secondly that any such representation is valid? > Answer

Question 30: What is the difference between a constitution and the terms of reference of a SACRE? > Answer

Question 29: My SACRE is having trouble recruiting teachers to serve. The constitution says: “such associations representing teachers as, in the opinion of the Authority ought, having regard to the circumstances of the area to be represented.” Is there any guidance on the number of teachers and what associations they represent? > Answer

Question 28: What is the advice on having representation from different traditions, for example, within Buddhism, sitting in group A? (in a similar way to the variety of Christian denominations represented) Is this entirely down to the SACRE constitution and the composition of local community > Answer

Question 27: I am Head of RE at a Middle School, and have received a request from a parent to have her daughter excused from RE. The reason given is that the child would benefit from extra English, maths and science tuition. There is no mention of religious grounds. The implication in the letter is that I or the school should arrange for this extra tuition > Answer

Question 26: I've recently discovered that my local SACRE has no constitution in place. The chair has been in post for some time and there are no clear rules ... more > Answer

Question 25: A parent wants to withdraw his daughter from RE and for her to do Maths instead. He does not want to provide her with ‘religious’ work. What should I do? > Answer

Question 24: I have recently become clerk to SACRE and was wondering whether you could give me some information on the what the number of members should be in each of the Categories A and B in particular and in C ... > Answer

Question 23: On the NASACRE website FAQ's, there is a question (Q 14) concerning the representation of Pagans on local SACREs ... more > Answer

Question 22: What is the recognised protocol for action when SACRE is informed of a school that is being non-compliant, in terms of meeting the Agreed Syllabus requirements? > Answer

Question 21: I have recently taken over as Clerk to SACRE and wonder if you could help me with a query. We have a member who is due to take up a teaching post out of borough. He is a committed and enthusiastic member of SACRE. He is currently a member of group C Teacher Associations. Does he have to be teaching in this local authority to represent this group? Can you co-opt onto SACRE? > Answer

Question 20: I shall be grateful with your thoughts on the following: Our SACRE has had an application from a humanist to join Group A ... more > Answer

Question 19: Our SACRE has lost most of its minority faith community members through death or retirement in the last 4 years or so ... more > Answer

Question 18: In what capacity do members representing churches in Group A attend? Are we there so that SACRE has as broad a representative membership as possible ... more > Answer

Question 17: I understand that the 1993 Education Act provides for the Secretary of State to make regulations to require both a SACRE and an ASC ... more > Answer

Question 16: We are holding our annual Chair’s election on Wednesday. I just want to check:- can co-optees stand for chair and can co-optees vote for chair? ... more > Answer

Question 15 : I took over clerking our SACRE late last year, and we have a few issues in relation to getting Members to attend ... more > Answer

Question 14: I have had a request from a Pagan to join our SACRE; this is the first such request I have had to deal with. Is there a view on such membership to SACRE from NASACRE? > Answer

Question 13: We are holding our annual Chair’s election on Wednesday.. more > Answer

Question 12: At our SACRE the other evening no Church of England representatives turned up ... more > Answer

Question 11: I am the Local Authority Officer who sits on our SACRE and I'm contacting you to see if you could put me in touch with someone on NASACRE who could answer a query re SACRE 'quorate rules'... more > Answer

Question 10: Is there general guidance on funding for development of the Agreed Syllabus? One SACRE I know has a tiny budget for meetings etc but not enough to do a major overhaul of the Agreed Syllabus. Another has quite a healthy funding situation- it seems it just depends on the LA involved. > Answer

Question 9: I took over clerking our SACRE late last year, and we have a few issues in relation to getting Members to attend ... more > Answer

Question 8: I am a member of my local SACRE representing the Baptist denomination. When I joined group A I noted that a humanist representative had previously been co-opted to the group ... more > Answer

Question 7: I have recently been appointed as Committee Officer.. more > Answer

Question 6: At a recent meeting, members discussed the draft SACRE self-evaluation tool.. more > Answer

Question 5: Can a SACRE disallow elected councilors to Panel D as most councilors are too busy to attend the meetings? Can they invite LEA employees to sit on Panel D instead of councilors for e.g. RE advisers? > Answer

Question 4: Our SACRE received a report back ... more > Answer

Question 3 : How can I get hold of copies of the Non Statutory National Framework? > Answer

Question 2 : Are all LEAs members of NASACRE? > Answer

Question 1: Are the other RE organisations online > Answer