The law states that Religious Education (RE) must be taught in all schools, but it is not a part of the National Curriculum.
The structure of Halton's SACRE is defined by law, and is made up of four groups or committees.
These are:
The role of SACRE is to support and give the local authority advice on matters that are related to collective worship and religious education in community schools.
Halton SACRE is a statutory body, made up of people from a wide range of faith groups who volunteer to be members, but it is not part of the local authority. The SACRE can ask for a review of the locally agreed Religious Education syllabus and will also consider requests from schools that want to stop providing an act of worship (broadly Christian in nature) to some, or all of the children in the school.
The role of a SACRE is also to support the religious education curriculum and collective worship within schools. As part of their responsibilities, SACREs must provide an agreed syllabus to support the religious education curriculum in schools, which must be reviewed every five years. The requirement on maintained schools within, including community schools without a religious designation and voluntary controlled schools, is to follow the Halton Agreed Syllabus at all key stages (for the purpose of which the Halton SACRE has adopted the Lancashire Agreed Syllabus).
The Halton LA Officer to Halton SACRE is Sarah Murdoch sarah.murdoch@halton.gov.uk
The Clerk to Halton SACRE is Elizabeth Chan elizabeth.chan@halton.gov.uk