The NASACRE/Westhill Young Inter-Faith Projects

The 2008 Awards

Congratulations to the following who have been awarded funding for projects for 2008/9

• Buckinghamshire
• Bradford
• Cambridgshire and Peterborough
• Lancashire
• Newcastle
• Swindon
• Torbay

The 2007 Awards

Although the recipients of the 2007 Awards have been announced, these Awards are intended to support work planned for the school year 2007-8, and there is therefore little yet to report on in terms of progress. In order to support and affirm as many of the very worthwhile projects as possible, some of the total available was divided into several part-awards. The projects are summarised below, and include Greenwich SACRE’s project, for which an Award was belatedly made when it transpired that some additional funding could be drawn on.

• Bedfordshire SACRE. Focussing on three striking faith buildings (mosque, gurdwara, Anglican church) in an economically poor area of Bedford, the project builds on existing educational and community resources to prepare KS2/3 pupils for visits to the buildings and contacts with faith community members, with follow-up.
• Guernsey SACRE. A group of Year 9 pupils, having electronic links with a Solihull school, will travel to the school and join in visits to faith communities in Birmingham, creating a base for long-term links, the project being posted as it develops on Guernsey’s Grid for Learning to enable all Guernsey’s Year 9 pupils to engage with the experience.
• Hampshire SACRE. In partnership with Children’s Services, faith groups and Winchester University, the project will establish a sustainable framework for promoting interaction among young people aged 13-19 from different faiths, with opportunities to influence and inform local policy and decision makers - report
• Lewisham SACRE. Modelled on an earlier successful initiative, SACRE will organise a two day event “Going to Secondary School” for Year 6 pupils in five primary schools, coming from many faith communities, which will address issues of concern for them about faith and its practice in their new schools - report
• Liverpool SACRE. A major inter-faith conference for all Year 12 pupils is being planned for 2008 (when Liverpool will be the European Capital of Culture) by Liverpool’s SACRE and Youth SACRE and a local community partnership, supported by Merseyside Council of Faiths, Liverpool Hope University and other significant organisations. (Provisional Conference date: June 26th 2008.)
• Portsmouth SACRE. Interfusion, the Portsmouth Youth Diversity Forum created following an earlier successful Award bid, is continuing to develop its scope and activities; the part award will enable equality of access for a range of visits to religious centres to promote discussion on spiritual and inter-faith issues.

The 2006 Awards

The 2006 Awards were chosen with the experience of judging the first round of Awards in 2005 to build on, but with their resulting projects at the time mostly still in the early stages of progress. (Portsmouth had got off to a flying start.) There were significantly more applications for an Award this time, from all regions in the country, and with a more diverse range of projects, and the standard was high. The successful projects have been coming to fruition throughout the present year.

• Blackburn with Darwen SACRE have helped develop a primary school programme “Kids United”. 240 children in 4 diverse Primary Schools have been engaged in interfaith exchanges and activity days ( e.g. art, music, sport, computers) and used various media to record and share their experiences, including a colourful newspaper. A new secondary school programme “My home town” is in progress, with a mix of youngsters interviewing a mix of adults - report
• Kirklees SACRE are creating and helping to fund a Virtual Learning Environment linking local educational and faith-community and inter-faith websites, due to be available to schools from this September and more widely from January 2008. This will increase the facility for sharing inter-faith resources and conducting dialogue between young people and across generations.
• Newham SACRE have involved their Student SACRE in amending their schools’ Sex and Relationships Education. Faith perspectives on these topics have arisen from student discussion within and among different faith-groups, and this has been incorporated in a series of DVDs for use in all Secondary Schools and in support of Governor training, excerpts being highlighted at NASACRE’s AGM this year - report
• Surrey SACRE, responding to the impetus of their Youth SACRE, have sponsored a residential interfaith weekend for young people exploring the ideas of respect, acceptance and transformation, and recorded on DVD as a resource for RE and for the Youth Service and Youth Parliament - report
• Tameside SACRE’s project, building on an initial interfaith event in November 2005, focussed on presenting a large exhibition for four days in March 2007, on the theme “Belonging to Faith Communities”, involving pupils from both LA and supplementary religious schools in preparation and displays. Its DVD is being circulated. A third event is now being planned and a Young People’s Faith Forum is under discussion - report

The 2005 Awards

This was the first round of awards and the following were awarded from a good set of applications:

• Bristol SACRE, working with Bristol City Council to defuse racism and bullying in school settings and to link RE with Citizenship, held a ‘Unity and Diversity’ Forum on 28th March this year, based on responses to a questionnaire on faith and values
• Hounslow SACRE circulated a questionnaire on RE around all sixth-formers, and mounted an initial major conference in July, which will stimulate the creation of RE resources, particularly for Sixth-Form General Studies
• Hull and East Riding SACREs sponsored a student video project, leading on to a high profile ‘Faith2Faith’ conference for the secondary age range in November 2006. A second phase is planned with a regional dimension building towards a conference in Bridlington in Spring 2008 - report - video
• Portsmouth SACRE initiated a representative interfaith forum of 15-18 year olds, now called ‘Interfusion’, which has taken an active role in developing inter-faith work among young people and built up a strong public profile. A multicultural music and faith event was successfully mounted on 3rd Dec 2005. Home Office funding was obtained to enable the project to continue - report
• Solihull SACRE invited all schools with pupils in the 8 to 18 age range to enter a competition on the theme of “Breaking down Barriers – What do we believe?” The winners will be celebrated in a large multi-faith festival for schools on October 3rd this year, from which the intention is to establish a Young People’s Faith Forum - report

Top