These (soon to be) few pages describe the journey Marianne Timms took in seeking to become a SACRE member, representing the face of modern Paganism in religious education. A primary teacher for ten years and now working part time within the school environment, Marianne's story is told both to inform and encourage. If you are minded to look into joining your local SACRE, do get in touch. And if you go for it, tell us so that we can add your story to this place.
Getting co-opted onto a SACRE board.
October 2007: I have just started the process of getting myself co-opted onto the SACRE board for Warwickshire. I’m writing this to help any other people who may wish to do the same for other counties.
SACRE boards are responsible for preparing the religious education syllabus for their county. They are usually a group of co-opted people with knowledge of education and of a specific religious background. There are very few Pagan representatives on SACRE boards in this country at the moment.
I think it helps a great deal, if you wish to do this, if you have a good knowledge of the Education system. I was a teacher and am now working part time as a teaching assistant in my local primary school. I think they would look favourably on someone who volunteers in a school, in some capacity, as long as they had a good working knowledge of the curriculum.
As you are going to act as a Pagan representative it also helps if you have a solid knowledge of Paganism. I have been a practising Pagan for eight years.
Having decided I was going to approach my local SACRE, I sought support and backing for my application from PEBBLE. PEBBLE is the “Public Body Liaison Committee for British Paganism”. It was set up following a report by the Home Office Faith Communities unit, in which guidelines were set out for all Government departments to include minority Faith groups in consultations, regarding laws and guidance that affects them. They approved my application at a committee meeting.
Once I had clearance from PEBBLE I contacted my local SACRE. This was very easy in Warwickshire. I googled Warwickshire SACRE and their site came up. They had a link for contacting them with an email address and a phone number. I started off with an introductory email. In this I explained that I was interested in finding out about the role of a SACRE representative and that I wanted to become one myself. I followed this up with a phone call about a week later, when I hadn’t heard anything, and spoke to the clerk to the SACRE. He was able to tell me about the role. In Warwickshire the SACRE group meets three times a year at various venues in the county. They meet on a Wednesday evening.
They were very interested in co-opting a Pagan.
However, my application had to be discussed by the SACRE committee and then by the group as a whole. This process took about a month and I made sure that during that time I kept speaking to the SACRE clerk. He asked me a couple of questions. The first was about the numbers of Pagans in Warwickshire. This was quite hard to find but I drew on the support of PEBBLE and they were able to send him the figures for the area of West Midlands in the 2001 census.He also asked me if I could get a further reference from the Pagan Federation as this was the organisation that was known of by the committee. Again here I had to draw on my PEBBLE contacts and they were able to send a further reference.
I am now waiting for the Chair of SACRE to contact me to confirm that my application has been successful.
My experience so far has been very positive. I had had lots of support when I needed it from my Pagan friends and colleagues and was pleased to find that my SACRE group were very positive about Paganism. I was told that they were excited to be having a Pagan coming to join them. I’m now looking forward to joining the SACRE group and seeing what opportunities this allows me for to raise the profile of Paganism.
... to be continued!
