CES Meeting with Lord Adonis, Minister for Schools

On 30 August 2006, CES Chief Executive and Director, Oona Stannard, met with Schools Minister Andrew Adonis to discuss a number of crucial issues.

The meeting focused on the current Education and Inspections Bill (2006), particularly Lord Baker’s amendment which would require that at least one third of pupils admitted to new schools with a religious character should not practise that same faith.

On being told that the CES would “robustly oppose” attempts to introduce quotas into Catholic schools, the Minister assured the CES that the Government will “resist” the amendment.  Nevertheless the CES will continue to lobby parliamentarians – including meetings with Conservative Education spokesman David Willetts and Liberal Democrat Education spokeswoman Sarah Teather in October - in order to ensure that we can successfully oppose the use of quotas in admissions to our schools.

The Minister was interested in the idea, put forward by Oona Stannard, that school profiles might be used to make reference to wider community work.  It was suggested to him that a question could be asked to this effect on the Self-Evaluation Form and the DfES representative said that the Department would investigate further.  Lord Adonis was keen to show that schools with a religious character do get involved in their local communities and wondered whether this is covered in the self-evaluation element of the section 48 inspections.  The CES will be providing him with further details concerning the ways in which Catholic schools self-evaluate their community work.

The CES also took the opportunity to explore the issue of leadership and succession planning.  The Minister welcomed the good relationship that the CES has developed with the National College for School Leadership under its new Chief Executive.  Both Oona Stannard and Andrew Adonis are pleased that the CES is part of NCSL’s small advisory group on Succession Planning i.e. to advise Government.  Two dioceses will be participating in NCSL’s Succession Planning pilot, which will be announced later this month.

The Chief Executive also took the opportunity to seek confirmation that the Government definitely does not have plans to make RE an optional subject in the Sixth Form of schools, as has been rumoured in the media.  The Minister was adamant that the Government has no such plans.

Throughout the meeting, Lord Adonis was highly complimentary about Catholic schools and colleges and was keen to assert that the Government is not trying to restrict the right of Catholic parents to choose a Catholic education.  The CES will continue to talk to all relevant stakeholders and policy-makers in order to defend the position of our Catholic schools and colleges for the future.