CES Launch

Leading a Catholic School – “The best job in the world”

And

Catholic Schools and Community Cohesion: CES Guidance

I am very glad to be here today for the launch of these two important CES documents: Catholic Schools and Community Cohesion and on Leading a Catholic School “The Best Job in the World”.

In September of last year, at the beginning of this school academic year, the Government, in conjunction with the faith communities, published a document called “Faith in the System”.  I believe it never quite got the publicity it deserved.  We in the CES are pleased to be working, with the Secretary of State’s encouragement, to facilitate the development of ways in which the providers of schools of a religious character work closely together in the fulfilment of some of their common commitments.

In the teeth of an ongoing and persistent public debate about the value of schools of religious character the Government expressed its firm support for them. 

The logic of the argument and the reasons presented in the document “Faith in the System” were fascinating.

In the first place, the document notes that “Faith organisations have a long and noble tradition in education in this country.”  There was ready acknowledgement that the contribution of the Christian Churches long predates that of the state in providing education for the children of this country.  Also recorded was the fact that around one third of the total number of maintained schools in England are schools with a religious character as well as two out of every five independent schools.  In summary, the document describes schools of a religious character, then, as being “at the heart of the schools system in England”.

The document then gave a second reason for the Government’s support for schools of religious character: they are popular with parents and they provide diversity and choice within the school system.  A third reason was then given and this too is of importance and so I quote: “The Government recognises that faith schools make a valuable contribution to the way in which this country discharges its duty under Article 2 of Protocol 1 of the European Convention of Human Rights to respect the rights of parents to ensure education teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” 

The fourth reason given in the document by the Government for its support for schools of a religious character is the contribution they make to community cohesion.  That, as you know, became a requirement of all schools since last September.

With this background in mind, and not forgetting the ongoing debate promoted by those who in principle wish to see the separation of education from all faith and religious belief, the two documents which we launched today are of considerable importance.  Each is both inspirational and informative.

Let me take the document concerned with community cohesion first.

This document provides a wealth of illustration of how Catholic schools can be seen to respond to the challenge of community cohesion across a full range of activities.  It is full of eloquent testimony from Catholic schools in different parts of the country concerning the ways in which they rise to this challenge.  There is a whole list of ways in which schools contribute to the wellbeing of their wider community such as through their links with other schools, through extended use of their schools, through caring for the elderly, through work with new migrants from Eastern Europe, through building links to consciousness of the global nature of the human family today and in caring for the environment.  It would be easy for me to hold your attention with examples from the portraits contained in this report but I would just like to give one example.  It is drawn from St Joseph’s Catholic High School in Slough and it is a direct quotation from a Year 9 Muslim boy.  He was asked by a visitor how he liked the school.  His answer was as follows “It’s okay.  It’s good.  I get respect here.  We all get respect.  We are all equal anyway, God made us all equal whoever we are.”

This document is also very informative.  It provides a pattern of thought and category in which schools can reflect on the work of promoting community cohesion.  Phrases which come into vogue, as this one has done, often become very loose in their meaning and are quickly asked to cover a multitude of activities. But this document helps to keep our thinking focussed and therefore our planning effective.

The document is also informative of the ways in which a school can evaluate its own work in promoting community cohesion and prepare for inspection in this dimension of its life.  It is full of exemplar criteria and guidelines which have been fashioned up and down the country and are well summed up and presented here. 

There is no doubt of the importance of the evidence expressed in this document.  So often we are treated to assertions about the so called characteristics of Catholic schools and other schools of religious character, totally without evidence.  But here is firm data on which both argument and good practice can be based. 

This document sits very well with the 2006 CES Report summarising OFSTED reports from the inspection cycle 2003-2005.  This demonstrated very clearly how pupils’ attitude to behaviour, relationships and self confidence were far more often excellent or very good in Catholic secondary schools than in other schools.  Similarly in terms of the self knowledge and spiritual awareness that pupils achieve, a far higher proportion of Catholic schools achieved excellent or very good judgements.  It is also important to remember that this evidence started categorically that Catholic secondary schools had a better record in stimulating a desire to learn, developing  the responsibilities for living in a community and protecting pupils from bullying, racism or other harassment.  These too are important contributors to the future stability of our society.

Indeed it can be said with confidence that Catholic schools are incubators of social values and of motivation towards serving the common good.  In our schools pupils develop both the principles and the practice of a mature relationship towards others, working for the good of others, engaging in moral discourse by which to decide what is genuinely good and to be pursued, and developing an understanding of faith and of the religious truths that are to be found around them in our society today.  Without these qualities the work of building a harmonious society in Britain is very much hampered.  Catholic schools provide them and in this sense are very much part of a promising future for our society and not part of a problem.

The second document and its accompanying DVD which I am pleased to draw your attention to this afternoon is entitled “The Best Job in the World”.  If this was framed as a question in a popular quiz I am not sure how many people would come up with the answer “Being a headteacher”.  There are too many jokes about the burdens of being a head to assume that in the popular mind this is indeed one of the best job in the world.

But it’s true.  This document in its own way is equally inspiring and informative as the first.

This document and DVD pull no punches.  It does not pretend for a moment that being the leader of a Catholic school is without its challenges.  But it does place the leader so much in the context of a shared endeavour, and an endeavour which is utterly worthwhile, as to be convincing in its claims for the job satisfaction that goes with the position.

There’s no doubting the importance of leadership in a school.  Indeed it would be possible to quote document after document pointing to the fact that the effectiveness of many institutions, and certainly schools, is directly related to the effectiveness and inspiration provided by its leadership.

In this document there is a sober awareness of our need to look widely for candidates for leadership positions in our schools and to do all that we can to nurture the aspirations of those who are lower down the ranks or indeed just entering into teaching as a profession. 

Succession planning is obviously a problem wider than the Catholic community. Therefore we are very glad to be working in conjunction with the National College for School Leadership both in the production of these resources and in particular and other very promising ventures.  This is our way of doing things, in partnership with Government, with Government agencies and with all who share our passion and vision for education today.

One of the important features to be found in this publication is explicit encouragement for the task of drawing into Catholic schools those who have already spent years of work in education outside the Catholic sector.  Ours is not a closed shop and we need the wider experience that people bring, coupled with a real desire and an understanding of the part played by the Catholic school in the life and mission of the Church.  In a like manner, teachers who move on from the Catholic sector take with them an experience and vision of education that will continue to enrich their work and serve the common good.

Of course it is axiomatic to speak of a school as a community. But a community is only as strong as it shared values and the way in which they are lived.  It is these shared values and the daily effort of living them that produces that ephemeral quality often known as the “ethos” of a school. 

In a Catholic school there is no doubt that shared values and the ethos it produces is firmly and strictly rooted in the vision provided and explore in the Catholic faith. It is this inspiration from faith which shapes the way we see each other, which reinforces our commitment to each other, which constantly raises our expectations of each other, which underlines our common origins and our common destiny, our common struggle with evil and our common hope in the ultimate victory of good.

This faith in the work of God in our midst doesn’t exist simply in our personal spirituality or personal vision.  It draws us into a community of faith which is then characterised by religious observance.  It is religious observance, in its daily disciplines and practices, which both nurtures and nourishes the faith that we share. 

This link between faith and religious observance is very important today.  Once it could be assumed.  Now it cannot, as many people seek to disengage faith from its expression in religious practice.  A generalised promoting of ‘faith’, lacking specifics, is far easier to handle – and marginalise – in today’s society.  Religious practice is the climbing frame on which faith prospers.  It also nurtures and sustains that faith.  So this separation of faith from religious practice must not happen in our schools where we know that, in every aspect of their education, children learn a great deal from the routines that they observe as well as from the teaching that is given to them. 

For all these reasons it is perfectly clear that leading a Catholic school requires a commitment not only to the faith that inspires it but also to the religious observances that underpin that faith. Sometimes this seems like a daunting prospect for a young teacher or somebody approaching that stage in their career when they have to make crucial decisions.  But it should not.  Leadership in the Church is not an isolating path.  I know that.  Every headteacher knows it too.  When leadership within a community of faith, as is a Catholic school, is assumed then new bonds of support and mutual encouragement open up.  These are the means by which God strengthens us for the calling and the ministry that he entrust for us.  And this is as true for a headteacher as it is for a bishop. 

So I warmly welcome this document which, as I say, is not only inspirational but also informative.  It is full of guidance for governors and current leadership in schools as to the steps they could take to plan for the next generation of school leaders and for ensuring that we build on all the strengths present in our community.

In conclusion could I just cast my gaze a little wider.

Everybody in this room is familiar with the much rehearsed pattern of partnerships to which we look in the Catholic Church for the effectiveness of education.  Indeed we look to those partnerships between school, family and parish as underpinning the task of leading youngsters into the fullness of life.  I think at this stage we ought to be very aware of the change of the title in the Government’s Department dealing with school education.  It is now, as you will know, called the Department for Children, Schools and Families. 

What exactly this expansion of title will come to mean is, I suspect, still a matter for speculation.  But there is no doubt in my mind that the brief being given to this Department is at least in part in recognition of the increasing frailty of family structure.  This of course has many causes, important among them is the impact of poverty in all its forms: poverty of expectation, of personal resourcefulness, poverty of relationships as well as material poverty. In the underlying analysis I would guess that more and more responsibility is being shifted onto the school. 

Our experience of partnership between school and family is a very positive one and again there is empirical evidence to illustrate the fact that Catholic secondary schools keep the engagements of parents far better than do other others.  However this shift of emphasis within the title of the Government’s Department and its possible implications should be very much in our minds.  We have a very clear understanding that the first educators of every child are its parents.  This is, as it were, the order of nature and indeed a full expression of the responsibility of those who bring a child into the world.  Their duty is to bring that child to maturity.  We express this view very strongly in the principle that the school acts in the place of the parents.

We must be attentive now that this emphasis on the primacy of the parents is not subtly eroded. The full range of partnerships are vital for effective schooling and for giving children the best chance in life.  But the school acts not in the name of the state as the educator but in the name of the parents as the educator of their own children.

So please be attentive to the partnership that you have with parents.  Nurture it, encourage it and always respect to the utmost the parental role in education.  Often, as I know well, home circumstances are not necessarily encouraging to the educational progress of the children.  But that’s not a reason for distancing ourselves from parents or doing anything other than encouraging their participation, and providing extra help for them, while keeping the needs of children to the fore.

I welcome these two documents. They illustrate in exciting detail this expression of the importance of education in the eyes of the Church: “Teaching has an extraordinary moral depth and is one of our most excellent and creative activities.  For the teacher does not write on inanimate material, but on the very spirits of human beings.  The personal relations between teacher and student, therefore, assume an enormous importance, and are not limited to a simple ‘give’ and ‘take’.  Moreover we must remember that teachers and educators fulfil a specific Christian vocation and share an equally specific partnership in the mission of the Church.”  (The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium)

I thank you all for coming.  I congratulate the CES and its partners in the production of this good work and I hope you enjoy the rest of this fine reception.

XVincent Nichols

 Archbishop of Birmingham

Chairman, Catholic Education Service