Education Select Committee Chair confirms support for Catholic Schools
The chair of the Education Select Committee, Neil Carmichael MP, has reiterated his support for Church schools.
Mr Carmichael confirmed his support for faith-based education at a fringe event organised by the Catholic Education Service (CES) in conjunction with the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) at this year’s Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
The panel also included IEA director, Professor Philip Booth, Schools Week editor Laura McInerney, Daily Telegraph journalist Dr Tim Stanley and CES director Paul Barber.
The panel was unanimous in its support for the continued state funding of Church schools, with many citing the fact that Catholic schools are the most ethnically diverse in England and take higher than the national average of children from the poorest backgrounds.
During the discussion around the subject ‘should the state fund faith schools?’ Mr Carmichael commented on the important role Church schools play in providing parental choice in education.
He said: “Church schools play a big and important role in our wide range of schools.”
Mr Carmichael went on to stress the importance of strong leadership and governance in these schools, especially at the hands of parent and foundation governors.
He added: “It is necessary for Catholics, as well as members of other religions, to understand what they need to cultivate in schools is a culture of strong leadership and governance, and Ofsted has every right to inspect schools on this.”
CES Director, Paul Barber commented: “Our event at this year’s Conservative Party Conference was a great chance for us to promote the fantastic work Catholic schools do and I warmly welcome Mr Carmichael’s comments.
“The panel discussion was really interesting and I’d like to thank all our key speakers for their robust defence of Church schools. I would also like to thank the IEA for co-hosting this event with us.”
ENDS
CES Responds to BHA Report on Admissions
Paul Barber, Director of the Catholic Education Service commented: “School admissions are extremely complex and are accompanied by hundreds of pages of legal framework, so the most likely causes of breaches in the code are unintended admin errors.
“The BHA ‘research’ only takes into account a small cross-section of schools and fails to represent the national picture outlined by the Office of School Adjudicator in its most recent report.
“We expect all Catholic schools to comply with the code and local dioceses provide support for schools to do so. It is because of our admissions system that Catholic schools are the most ethnically diverse in England and contain higher than the national average of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
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CES responds to Government’s free school announcement
CES responds to Government’s free school announcement
The Catholic Education Service (CES), is disappointed that it’s prohibited from the Government’s push for free schools due to an arbitrary cap on admissions.
The largest provider of secondary education in England and Wales, the Catholic Church, is unable to open new free schools despite significant demand from many thousands of parents.
Whilst the CES welcomes the provision of 9,000 more school places, announced today by the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education, it is concerned why an education provider such as the Catholic Church, with a strong track record of providing high quality schooling, is being stopped from participating in this flagship Government policy.
The cap prohibits any potential Catholic free school from accepting more than half their pupils on religious grounds.
Paul Barber, Director of the CES, said: “Catholic schools are some of the best performing educational institutions in the country and there is a significant demand from parents.
“We are not opposed at all to the principle of free schools, however today’s announcement will be disappointing news to the thousands of parents who are unable to get their child a place at a Catholic school.
“If it is a question of diversity and promoting community cohesion, it would be worth the Government remembering that 36% of pupils at Catholic schools come from ethnic minority backgrounds, six per cent higher than the national average.
“We share the Government’s desire to provide hundreds of thousands of quality school places and its plan to give parents more choice in education.
“Providing high quality schooling is something the Catholic Church already does and the CES would ask the Government to remove the barriers which hinder us continuing to do this.”
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Notes to editors
The Catholic Education Service is an agency of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
Key statistics:
83% of Catholic schools have been rated good or outstanding by Ofsted
At GCSE Catholic schools outperform the national average by eight percentage points
At age 11, Catholic schools outperform the national average English and Maths scores by five percentage points
Our Lady of Pity Roman Catholic Primary School wins UK Mathematics Challenge.
On 22 June 2015, four children from Our Lady of Pity Primary School in years 5 and 6 won the UK Mathematics Challenge at Birkenhead School against other local Wirral Primary schools.
The UKMT Team Challenges promote mathematical dexterity, teamwork and communication skills. They also give pupils the opportunity to compete against pupils from other schools in their region. Activities included a group round, cross-number and a mathematical relay.
Singapore mathematicss techniques are currently being implemented at Our Lady of Pity and the children had great fun using Singaporean methods to answer the questions.
Katie Hogan, a trainee teacher who led the children from Our Lady of Pity said, 'this was a fantastic opportunity for the children to demonstrate their mathematics skills in a competitive environment. All of the children thoroughly enjoyed the day and we would like to thank Birkenhead School for organising the event.'
Notes to editors:
• For more information and pictures after the event, please contact Katie Hogan at Our Lady of Pity School. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.