At St Mary’s Academy in Warrington, pupils learn at school and at home.
Shortly before Easter 2020, we, like everybody else, found ourselves locked down with enough loo roll to see us through the apocalypse. The kids were not at school or university, and we were not at work. We were blessed to be in a house with a reasonably sized garden and, after a couple of unsettled weeks, found a new rhythm and began to enjoy the gift of enforced time together.
We invented and played our own games, did talent shows, created different menus, with each of the five children designing and making a three-course meal once a week – who knew that tomato on a bed of squirty cream could be so nice?
Any tasks coming in from school were limited or ignored. We got the microscope out and examined grains of salt, leaves, bugs and peppercorns (that’s a good one). There was a 1,000-piece puzzle on the go, too, which everyone would add bits to when passing by.
Our kids prepared and delivered Teams lessons for our friends’ younger children via computer screen. They were able to undertake long projects about flags, Romans, metals and saints. The discarded rock polisher came out to make jewellery. We read Lord of the Rings to one another, something that we had always put off due to lack of time, and as we emerged from lockdown in June, my children declared that it had been the best time in their short but busy lives.
It came as no surprise that following Covid there was a sharp increase in the number of children being home-educated. Many parents recognised the need for greater flexibility in their working hours to allow more time with family.
“The most precious thing you can give to someone you love is time,” says Catholic philosopher Peter Kreeft. “Where you choose to spend it is the surest indicator of what and whom you love. No matter how important your job is, it’s not a person.”
Though there are undoubted benefits to feminism, there have been unintended but devastating consequences to family life. This, coupled with economic policies that disincentivise family formation, has torn families apart and distanced parents from their children’s education. Two parents very often must work outside the home in order to keep a roof over their heads, and it is not unusual for young women to either forgo having children altogether or return to work soon after giving birth, outsourcing both care and education to others.
But there is a sizeable and increasing number who hope for a different, dare I say better, way of life for their growing families, and are willing to take the risks to bring it about, including upping sticks and moving into areas offering the chance of a well-balanced relationship between home, parish and school.
I spoke recently with Raymond Cilia, the headmaster of St Mary’s Academy in Warrington, a hybrid school based on the American Regina Caeli model of two days schooling, with the curriculum directed by teachers, and two days in the home, directed by parents. Friday is left open to undertake educational trips or visits, or simply to work, rest and play together in the domestic sphere.
St Mary’s takes seriously the words from the Code of Canon Law on education that state, “there must be the closest cooperation between parents and teachers” (Can 796). It recognises that education is about much more than schooling. As the daughter of an unschooled but well-educated man with a love of learning and a depth of wisdom, this recognition of the broad remit of education appealed to me.
“At St Mary’s Academy,” Cilia said, “we are not trying to do something new or innovative with the curriculum. In fact, quite the opposite: we are doing something old. The reason modern schools have lost their way is because they have lost sight of what education is for. It’s as if the value of the student is only recognised through what they achieve or how productive they will be for the economy. This is not what the classical thinkers taught us.”
I asked him how being at St Mary’s compared with his experience of teaching in much larger Catholic comprehensives. “I’ve taught in many schools judged good or outstanding by Ofsted,” he explains, “and can honestly say that, despite some of the good exam results, these are not words I would use about them.
“Soon into my teaching career, I began to notice something was fundamentally wrong with modern schools. I’m not saying that the teachers weren’t good; in fact some of them were outstanding, virtuous and inspirational. It was not for lack of effort – many would work 50-hour weeks and still take work home – but, having lost sight of what education was for, many of the young people in our charge failed to flourish outside of a narrow idea of success related to exam results, wealth and prestige.”
I enquired how St Mary’s (which prepares children for GCSE) was able to offer anything different. “Our Academy,” Cilia said, “operates in a far more balanced way with parents, who together recognise both the natural and supernatural end of man, thus seeking not only excellence in learning but also an orthodox Christian formation achieved primarily through regular exposure to grace in the sacraments and through developing an interior life, even from a young age.”
When I suggested that this would be a difficult task in the modern age, he responded: “It may surprise some that small children like to be still, as everything in the modern world vies for their attention and screams at their senses. Teaching a child to enjoy stillness is one of the most important things educators can do, because it is the first step in learning to hear the still small voice of God. Children of all ages have appreciated being led in Lectio Divina and many have requested we do it regularly.”
The return to classical education, the involvement of parents, the development of virtue, though admirable, were all things I had witnessed in other schools. As I spoke to Cilia and watched him interact with young people, guide them in Lectio and listen attentively to their questions, as I saw in him and the children a peace that the world cannot offer, I was reminded that education is always about people. Get the “who” right and the “how” will follow. St Mary’s Academy Warrington may be embryonic, with a lot of how to work out, but it has all the ingredients to become something at once deeply familiar and yet refreshingly new.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.