If ever there was a time for cheers and fist-pumps in the offices of the Catholic Education Service it was last Friday. For years the CES has lobbied the Government to lift its free schools admissions cap – that is, a cap stopping free schools from selecting more than half their pupils on the grounds of faith. Because of this cap, the Church, one of the main providers of education in Britain, has opened no free schools at all, shutting itself out of one of former education secretary Michael Gove’s key reforms.
Last week it seemed that might change. Theresa May’s announcement that she will seek to lift the cap on the number of baptised Catholics that faith schools are allowed to accept, may sound like a technical detail. It was also overshadowed by news about grammar schools. But this announcement could bring about one of the most significant changes in Catholic education in England and Wales in decades.
The Times was the first to pick up on the implications. “Catholics to build up to 40 new schools,” ran the headline. A call to the Catholic Education Service confirmed that this was no exaggeration. The figure is based on forecasts of demand for school places undertaken by the dioceses. East Anglia, Westminster and Southwark are in particular need of new schools.
The obvious question is why, if there was so much demand, did Catholic schools not open before? According to one source, the old model of setting up Catholic schools has been neglected since the arrival of academies and free schools, which are now the fastest route to expanding Catholic education because they are given priority.
Some might wonder at the CES’s enthusiasm – free schools are, after all, a radical Conservative reform that sidelines the local authority. How have officials been won over?
In fact, senior Church figures have been keen on the idea from the start. In 2010, before the Tories even got into power, the then Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham, chairman of the CES, said: “[The free schools idea] interests me greatly, because of course that was exactly how Catholic schools were founded – by local communities getting together, pooling resources.”
He suggested that they would help parents become more involved in schools. “The traditional triangle of home, school and parish has come under severe strain in recent years,” he said. “I think if there is more local involvement with school and with Church at the centre of that then it will give support not just to pupils but to parents and families as well.”
The Catholic Church embraced academies more or less straight away, and there are now more than 450 academy schools.
Although some feared that the new academies would be forced to compete like businesses, the emergence of academy trusts, which group schools together, seem to have allayed these fears.
But on free schools the Church was stuck. The cap meant that if a school became popular it would have to turn away Catholics. As Fr Christopher Jamison explained pithily on Twitter: “Fifty per cent cap on religious selection in new schools. [Catholic] schools are popular so had to refuse [Catholics] for being [Catholic]. Defies common sense. A faith school that’s not popular with non-faith adherents can keep all places for their own faith. So popular faith schools penalised.”
Following Theresa May’s decision last week, we now have the unsual scenario in which an arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference for England and Wales is rejoicing following the introduction of a bold new Tory policy.
But Paul Barber, current director of the CES, insists it is not at all surprising: “The CES has always supported a wide variety of school models including voluntary aided, academies and free schools. This is because we know that no two areas in this country are the same and different approaches work for different communities. We look forward to building on our strong working relationship with the Government to continue to deliver outstanding schools.”
Life has changed greatly since 1944, when the Butler Act allowed Catholic schools to become “voluntary aided” under their local education authority. The rise in immigration from Catholic countries such as Poland has driven the demand for Catholic schools. The rise of a menacing form of secularism in British politics has also meant a greater desire for Church schools to have more autonomy over their curriculum. The bishops have had to adapt to this new landscape and free schools are a welcome arrival.
What was also striking about last week’s events is that the Church actually managed to win a political argument. By tenaciously – and successfully – lobbying the Government to reconsider, the Church has shown that it’s a key player when it comes to education policy in this country.
The Government’s decision to change its mind is testimony to the fact that our schools are valued because of their track record in serving the children of England and Wales. That is something to celebrate.
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