Dreaming of a MAC Future

The initial intention in starting Academy schools was to turn around failing schools. Political deviancy, calcified ideology and self-serving interests distorted that intention.

Clumping schools together in ill-fitting clusters was camouflaged by a flurry of slogans, shibboleths, and subterfuge.

Credit to the Birmingham archdiocese for seizing the opportunities gifted to them. They grabbed the option to level up in terms of capital spending and greater independence. The gathering of schools into Catholic MACs supported school survival in an educational landscape that was being torn apart for ideological reasons. Not to overlook the access to funds and opportunities not available previously.

It was a fantastic opportunity to draw on a hundred plus years of experience and the creative power of serving teachers to design new schools fit for the future. The chance was there to look again at shaping faith communities of learning, embedded in their communities, powered by the gospel message that affected everything including the style and process of teaching and learning, welcoming all who sought a fullness of life regardless of personal or imposed restrictions. These academies could be powerhouses of the Church’s mission to preach the gospel message.     

Birmingham diocese opted to group their schools into MACs.

The archbishop said that was the best way they could be part of propagating the gospel message by providing the best in Catholic education.

That is a most unhelpful statement, unless someone spells out what it means. Schools need guidance on how to do this grouping.

The clustering of schools, seemingly on geographical grounds, was new. Now, the group of schools was to be the active agent in promoting the gospel message. Being together would increase their efficacy in preaching the gospel and would bring untold benefits.

Schools expected an explanation of how it would work in practice.

MAC Officials looked for a framework of specialist support and experienced leadership as they headed into unknown territory.

Accountability and success were to be measured against the diocesan aims rather than just how effective the MAC was in managing a budget or counting the number of new builds it threw up. 

For the moment, Birmingham diocese supports thirteen such Catholic MACs.

By now, there should be evidence of the innumerable benefits promised with countless freedoms springing up in the MAC system; the shoots of independence blossoming in unimaginable creativity.

Would there be any limit to what might be expected from schools liberated from restrictive ways, surging with new life under the benign leadership of servant-leader MAC CEOs, with improved access to cash for buildings, equipment, and training?

Where to start on counting the vast number of noticeable benefits showering on each child, considering their locality, their individual needs, opportunities, and limitations?

Many found it unusual to see parents so widely and publicly acclaimed as the primary educators of their children with the schools and MACs operating in a supportive role. The fruits of that relationship are looked for as keenly as the first flowers of Spring.

Who can be but amazed at the open and generous garnering of pupils’ and students’ views?

Staff must be in awe at the many opportunities for active participation in feeding the life and success of their school in the MAC.

Observers and participants marvel at the close relationship between MACs and parishes advocated by the diocese. This cooperation has been seized on as a way of rebuilding the spiritual life of the community.

With such outcomes promised, it is obvious why the designers of Catholic MACs in the diocese imagined their version of Catholic MACs as the context for delivering outstanding Catholic schools.

There is no room for slogans, shibboleths and subterfuge especially when MAC leaders are examples of servant-leaders in the image of Jesus.

Mean-minded observers might say the promises and hype for the MACs were on the same level as the NHS promise on the side of the Brexit bus. They argue that the reality following the creation of the MACs is no better that the outcomes of the national decision to cast the country adrift from its neighbours.

Whatever side you take, the opportunity to create the future is still there.

But start with facts and build your dream from there. Jesus showed this technique when dealing with complex issues like God as a Father, true religion, corrupt tradition, cultural blind spots, bigotry, cruelty, victimisation, uneven balance of wealth, being holy while a sinner, ethnic hatred, power hungry religious leaders, healing, wholeness, salvation, forgiveness, living with sinfulness, protecting children and women, and even who would be top dog among his disciples.

Consider just a few key facts to shape Catholic schools.

Fact 1. The MAC controls the education of individual children and young people from 3-year-olds to 18-year-olds. It delivers a unified, coherent, integrated system of provision across multiple sites that covers every aspect of growing up. The stated outcomes of that provision will be the measure of success.

The individuality of schools in the MAC allows for rich seams of unique provision to be mined and integrated into the whole.

Success in that comprehensive intertwining of individuality would be a remarkable example of what Pierre Teilhard de Chardin called his interconnected vision of the world, where each strand contributes to the overall richness of the tapestry of young people growing up.

Fact 2. Each school managed and supported by the MAC is a living faith community of learning bringing together pupils, students, staff, parents, and parishes along with the might and resources of the diocese and of the MAC in the service of each child. Make that happen and you have the best of Catholic education.

Fact 3. Catholic schools do not cater only for Catholic children and are not staffed just by Catholic practitioners. The variation in meaning of ‘Catholic pupil’ ranges from, “His grandmother on my wife’s side was a Catholic brought up in the West of Ireland” to “I am an active member of the parish finance committee, I run the St Vincent de Paul group in the area and am a Eucharistic minister”.

The attendance of children from other faiths and persuasions is an opportunity to be grasped like pieces of gold.

The appointment of staff who are not Catholic respects and uses their personal stance and encourages them to use their excellent skill sets to do more than just deploy those skills.

Fact 4. The central activity of this living faith community of learning is managing and delivering the development of each child through learning, across physical, personal, and faith growth zones that are challenging, fraught and exciting journeys of discovery.

This development is subject to interference by poor starts in life, the vagaries of family background, the intrusion of society, bad influences, limited opportunities or limitations that may be physical or psychological, and sometimes arbitrarily or maliciously imposed.

The Catholic schools, under the guidance and protection of its MAC, build in provision for sustaining growth through and despite these obstacles. The school is like the hand of Jesus reaching out to touch the leper in healing.

Fact 5. The faith dimension of the child growing in this faith community comprises four key strands so that by the age of eighteen the individual is in an informed position to decide if the future shape of their life is to be shot through with belief in and response to the message of Jesus.

Fact 6. The MAC models the responses to each of these facts that its schools will exemplify.  

Jesus was the leader, but he tasked his twelve disciples to extend, explain, and exemplify the word he preached.

He expected his disciples to be like him in saying the message and living by it.

That would be a firm basis for structuring the next stage of MACs.

There are more ways to a sunny upland than going by the Brexit bus.

Ask the servant-leader of your MAC.

© Ted Dunphy

________________________

Disclaimer

I am not connected in any way with the Birmingham Diocesan Education Service or the Catholic Education Service. The views expressed are my own and are based on experience, research and evidence. 

The experience comes from teaching in and working with Catholic schools around England over many years.

The research is based on the past two years investigating Catholic school websites in countries around the world, but especially in England.

An evidence-based approach challenges and refines the learning from the experience and the research.

I strongly support Pope Francis’ concept of synodality as a way of finding truth. I welcome you to have your say.

Ted Dunphy

edwarddunphy1@mac.com

Tel: 44 (0) 1527 894659

Mobile: 44 (0) 7891 179180

www.schoolwebsitewriting.com