Leaving Out the Best Bits
- Ted Dunphy
- May 9, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: May 16, 2024
What does a website not tell you?
Writing is about choosing. Writers select the content. They leave out words and phrases that go against their case. They choose to avoid ambiguity, or decide to put it in, if that suits them and skip the bits they don’t understand or can’t easily explain.
Identify what is omitted and the world as they see it comes into view.
What is uncovered may not always impress.
Look for clues
Visit the websites of the thirteen Birmingham Multi Academy Companies (MACs, sometimes referred to as Multi Academy Clumps) to see what is buried/deleted/glossed over or just ignored.
The result is a picture of the leaders and how they see their role in leading their MAC. Equally startling is the range of variation across the MACs in what they write about and how they present their views.
Concentrate on the welcome page, allegedly written by the CEO or the Catholic Senior Executive Leader (CSEL) or Chief Accounting Officer, or the Chair of the Board.
Don’t go beyond that opening welcome page or you will tumble through the looking glass into a world view distorted by unusual interpretations of words like ‘vision’, ‘MAC values’, ‘Catholic life’.
In some instances, the message is marred by spurious links and stretching interpretations of the gospel in a feeble attempt to justify their existence as Catholic – while missing the point of their real gospel foundation and ignoring their link with the mission of the diocese.
These are some of the elements that are left out.
What is your name again?
The MAC names give pause for thought. Who chose the names and why?
Is each name supposed to be like a brand name, such as ‘Tesco’, ‘M&S’, ‘NHS’? In itself, the name of these institutions gives an unmistakable message.
Does that happen with the name of these MACs?
Does the website give a clue?
Or did the diocese painstakingly select the names of each MAC to give a spread of names that all together summed up the mission of the diocese, addressing need and opportunity across its geographical spread?
Or maybe there was no central input.
We don’t know.
That information is omitted.
There is no hint in the name Our Lady of the Magnificat (www.magnificat.org.uk) to say it is to do with education. It could be a name of a parish church. Equally, the name might fittingly refer to a sodality dedicated to supporting women who were pregnant against all the odds, referring as it does to the meeting between Elizabeth, who was barren and old, and her kinswoman Mary, who had just been told by an angel of her unusual pregnancy.
The Painsley Catholic Academy - Better Together (www.painsleymac.co.uk) brings to mind a Scottish tartan. Maybe it was named after some local connection that is not evident to readers who have never heard of the school the academy grew out of. The “Better Together” slogan in the title is somewhat unfortunate in that it shares this sentiment with County line gangs, Hells Angels Clubs and lynch mobs.
Whereas a name like Our Lady and All Saints Catholic Multi Academy Company (www.olaas.co.uk) signals it is about an education setup. You know what to expect as you read on.
Why does the diocese not stipulate that each multi academy clump should have the words, ‘Catholic’, along with ‘Multi Academy’ and ‘Company’ in the title? Possibly add a hint as to where it operates?
Where do you operate?
There isn’t any clue in the welcome page as to where the MAC serves the diocese. Some websites list the names of the schools in their clump. It is possible to work out where in the diocese they operate only by logging into the individual website for each school.
The name “Cannock” creeps into the The Painsley page, so the MAC must be in that part of the diocese. That still leaves a wide range of territory to cover.
Probing further into the website and Our Lady and All Saints Catholic Multi Academy reveals they operate “across Solihull, Birmingham, and Warwickshire”.
Our Lady of the Magnificat will later on on its website tell you they operate across Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
Useful to know.
Why bother listing the area served by the MAC? Because it gives a clue as to the socioeconomic and religious context in which that MAC operates. That it turn offers insights into the challenges faced by the schools in the clump.
Reading that a clump of schools operates in rural Worcestershire and rural Warwickshire gives you one set of images to work with. Compare those to the images coming from a statement saying a MAC serves schools in the centre of Birmingham with intense social deprivation and mixed ethnic and religious populations.
Readers can already appreciate the task of the schools in the clump if they know where the MAC operates.
They are already working out what tactics the MAC might use to lead, manage, monitor and improve the provision and remain dedicated to its foundation of serving the gospel mission of preaching the Word of God in this area, in alignment with the mission of the diocese.
Why not tell the reader the context in which the MAC operates?
When did you write this?
When was the welcome page written and posted online?
There are no dates for any part of the writing. The reader has no idea how often that welcome page changes to reflect the growing and new demands facing Catholic schools.
How else can visitors recognise the growing success of the MAC leading its schools to new ventures and challenges and so recognise that this is a dynamic clump of schools?
Without regular and frequent updates, the impression is of a MAC that is a clump of soulless satellites overseen by sclerotic management.
How did you meet?
On what basis were the schools clumped together in each MAC?
You might guess at shared interests, perceived specialisms, charism in common, joint ventures already started, similar challenges in social and religious contexts, shared concern about particular problems such as pupils and students with special needs, or the need for a united Catholic presence and voice in an area.
This information is not part of the websites.
The reader is left to conjure up their own model that drove the clumping of schools.
The obvious model seems to be based predominantly on geographical consideration – a Google Map model. Surely, ease of travel between each school was not considered significant enough to drive such a momentous change in Catholic education?
They don't say.
The model used is one of the unspoken elements on the websites.
Who do you reach out to?
Please be in touch if anyone knows who the website are intended for.
A school website is clearly addressing the parents and the pupils and students who are part of the school.
A MAC, on the other hand, is managing and leading a group of schools on behalf of the diocese. Surely their websites would be addressing a wider audience than parents.
This is not answered on these websites.
Whose needs do you serve?
How about some inkling about what the MAC does for the schools in its clump?
How are leadership and management managed?
Some Board members display impressive and relevant occupational expertise, but by the nature of their role, they are not in a position of delivery.
Who on the officer teams has the skill, the experience and the expertise to bring about a combined thrust to work alongside the mission of the diocese?
It would be helpful if such information were clearly stated on the websites.
Are you all the same?
What is unique in each MAC?
In Catholic Schools Inspection, they use the word ‘charism’ to describe the unique element some schools have. Could the same word be said about MACs where their special blend of gospel application in response to the needs and opportunities of their communities identifies them as unique?
It would be reassuring to know what those charisms are and what range and variety exists across the diocese.
CEO, SCEL or Chief Accounts Officer?
Who runs the MACs? There seems to be a lot of administration personnel and accountants and business people called trustees.
Leaders are called CSEL, or CEO, or CSEL/CEO, or CSEL and Chief Accounting Officer. In some MACs, there is no named leader and in one case the MAC seems to be led solely by the Board.
Each leader will have a peculiar interpretation of their work as reflected in how they view their title.
Why the variation?
The SCEL in one MAC has a background in social services, a most useful experience in discerning the social profiles and possible extra resources available to his schools.
One SCEL has experience in private education, but it does not say if that was a hinderance or a positive attribute.
When a Board member is described as being “Director of Communications for a foundation of Independent Schools in Worcester”, the temptation is to ask, which foundation, so that there is the possibility of a benchmark being called into play.
That would be useful information to have.
What parents?
Where do current parents fit in? Do they have a say in the Mac or are they confined just to the schools?
Does anyone at the MACs know of Pope Francis’ synodal approach in leading the Church and go out of their way to listen to the views of those affected by the MAC activities?
The websites don’t say.
Catholic?
As for expressing the key elements that justify their claim to be Catholic, make your own mind up on that.
The CES publications give definitive statements on Catholic education and Catholic schools. Ask how much of that thinking is found on the websites.
Shibboleths, slogans and lists of values supposedly rooted in the gospel do not constitute a rationale for calling a MAC Catholic.
It would be most helpful if writers took a minute to express a description of Catholic schools approved by the bishops rather than some fantasy of their own making which may or not have been formed by their own insular experience of Catholic schools.
The absence of such a fundamental statement of what it is to be a Catholic MAC is a surprising omission from a Catholic MAC website.
Maybe it is time for a fresh look at your website.
When so much is unsaid, or taken for granted, the reader will only draw their own conclusions.
Is that the best way to preach the gospel?
© Ted Dunphy
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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 three 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. I listen.
Ted Dunphy
Tel: 44 (0) 1527 894659
Mobile: 44 (0) 7891 179180
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