Show Us A MAC

Parents claim they have never seen a Catholic MAC. They do not exist.

A prospective parent asked a fourteen-year-old boy at a school Open Evening what did ‘MAC’ stand for. He thought for a moment – an unnerving sight to witness - before answering, “Multi-Academy Clump”.

He too claimed to never having seen a MAC.

Open Letter to Head of Multi-Academy Clump (MAC)

Dear sir/madam/other

I have just read a website that claims you now own our local Catholic schools that once taught my sons.

We believed our schools belonged to the diocese. We didn’t know they were for sale. When did you buy them? Was it a hostile takeover bid or an auction?

I have no evidence you really exist. I know my local Catholic schools exist. I see the pupils and students flowing in and out every day, like the tide flowing and ebbing. I can walk up to their front door and ask to speak to someone in charge and I will meet a person. They invite me to Open Evenings. They ask for my support for their Christmas Carol concerts and Chortling Choir Cacophony Evenings. I support their sponsored walks, speed clambers up a  climbing wall, dunking for apples, conker battles, breath holding, and scuba diving for good causes. I see some of the staff around the town or at Mass.

I don’t see you.

You don’t say how you will direct your clump of schools to be good schools.

Your welcome page is more suited to describing a single stand-alone school rather than a clump.

You don’t tell us how you manage the clump and lift each school in it to a high level of performance and achievement. Anyone (talented, experienced, imaginative, creative) can run a school. It is a different issue when running a clump of them.

How do we know you are up to it?

We hear about strange goings-on in what were once our schools. Are the changes down to you?

You change the headteacher of one of our local schools so often people call the replacement, ‘the new head’, rather than remembering their name.

Why is there such a high number of teachers leaving across your clump of schools?

It is rumoured that parents and families have never seen you. They feel ignored.

The local parish seems to have been cut out, apart from the appearance of a priest to celebrate Mass on feast days.

Our local Catholic high school, renowned for working with a wide range of ability among its students, and very successful on a personal, spiritual and academic level is seemingly “counselling“ Year 11 students to go elsewhere for A-level when they are predicted not to get impressive GCSE grades?

It is claimed that this is the “best outcome for them“. It might be the best outcome for the school’s public image when the exam results are published.

Is it true that the school no longer teaches some key subjects at A-level? Can you borrow and share a teacher from the other schools listed in your “family of schools”?

How can you hope to grow pleasant Catholic adults when you haven’t worked out how to act in harmony with existing parents and their families and the family of the parishes and the local community?

I can only go on what I see and on the comments of current students and parents. Very little of which is positive.

Where else can I get information?

You don’t write for me. Your website is more preoccupied with the legal aspects of what you do rather than telling me and prospective parents what will happen to children who go to a school in your clump.

Why do you spend so much time on your website talking about yourself and listing schools I never heard of and have no interest in?

Then there is the top slicing of each school’s budget to fund you. Did anyone see that high cost coming?

Most schools could afford to pay for private dental care for all their staff if they kept the top slice of their budget they pay for your services. Dental protection might be more beneficial than belonging to your so-called “family of schools”.

How will you explain value for money when the Ofsted Inquisition comes around?

Surely a website is about students and pupils, not about you and your organisation. Tell me what benefits there are in practical terms for each individual student to be in a school which has been taken over by you and clumped with other schools.

If your website is all I can go on to learn about you and understand and appreciate what you do, then I am walking on thin ice.

I am confused as to who you have written your website for.

It certainly isn’t for the likes of me or for parents deciding where to send their precious gift to humanity, hoping to find someone somewhere who will work in harmony with them to bring that child to fruition.

Your website is not much use in answering any of our concerns.

Could I suggest you get rid of all the legal gobbledegook from your website? Post a link to that information for those who are interested in that sort of thing.

In such a slimmed-down version of your website, tell us what you do for all your pupils and students. Not all of them are “enthusiastic and committed” as you claim.

What do you do for the disadvantaged, those going to school hungry, those from families suffering deprivation, unemployment and bad housing? Give us a clue about your approach to those with learning difficulties, or with mental health issues and those with an aversion to school.

Tell us about those youngsters as well as how you turn out airline pilots, legal experts, city traders, self-employed builders and carpenters and those who run the local economy and services that keep the community around here going?

I should ask the diocese, but they are so touchy and defensive that they see every question as an attack on them. No one willingly walks into a bed of nettles and briars.

Is it true that one diocesan official is rumoured to have said, “We opted for the simplistic one-size-fits-all Multi-Academy Clump (MAC) approach in order to re-establish control over each of our schools. At the time, someone said it would be a good idea. We were not quite sure why they said that. But it was something different to do, so we had a go. Almost half of our schools saw through our ploy and refused to join. As good Catholics, the governors and teachers in those schools have accepted their victory graciously and do not visibly smirk at diocesan meetings just because they are proved to have made the correct decision.”

Would you sell the schools back to us if we came up with a good price?

© 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

edwarddunphy1@mac.com

Tel: 44 (0) 1527 894659

Mobile: 44 (0) 7891 179180

www.schoolwebsitewriting.com