The Archbishop Shot Himself..

...in the foot.

Well, not exactly.

Those officials commissioned to manage the restructuring of Catholic education into multi-academy clumps (MACs) shot him.

Their new system of grouping schools was to ensure that each one supported, funnelled, and expressed in their telling way the mission of spreading the gospel message through providing excellent Catholic education.

In June 2021, the archbishop identified the Diocesan Education Service as being responsible for “directing and supporting our schools in so many aspects of education, and especially in advancing our policy for the academisation of our schools.”

At least he is telling us who is to blame for not meeting his request for “… every Catholic Voluntary Aided school under the Trust Deed of the Archdiocese of Birmingham to join a multi academy company of Catholic schools by September 2022, or to be in the process of doing so by this time.”

Don’t ask what went wrong. Like dodgy cowboy builders trusted to put up your kitchen extension, those responsible will blame others for the failure.

Ask if those delegated were up to the task.

The BDES own website states, “We aspire to create vibrant communities of faith in which our children can learn and thrive. The partnership between home, school and parish will be strong.”

The BDES statement goes on to claim, “The Diocesan Education Service will ensure its work fully supports this vision and strategy.”

Really?

That’s not the story on the ground.

Skip the arguments about MACs being the correct way forward for Catholic schools. Like Brexit, the change was made and we live with it. Like Brexit, we can rightly look around the sunny uplands that have arrived and ask for the evidence that they created “vibrant communities of faith in which our children can learn and thrive”.

And they did claim strong partnership between home, school and parish? So why, in one of our once prestigious Catholic high schools faced with the Ofsted question, “Would you recommend this school to another parent?” did 58% of the parents say “No”?

Who blew the transformative opportunity?

Look at what could have been: the chance to create a new and fantastic level of excellence in Catholic education.

No one would oppose the ambition to create vibrant faith communities of learning with children learning and thriving?

Imagine, every Catholic school so formed and active, contributing significantly to the archbishop’s primary responsibility of delivering the gospel message of salvation.

Picture Catholic schools supporting his work through the development of excellent Catholic education with the emphasis on the uniqueness and richness of the individual made in the image of God.

The BDES set their benchmark for judging their performance - “Our vision is to be a Catholic diocese which is faithful to the mission entrusted to us by Jesus Christ, full of missionary disciples who work together co-responsibly in vibrant communities of faith, joyful in their service of God and neighbour.”

Look in vain in the BDES pages for guidance on how to set up MACs to deliver such vibrant faith communities of learning, or to develop missionary disciples, joyful in their service of God and neighbour.

Where is the guidance as to what “vibrant communities of faith” means, or how to achieve it?

Should they not explain why and how membership of a MAC enables such communities of faith to be the best context for learning and growth?

An email was posted on Thursday, 17 March 2022, signed by the Chief Operating Officer and the Education Lead Trustee, to All Directors, Governors and Senior Leaders in Archdiocesan Catholic Schools and Multi Academies. Parish Priests and Curia members were copied into it. (Did it not directly concern them that they only deserved to be copied in?)

This wasn’t a firm plan of action, but a collection of platitudes, shibboleths and vague meandering statements that conspired to remove any urgency from the message.

They announced that they “are undertaking this programme of transformation” of a plan first articulated in 2017.

Come on, chaps. Not good enough to be so late.

Quite rightly, they declared, “We have a truly transformative opportunity here in the Archdiocese of Birmingham.”

How much has been transformed?

How many schools resisted this irresistible opportunity to create a new form of Catholic education at the cutting-edge of excellence? Schools ought to have queued up to grab such a chance.

They didn’t.

It would have been a more effective strategy to have said, ‘the archbishop orders all schools to be in a MAC by 2022 or else they will no longer have the right to call themselves Catholic. We will sack governors not obeying (not the first time) and will press for unquestioning compliance (not a novel approach for us) and any dissenting headteacher will find themselves looking for employment elsewhere (we have previous on this), dismissed on grounds of going against the teaching of the Church.’

On the other hand, they could have written extensively about

1      This is what we mean by a living faith community of learning

2      Here is how you set one up and operate it

3      These are the pupils and students in your local community you should target because, like the sick and the poor in the gospel, nobody else bothers with them

4      This is how you use the gospel roots of your faith to actually enhance the quality of your teaching and learning and create lived experiences that transform lives

5      Like Jesus in the gospels, know how to be a healing community where individuals find wholeness

6      Discover how a living community of faith is the best context for creating schools recognised as seats of wisdom and places of learning

7      This is how to recognise and promote the supremacy of parents as the educators of their children

8      Link with parishes in some or all of the following ways to maximise the benefit to your pupils and students

9      Above all, learn how to be more than a place of schooling mimicking the limited offer provided by the outdated UK practice of education that is oppressed by puerile inspection, stifling bureaucracy and preoccupation with measuring petty details.

Instead, we were treated to documents such as

a)    Academy DfE Master Funding Agreement

b)    Archdiocese Of Birmingham Church Supplement Agreement

c)    Due Diligence Guidance

d)    Sponsored Academies Funding

e)    DfE quick links for further reading and information

f)     New Mac (sic) Documentation

g)    DfE Supplemental Funding Agreement

h)    Changes to previous Scheme of Delegation

i)     Commercial Transfer Agreement Clarification issued March 2021

And then we were promised for 2022

i      Associated Guidance on conversion – DES

ii     NGA Guidance – Staying in control of your destiny when forming or joining a group of schools

iii    NGA Guidance – Staying in control of your destiny when forming or joining a group of schools (slightly different wording from previous edition)

iv    DfE quick links for further reading and information.

What has been the impact on schools in the Birmingham archdiocese of grasping the truly transformative opportunities heralded by the Chief Operating Officer and the Education Lead Trustee?

We don’t know unless we visit every school and MAC, or read their websites because the mountain of negative anecdotal evidence is untested, but frightening.

You could search for answers in the Catholic School Inspection reports already completed. They won’t tell you a lot. How can they? The system mimics a discredited inspection process, is designed to ensure all pass – statistically questionable - and in the words of cynics, is ‘self-regulating self-affirmation’?

School and MAC websites written by the institutions themselves say hardly anything about “vibrant communities of faith”, or how they “work together co-responsibly in vibrant communities of faith, joyful in their service of God and neighbour.”

No website reveals how they seized the transformative opportunities opened up by the Chief Operating Officer and the Education Lead Trustee and their merry men.

In fact, many MAC and school websites struggle to explain what it means to be Catholic other than saying it is something to do with saying prayers, having a place of worship, being blessed with visits from priests and doing things for the poor. They shroud explanations under vague statements and slogans that carry little meaning to anyone other than the writer.

It is doubtful if the writers have a clear understanding of being a Catholic school, or if any of them know how to write about it in a convincing way.

There are a few exceptions, like voices crying in the wilderness.

As for MAC websites describing how they create living faith communities of learning? They haven’t started yet - literally.

Transformative opportunities?

Maybe they are still to come with the current proposed plan for a reduced number of MACs with up to 60 schools in each.

Will they be called MEGAMACs, or Death Stars?

Organisers, whichever way you go, please do not shoot the archbishop in the foot again.

© Ted Dunphy

________________________

Disclaimer

I am not connected 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.

Ted Dunphy

edwarddunphy1@mac.com

Tel: 44 (0) 1527 894659

Mobile: 44 (0) 7891 179180

www.schoolwebsitewriting.com