WESTMINSTER DIOCESE EDUCATION SERVICE
To: Chairs of Governing Bodies of Roman
Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Westminster
Cc: Headteachers
12 January 2002
Members of the Education Service send their good
wishes at the start of 2002.
Tony Mackersie writes:
It is difficult
to find adequate words to express my gratitude for the generosity of
colleagues, both by the many who attended my leaving reception on 12 December
and those who wrote to express their good wishes for my retirement. I was greatly moved by the presentation
folder I received and the many tributes it contained; I will treasure it in the
years to come. It has been a pleasure and
a privilege to support and serve our schools for the past decade. To all of you who work in and for our
schools, I pray that God will bless you and all that you do for the children in
this diocese.
With the retirement of Tony Mackersie, the three new departments of the WDES are almost fully operational.
Director and Diocesan Schools’ Commissioner Paul Barber 020 7798
9005
Director: Rita
Price 020 7798 9006
Director Anthony
Clark 020 8202 3611
There is currently a vacancy for an education officer in
the Department of Schools, which has been advertised nationally. Anyone interested in applying should contact
Greeny Longville on 020 7798 9005 for a pack.
The details may also be viewed on the diocesan website www.westminsterdiocese.org.uk/education.html
2 Conference
dates for diaries 2002.
Please find below a list of conferences that are planned for the spring and summer terms. Places for the Primary Headteachers Conference and for the Deputy Headteachers Conference are filling up quickly. Please contact Margaret Sheldon quickly if you wish to attend –020 7798 9006.
7/8 February Primary Deputy Headteachers
Conference All Saints London Colney
13/15 March Primary Headteachers Conference Sandbanks Hotel Poole
20 June Primary RE Coordinators Day Maria Assumpta
25 June Primary RE Coordinators
Day All Saints
London Colney
28 June Secondary Deputy Heads
Day Conference All Saints London
Colney
7/8 November Heads of RE Departments Conference. All Saints London Colney
The Secondary Headteachers Conference: The planning
group is meeting and will circulate information as soon as possible.
3 SPEC
Residential Centre – All Saints Pastoral Centre
This is a reminder to schools of the importance of
retreats, away days and residential experience. Many schools use and praise the SPEC centre at All Saints, London
Colney with its very good facilities and strong support team. Two leaflets showing some of the SPEC work
are enclosed.
There are also other centres which can provide space
for spiritual and religious development.
For those wishing to travel a little further than our own excellent SPEC
centre at All Saints, Dulverton Residential Centre, on Exmoor, is offering
schools a reduced rate of £2.00 per person per night self-catering for weekdays
in January, February and March 2002. It
has also introduced a special catered for rate (3 meals per day) of £16.00 per
person per night for schools throughout the year. The centre sleeps a maximum of 35.
(Details from the Director, Fr Robert Miller, 2 High
Street, Dulverton, Somerset, TA22 9HB Tel 01398 324217)
4 CCRS
Specialist Modules
Information for all Primary School Headteachers: In
response to the request by the majority of Primary School Headteachers the two
CCRS Specialist Modules for Primary Religious Education have this year been
timetabled during school hours. As this
will only affect a small number of teachers each year, it is hoped that this
new arrangement will be as satisfactory as predicted. The dates are as follows:
Module 1:
Education and Faith in Sr
Vicky Hummell Fri 25
Jan &
Catholic Primary Schools (Vaughan House) Fri 1 March 2002
Module 2:
Some Aspects of Religious Mrs
Kathleen Gilbert Wed 17
April &
Education in the Catholic School (Vaughan
House) Wed 24 April
2002
Each teacher who applies must be free to attend on the TWO Study Days, 10.00am-4.00pm
(Anthony Clark (020 8202 3611) or Moira Wilson (020
7708 9006) will be pleased to receive any comments and provide further
information.)
The next CCRS study day is on Saturday 20th
April 2002 starting at 10am –at Vaughan House.
The topic is Morality, and the session will begin at 10am. Prior
registration is preferable, but new students are welcome on the day. Module fee
is £15 (£6.50 study day only).
(Contact Moira
Wilson on 020 7798 9006.)
6 Education
Sunday,
Education Sunday is on Sunday 27 January 2002. The
information paragraph and other suggestions are on the CES website www.cesew.org.uk Schools are encouraged to find ways of celebrating it, bringing
it to the notice of parents and the parish, as well as staff and pupils.
We are currently considering how we might send this
bulletin to schools electronically.
There are obvious advantages to us in time and cost savings, but it may
also be useful to schools to be able to forward sections to relevant colleagues
or governors. Please send us by email
the electronic address that you would wish us to use for this purpose. Replies please to glongville@westminsterdiocese.org.uk
The dates for forthcoming training workshops are as
follows:
Monday 21
January at 7.30 pm Parish
Centre of Our Lady of Mt Carmel and St George, 45, London Rd Enfield, EN2 6DS
Tuesday 12
February at 7.00 pm Holy
Family School, Crookhams, Welwyn Garden City, AL7 1PG
Monday 4 March at 7.00 pm Vaughan House,
Francis St. SW1P 1QN.
(NB not
Thursday 4 March as previously advertised)
Please call Carol Campbell on 020 7931 6050 at least one week before the date, so that we have an idea of numbers attending.
Check out the venues for these events at www.streetmap.co.uk or www.multimap.co.uk
Feedback from the workshops held
to date has been very positive: Headteachers and relevant governors are warmly
encouraged to attend.
If there is a continuing demand, further workshops
will be arranged for the summer term.
The General Teachers’ Council England was set up on
1 September 2000 and the register of teachers was established on 1 June
2001. The Council is an independent,
self-regulating professional body accountable to its own members: its remit is
set out in Schedule 1 of the Teaching and Higher Education Act, 1998. All teachers working in maintained primary,
secondary and special schools, non-maintained special schools and pupil
referral units are required to register with the Council.
Registration includes the payment of a fee and
around this point there is much confusion.
Many teachers are opposed to the payment of the fee on the grounds that
it could fund activities that go beyond the Council’s originally conceived
remit. The main professional
associations are ambivalent, being reluctant to confront an organisation
finally established after many years of campaigning.
The collection of the fee has now been deferred and
the Council’s activities are being funded by the DfES until 1 April 2002 when,
in the current order of things, the first payment will fall due. However, the School Teachers Review Body
(STRB) is considering a proposal whereby the GTC registration fee is paid to
teachers in addition to the annual percentage salary rise.
This proposal will be determined in February. Governing bodies are advised to take no
action (including, for example, payment of the fee on teachers’ behalf) until
this question is resolved.
(Useful information can be found on the GTCE website
www.gtce.org.uk as well as the sites of
the teachers’ associations. Any other
queries to Ian Beck on ianbeck@rmplc.co.uk
10 Section
91 Agreements. *
Section 91 of the School Standards and
Framework Act allows the governing bodies of voluntary aided schools to enter
into a special arrangement with the LEA to preserve the religious character of
the school. Where the special
arrangement exists, the governing body may refuse applications for places even
though here are vacancies on the grounds that the applicant is not
Catholic. It must be stressed that the
special arrangement must be explicit and in writing. It is not sufficient for governing bodies to write a provision
into the admission arrangements and assume it is in force because there has
been no formal objection.
Section 91 agreements are currently the subject
of some scrutiny because of the debate about ‘faith schools’. As a result of this, the Department of
Schools wishes first to re-iterate the position of the Diocese on the question
and second, seek accurate information about the current situation to supply to
the CES and the DfES, both of whom have made enquiries.
q
The position of the Diocese is that section 91 agreements should not be
the norm. Whilst Catholic schools must
devise policies which give priority to Catholic children first and above all
others, there should be strong and persuasive reasons for denying places to
others where the demand from Catholics has been met and vacancies remain.
q
Schools, which have current section 91 agreements in place, are requested
to supply evidence of this as quickly as possible and no later than the end of
January. Thereafter, we will make the
assumption that there is no agreement in place in respect of any school for
which there is no return and will advise the CES, the DfES and LEAs
accordingly.
We are also very interested in hearing from
schools where pupils from other faiths attend without any detriment to the
provision for the Catholic children.
(Responses and further enquiries to Ian Beck at
Vaughan House on 020 7798 9005 or ibeck@westminsterdiocese.org.uk
11 Geoff
Miller
Geoff Miller has retired from his voluntary
position as co-ordinator for foundation governor appointments in
Hertfordshire. Governors will wish to
join us in thanking him for his service and wishing him well for the future. All correspondence on these matters should
be sent to Vaughan House.