WESTMINSTER DIOCESE EDUCATION SERVICE
To: Chairs of Governing
Bodies of Roman Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Westminster
Cc: Headteachers
November 2001
Please find enclosed a letter from Bishop Stack announcing the arrangements made to celebrate Tony Mackersie’s contribution to Catholic education in the Diocese of Westminster. On Wednesday 12 December, there will be Mass at 5.30 in the cathedral, to which all are welcome. Mass will be followed by a reception and presentation in Cathedral Hall. You will appreciate that some degree of regulation will be required for the reception and an upper limit will be needed on numbers. The expectation is that only one person per school will be attending although, in exceptional cases, more may particularly wish to attend. Prospective guests are requested to complete the pro-forma enclosed with Bishop Stack’s letter and return it to Anthony Clark, at Hendon, as soon as possible and no later than 3 December.
(Enquiries to Anthony Clark on 020 8202 3611).
We had a very good response from the previous bulletin note about training sessions. The following sessions have now been set up:
|
DATE AND TIME |
LOCATION |
|
Wednesday 21 November 2001 6.30 for 7.00 pm |
Cardinal Wiseman School Greenford Road Greenford |
|
Tuesday 4 December 2001 7.30 pm |
St Anthony’s School Croxley View Watford |
|
Monday 21 January 2002 7.30 pm |
Parish Centre of Our Lady of Mt Carmel & St George London Rd Enfield |
|
Tuesday 12 February 2002 7.00 pm |
Holy Family School Crookhams Welwyn Garden City |
|
Thursday 4 March 2002 7.00 pm |
Vaughan House 46 Francis St., London SW1P 1QN |
If you wish to attend one of these sessions, please contact Carol Campbell on 020 7798 9005 at least one week before the date of the meeting. We will then be able to inform the host schools of the number involved. A reminder about the dates will be included in subsequent bulletins. Further sessions may be provided in the summer term if the demand remains.
(Contact Sally Livesey on 020
7798 9005)
3 Formula Repair and Formula Capital Allocations. *
It is clear from information provided by the DfES that a very high proportion of our schools have not yet used any of their formula repair or formula capital funding. There may be good reasons for this, for example, rolling forward for a large project, but if the money is not spent by the end of the financial year 2003/04, then the first year’s allocation will be lost. Schools therefore need to be planning how to spend these funds. The blue DfES A4 ring binder file ‘How to apply for funding for capital and repair projects: 1 April 2001’ has helpful information on pages 6–9 on how to use these funds. Please note that you should also refer to your Asset Management Plan reports, which should help you to identify priorities.
Given the substantial sums now available directly to schools, the expectation is that the cost of many schemes, such as upgrading toilets, which formerly had to be funded via the minor works bidding process, will now be met from the schools’ formula allocation.
There is also information about clustering in the DfES guide. This allows groups of schools to pool their allocations so that best use can be made of the funds and they are less likely to be lost. Some schools may wish to consider this option.
(Enquiries to Sally Livesey on
020 7798 9005)
4 Catholic Certificate of Religious Education (CCRS)
We are exploring opportunities to make this course and qualification more accessible to teachers and others in the diocese. In particular we are trying to expand the places where the tutorials are offered. If your school could host a tutorial group – especially if you could encourage a number of your teachers who don’t have the CCRS to be the core group, do contact me. We are especially keen to expand in West London where the present group is too small to be viable.
(Contact Anthony Clark on 020 8202 3611 or Moira Wilson
on 020 7798 9006.)
The next CCRS study day is on Saturday 12 January 2002 at Vaughan House at 10am. The topic is The Sacraments – speakers: Fr Mark Langham on Sacraments, Mary Crowley on Baptism and Fr Allen Morris on Eucharist. The module fee is £15.00. The fee for the day only is £6.50. Registration in advance is preferred but all are welcome on the day.
(Contact Moira Wilson on 020 7798 9006 for further
details.)
Schools with website addresses are listed on the diocesan website. If your school has a website address which isn’t listed, please send the web address by email to Anthony Clark at aclark@westminsterdiocese.org.uk and it will be listed.
(Contact Anthony Clark on 020 8202 3611.)
Education Sunday is on Sunday 27th January 2002. The theme is Moving On. The jointly agreed ecumenical paragraph as well as some proposals from the Methodist viewpoint are to be found on their website at http://www.methodist.org.uk/prayer/educ.htm
Further ideas from a Catholic viewpoint will be available on the web shortly. In the meantime schools may wish to plan for the week starting Monday 21 January 2002 on ways of celebrating education in days leading up to Education Sunday. Education Sunday in 2003 is on Sunday 16 February 2003.
(Contact Anthony Clark 020
8202 3611 or Rita Price 020 7798 9006.)
8 Sixth form and Post 16
General Religious Education.
Every student in a Catholic school or college is entitled to a programme in general religious education as part of the core curriculum, post 16. This is a pressing issue for curriculum managers to ensure that priority is given to its place and purpose in the curriculum. The programme also must meet certain criteria if it is to be funded by the local Learning and Skills Council (LSC). A national group under the CES is shaping guidelines to support curriculum design and accreditation. We would gain from more collaboration across the diocese on this agenda and more broadly on post 16 current issues. We are likely to propose in the short term a post 16 forum for the diocese. This could follow up the common issues likely to be raised by the post 16 regional conference on the 19 November which Paul Barber has advertised. If you are interested in joining the work of such a forum please give your name to Paul or to me.
(Contact Rita Price on 0207
798 9005)
9 Information on
Conferences.
Enclosed with this bulletin are the programmes for two conferences, the conference for primary deputy headteachers on 7-8 February 2002 and for secondary heads of RE departments on 8-9 November 2001. Headteachers of secondary schools and colleges will be particularly interested in the agenda for the heads of RE departments conference from on the 8-9 November at All Saints Pastoral Centre. This is an important forum at diocesan level and the meeting will help us to agree and to steer the secondary agenda in religious education. Please encourage attendance or representation by the head of department.
(Contact Rita Price on 0207
798 9006)
10 Diocesan Inspections,
(Including Section 23.)
The people on our most recent list of inspectors have been invited to a day to share and update on Section 23 on 6 November at Vaughan House. If you are a serving inspector and were missed through an error on our lists please let me know as soon as possible.
(Contact Rita Price or the
secretary for inspections, Mary Mullarkey on 020 7798 9006))
11 Informing us of your
dates for Inspection.
Please let me know immediately you have news and especially when you have the dates of your inspection through OfSTED or through ISI. We track the OfSTED inspections ‘windows’ as they are released on the web but the actual dates agreed with the contractor are crucial in our finding an appropriate inspector quickly to nominate for a particular school. Occasionally too we have received news of an inspection that has not been posted on the website. Please be in touch with me as soon as you know. I will also pass the same information immediately to the diocesan adviser so that any support needed is available to the school in the run up to the inspection. Thank you.
(Contact Rita Price or the
secretary for inspections, Mary Mullarkey on 020 7798 9006))
12 14-19 Challenges and Opportunities: A one-day conference.
The Dioceses of Westminster, Northampton, Brentwood and East Anglia have arranged a joint conference on the challenges and opportunities affecting Catholic education in the 14 – 19 age group. This conference will be held at Brentwood Cathedral on Monday 19 November 2001. A flyer was circulated to secondary schools and sixth form colleges on 10 October. A further copy is enclosed for secondary headteachers only. Please note that the booking slip should be returned to the Diocese of Brentwood to the address on the slip.
(Further information from
Aileen Donnelly, Diocese of Brentwood, on 01277 265284)
13 Recommended Publication: The Social
Agenda: A Collection of Magisterial Texts.
This is a most useful compilation of texts on the social teaching of the Church and could prove to be a valuable resource in a variety of contexts.
(ISBN 88-209-2920-1. Available from the CTS at £7.95.)
14 In-Service Training Courses.
Regrettably it was necessary to cancel both the WDES Towards Catholic Leadership and the East Region Aspiring Headteachers courses because of the small number of participants. The WDES plans to run a one-day course for potential leaders of Catholic schools in the spring term and the East Region Course will be put on again in November 2002. Please note that the January course for Aspiring Deputy Headteachers is proving popular and only a few places remain.
(Enquiries to Ian Beck on 020
7798 9005)
15
White Paper and other Responses.
The WDES will be submitting responses to the following DfES consultation papers:
q The Way Forward: A Modernised Framework for School Governance;
q Consultation on School Admissions;
q Consultation on Exclusion Appeal Panels;
q Improving Inspection, Improving Schools.
The text of these responses will be published on the WDES website at www.westminsterdiocese.org.uk/whitepaper.html
They may be helpful to schools and colleges considering submitting their own responses.
(Enquiries to Paul Barber or Ian Beck on 020 7798 9005).
End.