Issue 65 - The Pilgrim - October 2017 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

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Education The Pilgrim October 2017 Why schools should not try to be outstanding By Clive Webster It is a noble ambition. Indeed, it has become something of the standard ambition: as schools, we must all aspire to be (or remain) “outstanding”. It is the postinspection banner most sought after: “This is an outstanding school.” It will mean parents keep sending their children to that school. It will mean parents queuing, competing; quite literally, moving (and sometimes manoeuvring) to send their children to that school. Quite simply, it is educational nirvana. How could we possibly aspire to anything less? So, here’s the politically incorrect response, the response that can only smack of unforgivable complacency or lack of ambition: outstanding is not always worth it: “good” can be good enough. How, you may well ask? Why settle for less? The answer is part of a harsh, important and relatively unspoken reality: schools cannot afford it and too many schools - of all types - are mortgaging themselves to the hilt on the altar of outstanding without any real hope of being able to sustain that level of educational performance, given the financial capacity it demands. Three-year budget planning is what most schools work to, or at least claim to work to. Yet budgets, if they just about balance in year one of a three-year plan, are shaky at best in year two and hopelessly speculative in year three. Indeed, three-year budget planning by schools (or rather, effective three-year budget planning) is woefully inadequate in most cases, matched only by the conspicuous absence of any meaningful scrutiny as part of Ofsted’s own inspection frameworks. The current Section 8 framework for short, one-day inspections doesn’t mention finance at all; the Section 5 framework for longer, twoday inspections mentions it once. The Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership (KCSP) is a multiacademy trust (MAT), comprised currently of 24 Catholic academies (19 primary and 5 secondary). In line with most schools and groups of school (of any type - LA maintained, stand-alone academy, federated), we face major financial challenges (static income v rising real term costs). We are doing all we can to face these challenges head on. It is not easy but as a group we are determined to put ourselves in the best possible position to secure our principal mission: the long-term viability of continued high quality Catholic education. Whatever the national deal for education, we are honest enough not to proceed, ostrich-like, with our head in the proverbial sand. We also know, whatever the deal, that there will be winners and losers, and we know our status as a MAT gives us options to help mitigate at least some of any losses some of our academies will face. However, whilst we have celebrated (yes, celebrated: in that regard we are no different and no less humble) our outstanding academies and just how close a number of others have got to outstanding, we have equally agonised at the legacy of spending decisions taken or maintained in most cases in anticipation of the inspector’s call. Spending decisions we know are replicated in countless schools up and down the country (if only from off-line and off the record conversations that are had at virtually every national and regional educational conference/gathering). We all in need to get more real: the finance cloth needs to be cut not just for today but tomorrow. Ours is a long-term business that must be both successful for children now and sustainable into the future. Banners cannot become burdens. Educationally outstanding cannot mean financially outstripped, or worse, insolvent. Capacity to improve must be tested as capacity to sustain improvement. Sustaining improvement means protecting the ability to invest in the critical area of staffing, but also in other essential areas like continuing professional development, information technology, the building and facilities, and, dare I say it, health and safety for children, staff and visitors. This requires far greater honesty at every level: national, regional, local; DfE, diocesan, Ofsted. Each stage of a child’s education is preparation for the next. It should not only leave children feeling happy and ready, and parents feeling reassured, but also teachers still ready and energised for those following on; not, as we know is increasingly the case, worried, anxious and stressed. Teachers need to be confident their opportunity to give of their best is going to be protected for the long-term; that real resources can be set aside for their professional development, so that they can impart a twenty first century curriculum and do so in settings designed for such a curriculum. Of course, in some ideal world the educational nirvana that is outstanding would be matched by a financial nirvana that is unlimited resources. Such a world is not here and arguably not even ideal. We all, at whatever level of education we are privileged to work, must take better account of our shared reality, and make decisions for both now and the longterm accordingly. Good can be good enough, indeed must be good enough, especially if it means good for very much longer than unsustainable outstanding. n Clive Webster is the CEO of Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership Learning to let go By Lucy Russell My friend Tim turned 40 at the weekend. He had a lovely party in his garden; it was wonderful sitting under the walnut tree in the late summer, early autumn sunshine. The leaves on the walnut tree were still green, but the squirrels had picked and eaten all of the walnuts. Tim’s little girl loves the character Elsa from the Disney film Frozen. I was reminded of the song from the film, Let It Go, as I was driving home on the school run. I passed several trees whose leaves were turning yellow, golden, red and brown. Before the end of September, they were already beginning to collect in the gutters at the side of the road. The colours are beautiful, especially when the sun shines on them. The changing seasons are a metaphor for our own lives. There is a wonderful quote about autumn, “The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go”. But “letting go” can be easier said than done. We all go through times when we try to hold on to memories, people and things. It can be difficult to accept the fact that things change. Regular readers of my column will already know that my elder son, James, has just started secondary school. I’ve busily put a lot of time into supporting his transition from primary school, which seems to have paid off. He appears to be settling very well into his new school life. And now that I am not quietly worrying about how he will cope or putting safeguards in place to support him wherever I can, my thoughts are beginning to focus less on him and more on me, and are perhaps becoming a little melancholic. But then, we are moving towards that time of year, aren’t we? November is a month of remembrance for the dead, followed by December when we’ll all start thinking about friends and family who we haven’t much thought of since we penned last year’s Christmas cards. While James has settled well, I would like him to start engaging more and using his God-given gifts and talents. Life is full of experiences and opportunities, and struggles, these are the sunlight, water and the nourishment without which we can’t grow. I pray that James takes up the next opportunity that comes his way. I pray too that I’ll do the same, my temporary roles at the local Catholic secondary school he is attending have come to an end. I’m at a bit of a crossroads and I wonder, what next? I’m glad to be around to support the boys at the beginning of another academic year, but I wish I had a little more to distract me at the moment, other than memories of settling them at pre-school and reception class. The trick is to enjoy those memories and cherish them, without clinging on. I love the colour of the autumn leaves, which represent the beauty of letting go and moving forward with positivity. Without the falling autumn leaves, there would be no hope of buds on the trees and bright green, spring leaves. But those green leaves will be new leaves, on a tree which has lived through another year. It is an older and wiser tree which will produce new hope next spring. It’s actually all there in the Our Father: in this prayer we remember who our Father in Heaven is, and hold on to that reality, praying for his help to forgive those who have trespassed against us, in the hope we too are forgiven. So while you enjoy the trees and the colour changing leaves this autumn, the question is, before we move into November, can you let go of the earthly people and things which need to be forgiven or dismissed, and try to embrace the beauty of letting go? Page 8
The Pilgrim October 2017 Why Trump and Kim Jong-un are both wrong By Father Ashley Beck One of the shadows over the summer has been the firing of test missiles and threats to use nuclear weapons emanating from the “Democratic Republic of Korea” (North Korea) and the United States of America. One would like to think that serious negotiations and diplomacy are taking place behind the scenes, but the rhetoric from both sides has been disturbing. What Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump both seem to be saying is that there are circumstances in which they would use nuclear weapons against each other’s countries. For all of us this stand-off and the belligerent rhetoric accompanying it has cast a shadow over the summer. For Catholics this sense of anxiety needs also to be rooted in moral conviction based on the teachings of the Church. The first message Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote after becoming pope for World Peace day, at the beginning of 2006, contained these forthright words: “Situations exist where conflict, hidden like flame beneath ashes, can flare up anew and cause immense destruction. Those authorities who, rather than making every effort to promote peace, incite their citizens to hostility towards other nations, bear a heavy burden of responsibility: in regions particularly at risk, they jeopardise the delicate balance achieved at the cost of patient negotiations and thus help make the future of humanity more uncertain and ominous. What can be said, too, about those governments which count on nuclear arms as a means of ensuring the security of their countries? Along with countless persons of good will, one can state that this point of view is not only baneful but also completely fallacious. In a nuclear war there would be no victors, only victims. The truth of peace requires that all — whether those governments which openly or secretly possess nuclear arms, or those planning to acquire them — agree to change their course by clear and firm decisions, and strive for a progressive and concerted nuclear disarmament. The resources which would be saved could then be employed in projects of development capable of benefiting all their people, especially the poor.” The Holy Father - and strangely the message got very little publicity at the time - is pointing out that depending on nuclear weapons as some sort of means of security is both “baneful” (that is, poisonous) and “fallacious” (that is, a pack of lies). Thus the pope at a stroke not only condemns the posturing of the leaders of North Korea and the United States but the defence policies of every British government since the late 1940s. The Catholic Church simply does not accept that these terrible, wicked weapons bring anyone real security; what Pope Benedict wrote shows how our moral teachings in the last 70 years have developed and been sharpened: but a lot of Catholics are woefully ignorant about this. The reasoning is straightforward. It is never morally acceptable deliberately to kill an innocent person, let alone thousands, whatever the circumstances. That is why we believe that abortion is wrong. The use of nuclear weapons, like other forms of weaponry, would always involve killing large numbers of innocent people, as happened when Hiroshima and Nagasaki - using them would never be justified. It follows that it is never acceptable to threaten to do something which would always be wrong and wicked - it is a form of falsehood, as the pope pointed out. All countries which have nuclear weapons are really in the same leaky boat. How can countries which have had these weapons for many years like the United States - or Britain for that matter - expect smaller countries like Pakistan or North Korea not to acquire nuclear weapons while they continue to have theme and to develop them? What moral credibility do we have in the world? Catholic moral teaching has to determine how we react to the worrying situation in Korea - it’s more important and valuable than appeals to patriotism. As we have explored in this series of articles, for the Christian believer diplomacy and negotiation are always the best path. Our Christian hope that behind the violent rhetoric negotiations will reduce the tension needs to be based on our understanding of the teachings of the Church. n Father Ashley Beck, assistant priest at St Edmund of Canterbury in Beckenham and senior lecturer in pastoral ministry at St Mary’s University, Twickenham Feature/Column Learning from a priest in gangland By Sister Janet Fearns An American Jesuit, Fr Greg Boyle, was assigned to the toughest parish in Los Angeles, one which also had the highest rate of gang violence in the United States. He quickly discovered that, behind the crime and the violence, lay boredom and a shortage of opportunities for constructive engagement with life and with other people. Youngsters who did not want to belong to a gang had nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. Fr Greg also realised that young people came to church to be baptised, to make their First Holy Communion and to be buried – generally in their teens or early twenties as a result of drugs, stabbing or guns. It was hard work, but Fr Greg gradually turned things around for his young parishioners. First of all, he gave them a room where they could play loud music, have dances or engage in games of billiards, basketball, netball or anything else they might enjoy. There were two rules: weapons were left outside and that room was a place of truce between rival gangs. Tough young thugs were most unimpressed when Fr Greg opened a bakery and began to teach them to make and sell bread. Before long, former gang members took on the responsibility for the bakery and were soon supplying bread throughout the district. In fact many left behind their former violence and, discovering dignity and selfrespect, also found themselves employable and trustworthy. In all this, Fr Greg did not tell youngsters that he wanted to see them at Mass on Sunday. Mass attendance was at the end of a long process. First of all, he offered them a welcome and hospitality. He gave them a space that was “theirs”, showed a personal interest, helped them to get rid of their tattoos, visited families, stood with groups of youngsters on street corners, accompanied them to the police station and the courtroom, visited them in prison and gave them a sense of hope. He would not let youngsters off the hook: he would tell them when they had made mistakes, but he believed in them and did not condemn. Fr Greg allowed his parishioners to make mistakes and fall, but he was there to help them to stand up and look the world in the face. We do not face the same challenges as Fr Greg and his parishioners. Thank God, a drive-by shooting is still a massive news item. But we do have youngsters who are disengaged from the Church and telling them to go to Mass on Sunday is a big switch-off. If we want to keep young people involved in the Church, we might need to imitate Fr Greg’s approach, show similar levels of trust and opportunity – and allow for mistakes and inefficiencies. You can think of your own examples, but in most parishes, the weekly newsletter is the responsibility of the parish priest or secretary. Why not ask one or two youngsters with some degree of internet savvy and creativity to do the job? If the church needs repairs or decorating, why not use this as a learning opportunity with a couple of parents initially offering their experience and expertise and then letting the younger parishioners get on with the job? When young people get their driving licence, might this be an opportunity for a weekly taxi service, bringing the elderly or housebound to Mass? For sure, there could be grumbles, but it could also be one way of offering trust and inviting engagement which do not raise. health and safety concerns. Some years ago, when I was based in Rome, a huge banner across the front of St Peter’s showed a picture of Jesus and the words, “We want to see Jesus”. We don’t show people Jesus, especially young people, by talking about him and encouraging them to come to a boring liturgical celebration which is divorced from their everyday reality. Instead, we invite and accompany them, offering opportunities which are real, demanding, challenging and need their energetic generosity. Might there be an opening in organising and training a parish group to take part in the London Marathon? Why not walk the hundred miles of the South Downs to raise funds for some good cause? Brainstorm. Page 9
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Issue 65 - The Pilgrim - October 2017 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

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