Formatio Teaching Internship Programme: grow your own trainee teachers
The Formatio partnership supports the Catholic Education Service and diocesan schools commissions in implementing strategies for school leadership and governance, as commissioned by the Bishops in 2017.
Its strategic priorities are teacher recruitment, particularly in Religious Education, as well as developing Catholic leadership and the training of multi-academy trust (MAT) staff.
Formatio is made up of four regional hubs comprising partnerships of the dioceses, MATs and the four Catholic universities.
Formatio's South West Regional Hub has identified the need to recruit excellent candidates into Catholic schools both to ensure exceptional Catholic education for children and to grow a rich source of future Catholic leaders.
This led to encouraging and enthusing current students to explore teaching as a career and consider the benefits of working in Catholic schools. The Teaching Internship Programme provides two main resources.
The first is the Be the Difference video, which you can stream to watch at the bottom of this page. It captures the experience of students and staff in three Catholic schools from across the Southwest Partnership.
Pupils from year 3 to year 11 explain what makes their school special and teachers from all phases speak passionately about their experience of teaching in Catholic schools. This includes a four-minute taster version of short soundbites, and a 13-minute version of more in-depth interviews. Both are included in the Year 12 programme but could be used independently for Catholic teacher recruitment purposes.
The second resource is a sample strategy with written resources for schools and colleges to follow together with supporting materials. This resource has been produced in text with few photographs and without any branding, to enable staff to download and add their school’s own templates, stories, images and local context.
These two resources are intended to encourage more candidates into the teaching profession and raise awareness of the benefits of working in the Catholic sector. The target audiences for the video resources range from sixth form students, undergraduates, current teachers in other schools or not currently teaching and parishioners interested in a career in teaching. The written resources are linked to the sample strategy that begins with Year 12 students, although they could be adapted for use with any of those target audiences.
The resources can be downloaded below.
Southwark Archdiocese: award-winning authors at Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership Primary Children’s Conference
On Wednesday 5 June, after an entire year of planning and preparation, Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership (KCSP) held our first ever children’s conference for 793 Year 5 pupils and we are so proud to say that it was one of our biggest and most successful events to date!
Working with Ellie and Zoe at Speaking of Books, who specialise in bringing together children with leading writers, illustrators and storytellers, we were lucky enough to have some incredibly special guests join us: author and former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, spoken word poet (and expert digeridoo player!) Zohab Zee Khan, bestselling and award-winning Kent-based author Lucy Strange, and award-winning illustrator Chanté Timothy.
Our guests ran a series of fun and engaging workshops for our pupils, inspiring them, teaching them some new brilliant skills and ways of writing, telling stories, and how to express themselves through spoken and written word.
Our grateful thanks go to our host schools, St John’s Catholic Primary School, and St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School, in Gravesend; they were warm and welcoming, cheerfully accommodating two giant marquees, four very special guests, 18 coaches, 118 staff, and, not to mention, 793 pupils!
Our pupils had a wonderful day that we know they will remember for a very, very long time to come, and we cannot wait to hold our next conference, so please watch this space!
Charlotte Robinson
Executive Director of Governance and Company Secretary
Kent Catholic Schools' Partnership
Pilgrims of hope - creating a culture of chaplaincy
Many of the 2,169 Catholic schools, colleges and academies in England and Wales employ chaplains to address the social, emotional and spiritual needs of students and staff.
However, a lack of career progression and limited pay can result in low numbers of applicants for school chaplaincy vacancies, with chaplains stretched between multiple sites, and who then move on to jobs with better prospects.
Tom Baptist is Director of Chaplaincy at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Trust. In collaboration with the Diocese of Nottingham Education Service, he has highlighted and addressed this issue by establishing a career pathway from apprentice level up to a regional chaplaincy director.
Within this innovative structure a lay chaplain support staff post has been created to avoid teaching assistants taking on pastoral duties beyond their role.
This new post provides formal recognition for their work, an improved salary, and potential career progression into school chaplaincy.
The school chaplains are supported by the education structure in Nottingham Diocese, with all 84 of its state-funded Catholic schools within three multi-academy trusts (MATs).
Consistent pay and conditions are ensured by the diocesan Human Resources Director who oversees all three MATs.
Further detail is available within the presentation downloadable below, which has been kindly provided by Tom.
Election 2024 - education
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:14-15
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.
Proverbs 4:13
The political community has a duty to honour the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially: … the freedom to profess one’s faith, to hand it on, and raise one’s children in it, with the necessary means and institutions…
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2211
Background
As a religious community we value our partnership with successive governments in England and Wales in the provision of Catholic education. Its fruit is the more than 2,100 nurseries, schools, special schools, independent schools, colleges, and universities which make the Catholic Church the second-largest provider of education in the country, and with the biggest network of academies.
Catholic schools exist to support parents as the primary educators of their children and welcome anyone who seeks a Catholic education for their child. Rapidly expanded in the 19th century to meet the needs of the growing urban population, today Catholic schools make up 9% of the state-funded sector and are considerably more ethnically diverse than the national average. They take in more pupils from the poorest households and outperform state schools by up to seven percentage points at GCSE English, Mathematics and Religious Education.
The Catholic community provides a significant financial contribution to the government in rent-free provision of land and buildings for schools, and by contributing to capital costs saves taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds.
This 177 years of partnership with the State has resulted in a legal foundation which protects the core principles of Catholic education. Amongst these are the ability to give priority in admissions to Catholic children; the right of bishops to appoint a majority of school governors; the right to reserve senior leadership posts for Catholics; and the legal right to teach, inspect and set the curriculum for Religious Education in Catholic schools.
Catholic education is popular with parents and successful in preparing pupils for life in modern Britain. However, there are campaigns to get rid of schools with a religious character, and to change the curriculum so that our schools would no longer be Catholic.
Action
The sector is successful because of the hundreds of thousands of teachers, leaders, parents and volunteers but it still requires a Government to safeguard a Catholic approach:
- The Government should support Catholic schools through policy and legislation which protects the legal foundations of this historic sector.
- The Government should work closely with the Catholic sector to use best practice and ensure that the existing Catholic approach to governance, admissions, inspections, and the curriculum continues to flourish.
- Whilst acknowledging the essential work of educational practitioners, the Government should recognise that parents are the first and primary educators of their children and ensure that this right permeates through all education policy.
What are your candidate’s views?
You may want to consider these questions when speaking to candidates seeking election.
- Do they support the creation of new Catholic schools, including new Catholic Special Schools, through the removal of the cap on faith-based admissions?
- Will they protect current admissions arrangements in Catholic schools?
- Do they recognise the importance of Catholic leaders, teachers and governors in maintaining the Catholic school ethos?
- What support will they give to raising the importance of Religious Education?
- How will they safeguard parents’ rights as the primary educators including their right to withdraw their child from Relationships and Sex education and Religious Education?
Resources
Christ at the Centre – Why the Church Provides Catholic Schools
Catholic Education in England and Wales
Catholic Schools: Partners in Formation – Celebrating 175 Years of the Catholic Education Service
The Code of Canon Law: Catholic Education
“Catholic parents also have the duty and right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of their children, according to local circumstances.”
Code of Canon Law 1983, canon 793 §1
For further information on the election, please visit the Bishops' Conference website.