Chair of Schools Executive: John Abbott
Officers: The Revd Canon Tim Elbourne (Director)
Dr Shirley Hall (R.E. Adviser)
Mrs Cath Conlon / Mr David Hicks (Buildings and Finance Officer)
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/schools
2006 was a year of significant transition for our work in the Diocese.
Five years after the landmark Dearing Report several of our head teachers joined with others from up and down the land in the Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster, to review progress and look forward to the next phase. It was a reminder of just how far confidence and a sense of common purpose that Church Schools stand at the centre of the church’s mission has developed since 2001.
One sign of that confidence was the introduction this year out of a new Church School inspection Framework. It is much crisper and more robust than the one it replaced and looks at (among other things) Christian distinctiveness and the real impact on pupils of good quality worship. A great deal of time was spent in training and re-training inspectors and supporting schools before and after their inspection. This has provided an opportunity for many to reflect afresh on how our schools express their Christian character. The creation and development of a formal Consortium of three dioceses (Ely, Norwich and St Edmundsbury and Ipswich) to organise and resource this work has been a significant development.
As the year unfolded we awaited yet another Education Act. The final legislation brought a fundamental shift in the balance of responsibility between Local Authorities and dioceses. The model is now one of Commissioner (LA) and Provider (dioceses and others). In future, we will be held to account for the quality of our provision in new ways and the principle of ‘contestability’ has been established. For example, new schools will be awarded after ‘competition’; other ‘providers’ (including other ‘faith’ groups) will be invited to contribute; new ‘trusts’ will be established and the academies programme expanded.
A sadness was the closure of St Andrew’s Junior School, Chesterton after a long struggle to provide education of an acceptable quality. There is always a combination of reasons why a school ‘fails’, but there are important lessons to be learnt from this experience. For example, it underlined the vital importance of a church school being rooted in the everyday life of the whole parish rather than relying on the heroic exertions of just a handful and, at this time of establishing new schools, the importance of getting both the location and design of the building right.
A second disappointment was the narrow defeat, on adjudication, for our proposal to establish a new inter–church secondary school at Downham Market. Although we had secured almost £16m and a site and started out with the backing of the Local Authority, continuing uncertainty over planning secondary school places and future population growth led the adjudicator, in rejecting the bid, to conclude, “I consider that the joint bid by the Churches is innovative and commendable. Despite the merits of the bid, I feel that the decision is not clear cut.” It is cold comfort to the scores of parents who packed the public meeting to support the bid, but the whole exercise brought many people together and demonstrated powerfully the Church’s continuing commitment to Christian education in the north of the diocese.
On the other hand, our newest school, ‘The Vine’, in Cambourne, goes from strength to strength. After a first year in mobile classrooms, the main classroom block was completed in the summer and the final phase, to take it up to 420 places, started immediately. Energetic and thoughtful leadership by head teacher, staff, governors and church has given the new school the best possible start and the many hindrances of temporary accommodation and building work have injected a ‘pioneering spirit’ from in which the children thrive.
There have been significant changes to both the Schools Team and the Schools Service, especially that part of it that supports building provision in our Voluntary Aided Schools. In the summer Cath Conlon left to pursue her career as a self-employed consultant and Elizabeth Thornborough, her assistant, went also. The Diocese continues to have a partnering arrangement with the new enterprise through which we have been able to offer our schools a continuity of service, especially over maintenance. David Hicks joined the team in September and his financial and business skills have quickly made an impact. Various changes to the funding arrangements for VA schools have made it possible to re-configure the service we offer and to move it to a sounder financial footing after several years of deficits depleting the reserves upon which we rely.
After ten years with us, Sarah Sheffield also departed in the summer to take up a new post in the Bishop’s office, and Debbie Jordan joined the team in the autumn as Schools Administrator.
In the course of the year we welcomed new head teachers at:-
Tim Elbourne
February 2007
The educational aspect of our links with Vellore continues to thrive and Shirley Hall a group of twelve educationalists to India in the summer. As well as opportunities for teaching and visiting, the trip generated resources for developing the material available on the diocesan website to support RE teaching on World Christianity. Three more RE booklets were written and disseminated in the course of the year addressing the Bible, Buddhism and Sikhism. The specialist RE support and Collective Worship materials we are able to offer, via the website and at nine liaison meetings each term, continue to be appreciated by Community as well as Church schools and are an important way of maintaining the profile of the diocese.
The four annual Cathedral School Days continue to be as popular as ever and were attended by over 50 schools – over 3,500 children…. and Daisy the donkey! The themes this year was “Palestine in the Time of Jesus”.
During the course of the year the Cambridgeshire Agreed RE syllabus was revised and the Adviser has been part of the Agreed Syllabus writing groups for both Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. The Head teacher’s conference in 2006 was on the theme of Vocation and there was a wide range of training offered for staff, governors and Bishop’s Visitors through the year.
Ely continues to make a contribution to the national church. Tim is a member of the Council of the National Society and Training Officer of the Association of Diocesan Directors and Shirley represents the Eastern dioceses on the national Inspection Steering Group. For the first time in 2007, at our suggestion, there will be a single national Convention for all Diocesan Officers whose work is for Children and Young People and our team will be making a significant contribution.
Dr Shirley Hall
February 2007
Website: www.ely.anglican.org/education/UniversityandCollegeLinks.html
In July the General Synod debated and strongly endorsed a report, Pushing Further, highlighting the needs of students and staff in further education to receive chaplaincy provision at a critical time in their personal development. Diocese were urged to respond by working with others to develop chaplaincy provision.
University and Higher Education chaplaincy has been well established for generations whilst the FE sector has been treated as something of a cinderella in terms resources deployed. Yet, the sector is growing rapidly within the UK today. There are currently 410 further education colleges and about half of these have some chaplaincy provision. Chaplaincy in Further Education is a growing ministry, usually in the form of ecumenical, and increasingly, multi-faith teams and the DfES and the Learning and Skills Council are strongly supporting this work. In this diocese, as well as the two sixth form colleges in Cambridge, there are FE Colleges in Huntingdon and Wisbech (to be re-located to March under the auspices of the College of West Anglia). The largest, Cambridge Regional College has nearly 22,000 students, the majority part-time.
A small group met occasionally throughout 2006 to support the local chaplaincy that is beginning to emerge. In November a multi-faith chaplaincy, funded by the College, was established at Cambridge Regional College and is developing with great energy. A regional consultation on Chaplaincy was held at the College in the autumn with officers from the National Ecumenical Agency in FE together with representatives of many of the institutions of the region.
The next stage is to develop more formal conversations with the various institutions at senior management level and grant funding is being sought to make this possible. The Revd Nigel Cooper continues to work with the Director to further these initiatives.
Tim Elbourne
February 2007