ANNUAL REPORT FINAL 10 Nov 21

Education Commission
18
The Education Commission is responsible
for carrying out the work of the Archbishop
in relation to the 72,179 pupils attending
174 schools and colleges within the
Archdiocese, stretched across 14 local
authority education areas. Of this number,
52 are Academies, 8 are Independent
Schools and 11 are in the Trusteeship
of Religious Orders. The remainder are
Voluntary Aided Schools.
Our vision is that all our Catholic schools should
provide an authentically Catholic education, in a
setting in which all children flourish, governors,
leaders and staff are effectively supported, and
where the quality of education is exemplary.
Catholic schools in Southwark were celebrated in
2020 for their:
• Extraordinary commitment to staying open
for key worker children and those who are
disadvantaged or vulnerable
• Transformation of curricula to enable and
account for opportunities for pupils to learn
online
• Contribution to providing food to disadvantaged
pupils through the voucher scheme, distribution
of food parcels and the provision of foodbanks
• Work with pupils in examination cohorts to
ensure that they received awards commensurate
with their previous performance
The Education Commission is now supporting our
schools and colleges in a number of areas, including:
• Developing our commitment to ensuring that
there is no place for racism within them
• Strengthening governance, through training and
development, as well as creating new systems
and structures to aid the expansion of MATs
• Revising admissions policies in partnership
with the Office of the Schools Adjudicator and,
enabling appeals panels against the background
of the pandemic
• Preparing for the mandatory inspection of
Relationships and Sex Education
• Preparing schools for the new National
Framework for Catholic School Inspection that
comes into effect in September 2022
SUPPORT FOR SCHOOLS
In addition to a variety of informal or ad hoc pieces
of support for schools on a wide range of issues from
the delivery of Religious Education to specific human
resources and legal matters, the Education Commission
has, since September 2020:
• Conducted 24 virtual visits to schools using Zoom
to analyse aspects of the provision and leadership of
Religious Education. All visits stopped when the first
lockdown was enacted and the advisory team was
furloughed
• Conducted 172 pastoral phone calls to the
headteachers of all our schools and colleges in the
context of the second lockdown
• Re-modelled all of its training offered so as to provide
courses online. This has become a cost-effective
way of reaching many more governors, leaders and
school staff. This led to 14 courses delivered in the
Autumn term, all of which at least broke even. 272
participants joined one or other course
• Organised and delivered a broadcast Advent service
which drew over 1000 attendees from across the
Diocese
• Facilitated the participation of 246 Diocesan
Foundation Governors representing 72 schools in
online training using the Firm Foundations app.
This app is free at the point of use and developed in
partnership by officers of the Diocese with Anspear
BUILDING PROJECTS IN 2020
The buildings team has had two new members join,
an Administrator and a new Lead Buildings Officer.
The additions to the team will give us a more hands
on approach with schools and projects. Last year we
operated a fully criterion-referenced programme for
allocating projects. This has led to us successfully
managing 85 projects undertaken at a cost
of over £10.5 million under the school condition
allocation for 2020 – 2021.
In addition, we are
currently progressing
a new school build
at St John Fisher,
Chatham. An artist’s
impression of the
new build is here: