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If you would like to read the Vision for Church Schools it appears below.
Church Schools in the Diocese of Liverpool
The Vision of the Diocesan Board of Education for the schools in its care is that:
Affirming Diocesan priorities for working with children and young people and the General Synod’s Resolution that Church schools ‘stand at the centre of the Church’s mission to the nation’, the Diocese of Liverpool seeks to ensure that, through its Church schools it offers children and young people the experience of belonging to a Christian community and a real knowledge of the living God.
The following Key Aims of the Board are its priorities for 2002-2007:
1. To ensure the provision, in partnership with LEAs, of effective and viable Church of England schools in the Diocese with particular regard to the expansion of Church secondary provision;
2. To ensure that all Church of England schools in the Diocese maintain and develop a strong Anglican ethos through the effective teaching of R.E. and other appropriate means;
3. To support the wider ministry of the Diocese with all schools;
These Key Aims reflect the importance given by the Diocese to its Church Schools.
In January 2002, 30,491 children and young people were full time pupils at Church of England primary and secondary schools in the Diocese of Liverpool. This compares with an average Sunday attendance of 28,025 at Church of England churches in the Diocese (1999-latest published figures) and reflects the fact that nationally there are more children and young people in the Church of England’s schools on a Monday morning than people of all ages in its congregations on Sunday. The Board of Education is currently developing a strategy to achieve its vision and aims, in which effective support for Church Schools is a central feature and which reflects the national policy of the Church.
In 1998 a resolution of the General Synod of the Church of England stated that:
“Church schools stand at the centre of the Church’s mission to the nation”.
This was endorsed by the Archbishop’s Council, which established a Church Schools Review Group, chaired by Lord Dearing, that published its report ‘The Way Ahead: Church of England Schools in the new Millennium’ in 2001. The report’s findings, which affirmed strongly the importance of Church schools, were subsequently accepted by the General Synod and by the English dioceses. In the Diocese of Liverpool the report was accepted by the Board of Education and Diocesan Synod in the Autumn of 2001.
The 1998 General Synod resolution and ‘The Way Ahead’ report challenged the Church of England to consider “the importance and the place of Church schools, alongside the parish churches, at the head of the Church’s mission to the nation” (The Way Ahead, para 1.5.). This means in particular that (para 1.6.):
· All Church schools must be distinctively and recognisably Christian institutions;
· We must address in particular the lack of secondary provision in many areas, so that the mission can in fact be discharged throughout the nation;
· At all levels in the Church, in the schools, the parishes, the deaneries and within the diocese as well as in the Church colleges and theological colleges, courses and schemes, we need to consider afresh how, by working more closely together in true partnership, each can contribute more fully to the lives and well-being of the others, so that together we may all realize the opportunities before us.
The Liverpool Diocesan Board of Education endorses this statement and advises strongly that each Church of England school in the Diocese includes the following it in its own Ethos Statement:
Recognising its historic foundation, the school will preserve and develop its
religious character in accordance with the principles of the Church of England
and in partnership with the Churches at parish and diocesan level.
The school aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest
quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. It encourages an
understanding of the meaning and significance of faith and promotes Christian
values through the experience it offers to all its pupils.
The significance now given to its schools by the Church of England is reflected by the importance given to ‘Faith’ schools by the Government. This is exemplified by measures to encourage the creation of new Church schools contained in the 2002 Education Act and by the reduction of governors’ capital contribution in Voluntary Aided schools from 15% to 10% of the total. The Government’s attitude reflects, in part, its agenda to encourage diversity of provision and the fact that Church schools are popular with parents. It also reflects the comparative academic success of Church schools and their particular contribution to the spiritual and moral development of their pupils.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to Church schools, Diocesan Boards of Education and parishes which have Church Schools at the start of the new millennium is to ensure that they live up to the high expectations of parents, the Government and the Church. Working in a partnership that includes LEAs, we intend to meet that challenge in the Diocese of Liverpool.