The Kent Catholic Schools Partnership, an Academy Trust which runs 19 Roman Catholic primary schools, has instructed all these schools not to provide facilities for their children to sit the Kent Test in their own school. This means that those children will be disadvantaged by not taking the Test in familiar surroundings like other Kent children, and will have to travel to another venue arranged by KCC which could be miles away from their homes. This move to sectarianism would appear to be just bloody-minded to many. For the Catholic Church as a whole is clearly not opposed to academic selection, supporting three Catholic grammar schools in other parts of the country and providing many private Catholic academically selective schools for those Catholics and others who are wealthy enough to pay, both in Kent and elsewhere in the country. These two categories are also operating in clear contradiction of ‘the church’s social teachings’ as set out below.
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However, as the following analysis shows, the only children this decision will actually affect are those frightened off from taking the test because of social disadvantage or lacking the confidence to take on the church, or else who fail the Kent Test solely because they have been disadvantaged by taking it in unfamiliar surroundings. How proud the Catholic Church must be.
The Catholic Southwark Diocese has for many years had a similar policy ‘at the request of the Archbishop’, although widely ignored by Catholic state and private schools, acting in the interest of the children of those schools and of parental choice in this Local Authority which operates a selective system of schools. Many of the children attending those schools are not Catholic, but are still subject to the same constraints. A letter to the schools from the Director of Education for the Trust (a position that paid an annual salary of £150,000 in 2018, much larger than the equivalent CofE and many comparable secular Trusts!) sets out the reasons for enforcing the policy for Trust schools.
‘It is Diocesan policy, at the request of the Archbishop, that school premises are not used to promote non-Catholic schools. This includes the use of Catholic premises for administering grammar school tests While the Archbishop acknowledges the importance of parental choice, schools should promote Catholic education in the area that is in accord with the Church's social teachings and reinforces the value of all children as being created in the image of Christ and being born to nourish’.
‘In line with this policy as it relates to all types of Catholic schools across the Archdiocese, academies doing so must now cease enabling, facilitating or, especially, administering The Kent Test (or any other 11> derivative)’.
The implicit threat of: ‘However, the policy also means that we, as paid employees within a Catholic multi-academy trust, do all we can to promote the option to continuing Catholic education, particularly at the point of transfer from the primary to secondary phase’ leaves a very unpleasant taste of the power of academies to control their staff.
Whilst a few Catholic schools may have already followed this policy many others are very proud of their success at grammar school selection which they see as a valuable recruitment tool. Indeed, 15 out of the 26 Catholic Primary Schools in Kent have a pass rate of more than 25% of their pupils, the average pass rate in this county which has a system of selective education. Ten of the Trust Academies fall into this category and with their paid employees threatened if they don’t comply, many will be feeling very uneasy about the consequences. These are:
Kent Catholic Primary Academies and the Kent Test | ||
| School | Town | 2018 % Pass Rate Kent Test |
| St Thomas' | Sevenoaks | 68% |
| St Theresa's | Ashford | 44% |
| St Peter's | Sittingbourne | 41% |
| St Joseph's | Northfleet | 40% |
| St Joseph's | Broadstairs | 37% |
| More Park | Maidstone | 35% |
| St Mary's | Whitstable | 34% |
| St Margaret Clitherow | Tonbridge | 30% |
| Our Lady of Hartley | Dartford | 28% |
| St Augustine's | Tunbridge Wells | 27% |
Half of these schools are in towns without one of Kent’s five Catholic Secondary schools, which are scattered across Kent, meaning in many places there is no secondary school 'to promote Catholic education in the area' . As a result, many Catholic pupils seeking a Catholic secondary education will in any case have to travel miles or make a difficult journey daily to reach one of the five.
The Kent Catholic secondary schools are: St Anselm's, Canterbury; St John's Gravesend; St Simon Stock, Maidstone; St Gregory's. Tunbridge Wells, all heavily oversubscribed; and St Edmund's, Dover with a few vacancies. There is also St John Fisher in Chatham, Medway, with a large number of vacancies, being unpopular with families and the only one of the six to potentially benefit if this policy is to have any effect. However, one of the longest journeys will be from pupils at St Edward’s Catholic Primary in Sheerness to St John Fisher Catholic School, in Chatham, a distance of 21 miles by road. I suspect few children whether Catholic or not are likely to be tempted by that journey, although the Diocesan policy is presumably designed to encourage this.
So, who will change their applications as a result of this action? All Catholic children will be able to secure a place in their local Catholic secondary school in any case if they choose, because of the oversubscription criteria benefitting them. Those who choose to take the Kent test for a grammar school place and pass, will tend to choose a selective school in any case, but if they prefer a Catholic school it will make no difference to the strength of their application. Those who fail and pursue their grammar school application to appeal can take some heart from the document which states: ‘In those circumstances, and in respect of any child (Catholic or non-Catholic), it is reasonable to offer a professional judgement, supported, as necessary, by evidence that can reasonably be provided, and without undue impact on academy leader or staff time’ A case which includes the factor that the child was disadvantaged because of taking the test in unfamiliar surroundings may well be heard sympathetically. So no change there.
The main potential market will therefore be some of the less confident or socially disadvantaged families put off applying for grammar school, although I am not sure how this fits in with the church’s social teachings, especially when contrasted with those who can afford a fee-paying selective Catholic school.
The Director of Education's letter concludes with: 'This is not only consistent with our KCSP mission to protect, preserve and promote Catholic education', It is also so that the bedrock of Gospel Values is maintained, and so Catholic secondaries may benefit from. and build upon, the invariably good and better educational and faith foundations produced by Catholic primaries'. In other words, the Director of Education for the Kent Catholic Schools Partnership believes that Catholic Primaries are invariably good and better educationally than other schools, and that the policy is for the benefit of the Catholic Secondaries; never mind the children and families caught out by it.
Clik here to view.