On 3 May this year eight teachers and staff from Kent Catholic Schools Partnership (KCSP) were received into full communion with the Catholic Church (see image above),following a specially-adapted initiation course, one of a range of formation opportunities the academy trust offers. Annemarie Whittle is Chief Executive Officer of KCSP, which is made up of 25 primaries and five secondaries serving the Kent and Medway areas.
We’re conscious we are a Catholic academy trust and that we have a mission. When I was appointed it was very much the directors’ view that this was for further development. KCSP has a Catholic life mentor not only to support with inspection, but also for intentional formation.
Right from the beginning my remit was to make us a praying community. All our meetings begin in context with prayer, in schools and in KCSP meetings as well, with reflections and a piece of scripture. We provide further opportunities like retreats, for Religious Education (RE) leaders, and for school leaders to get together, a valuable day to develop themselves. There is an academy trust Mass held at Aylesford Priory, with representatives from every school, and Mass for academy directors. This year we also brought together all our staff – some 1,200 people, to enjoy a retreat led by Jo Boyce and Fr David Cain, which was an incredibly uplifting experience.
We’re pleased to be a part of the Catholic Academy Trusts Training Collaborative (CATtColl)and to work with St Mary’s University, developing closer links — the closer we work together the better it is for everybody. I’m also currently on a Jubilee pilgrimage to visit every Catholic school in Kent and Medway whether within KCSP or not, and have had the privilege of calling in on 34 so far.
Our Rite of Christian Initiation (RCIA) programme, which we’re delighted to carry out on behalf of the Archdiocese of Southwark, was the first time we’d done it. We were keen that it needed to be done in school time, which was a big commitment from heads and staff to follow on a Tuesday afternoon at the end of, or after the end of, the day throughout the year. Canon Victor Darlington, the archdiocese’s Episcopal Vicar for Education, celebrated Mass at the conclusion of the programme and it was a wonderful occasion, so much so that we’re doing it again.
We have introduced Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions available for up to 40 minutes based on Catholic Foundation Stones, which was written by Archbishop John Wilson and Fr Andrew Allman, Vice-Rector of Oscott College. They’re broken into bite-sized sessions to run after school online on a designated day, to develop Catholic and non-Catholic colleagues in what the Catholic faith is and what underpins our work in school.
It will launch in September, each session starting with a different prayer, and learning about prayer as it goes along. The hope is to lead people on to RCIA if they’re interested, but essentially to enable them to teach and understand our Catholic schools even better, possibly also undertaking the Catholic Certificate for Religious Studies, which was also run recently. The aim is to create that feeling of it being manageable for people to grow in their faith, including in supporting the liturgy in their schools.
Our Catholic Life mentor runs our programmes with clerical support for sessions on the trickier theological side of things, and support from our chaplains. We try to be clear that this is great for developing leadership but it is essentially about people’s own spiritual journey. Many of our Catholic staff said they haven’t had much formation since school so what we want to do is enable them. Either way, they need to be able to share prayer and liturgy for pupils, because not everybody teaching RE in a primary school, for instance, is going to be a specialist.
KCSP also runs its own School-Centred Initial Teacher Training scheme and welcomes Early Career Teachers, with new people joining the academy trust all the time and so we have a big induction programme about what it is to work in a Catholic school, our mission and values, and how to lead worship.
An area of Catholic Social Teaching is also promoted each year as part of our business plan. This year we chose peace because it felt very appropriate, and next year it will be the common good.
Ultimately, we’re Catholic schools, we’re inclusive and welcome everybody — and it’s important to illustrate and grow the Catholic aspects, demonstrating it in an overt way in our work with parishes and communities.
The Formatio partnership of dioceses, multi-academy trusts (MATs) and Catholic universities supports the CES in implementing strategies for school leadership and governance, as commissioned by the Bishops in 2017.
CATtColl is the national network of Catholic MATs, and is the largest network of academy trusts in the country. It delivers continuing professional development in collaboration with the four Catholic universities on behalf of Formatio.
