Post-primary Review: Core Principles
Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education:
Post-primary Review: Core Principles
“The Catholic school finds its true justification in the mission of the Church; it is based on an educational philosophy in which faith, culture and life are brought into harmony.” [1]
The Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education (the Commission) is engaged in a review of Catholic post-primary education which will produce new arrangements for the delivery of Catholic education. The Commission has consulted within the education sector, as a whole, on a set of core principles to guide the review. The revised principles are now published by the Commission and will be used within the post-primary review process.
Vision for Catholic Education
The review of post-primary education is guided by the vision for Catholic education, outlined below. This vision was most recently published, for a local audience, by the Consultative Group for Catholic Education. [2]
“Catholic education takes place in communities inspired by the Spirit of Christ. Christ's commandment to love God and neighbour inspires a caring ethos, which is expressed in relationships within and beyond Catholic schools.
Catholic education is person-centred. It promotes the dignity, self-esteem and full development of each person who is made in God's image and uniquely loved by God.
Catholic education is inclusive. It is respectful of, and engages with people of all beliefs; it encourages the religious development of all in their own faith.
Catholic education is rooted in the Gospel values of respect for life, love, solidarity, truth and justice: it aims to harmonise faith and culture, build a better society and pursue the Common Good.
Together, Catholic schools provide high quality, rounded education for all young people, so that they develop their full uniqueness and potential.
In Catholic schools the person and message of Christ find expression in:
- communities of faith, service, prayer and worship;
- the development of each person's full potential in a climate of joy, freedom, respect, challenge, co-operation and celebration;
- the enrichment of pupil life - intellectual, physical, spiritual, moral, social and emotional;
- the promotion of a spirit of charity, social justice, global awareness and concern for others leading to practical outreach and partnerships;
- a culture of tolerance where people of diverse identities are recognised, welcomed, respected and cherished;
- listening, mutual understanding, trust, reconciliation, healing and peace; and
- the preparation of pupils to lead fulfilling and purposeful lives which will contribute to the Common Good.”
Core principles for Post-primary Review Projects
All new arrangements in congruence with the distinct character of Catholic education shall seek to promote a shared and inclusive society. The arrangements will provide a system of post-primary Catholic education in Northern Ireland which respects and adheres to the following principles.
1. The new arrangements will optimise high quality education provision and excellence in outcomes for all pupils.
2. The new arrangements will actively promote justice, reconciliation, mutual understanding, solidarity, inclusive communities and be part of genuinely pluralist provision.
3. The new arrangements will contribute to the provision of education choices for parents and pupils.
4. The new arrangements will be the result of transparent consultative processes.
These core principles are supported by a number of criteria which will assist in the planning process for the development of new arrangements.
1. The new arrangements will optimise high quality education provision, and excellence of outcomes for all pupils.
· Students will receive a high quality education whose excellence enjoys the confidence and support of all parents and students.
· Students will have access to a curriculum, the delivery of which, maximises the potential of each to achieve to the best of his/her ability.
· The school system will ensure a continuum of quality provision which takes account of the respective geographical location of the schools.
· The school system will facilitate an effective education continuum from primary to post-primary.
2. The new arrangements will actively promote justice, reconciliation, mutual understanding, solidarity, inclusive communities and the development of a pluralist society.
· Each school will contribute to the promotion of a culture of mutual respect, understanding and tolerance, within and between communities – ethnic, religious, academic, educational, economic, and social. This culture shall be for the benefit of students, the wider community in particular the parish/parishes.
· Schools will build networks with other education partners, as appropriate, to promote collaboration and co-operation necessary to the delivery of new proposals and to promote a shared future.
· Parity of esteem for all education routes shall inform all activities. Each school will be as inclusive as possible so as to meet the educational, intellectual, personal, spiritual and cultural needs of all its students, Catholic and non-Catholic.
· Schools will be facilitated to work together in the interests of raising standards and promoting the professional development of staff. Such collaborative relationships between schools will be based on trust, openness, transparency and mutual support.
· Networking with the wider business community and employers shall be promoted.
· The re-organisation of post-primary schools in any area will reflect and seek to preserve the distinctive ethos of the schools contained within it, in the interests of diversity and mutual understanding.
· Schools and their extended communities will be encouraged to reflect optimistically on change and to approach the change process positively in light of the core principles.
· The capacity for providing community-based life long learning shall be integral to any school re-organisation decisions.
3. The new arrangements will contribute to the provision of education choices for parents and pupils.
· Students will have access to a school estate that has been configured to enhance flexibility of provision.
· Students will have access to a curriculum which is relevant, and flexible, and which meets their changing needs and aspirations.
· The school system will enhance access for each student, to further and higher education provision and employment opportunities.
4. The new arrangements will be the result of transparent consultative processes.
· Mutual respect and support, informed by good communication channels and agreed protocols, shall influence the outworking of all projects.
· Changes affecting students at critical points in their education will be well planned and carefully negotiated to minimise any potential effects on their development and progress.
· Staff will be supported and facilitated, personally and professionally, in responding well to the demands of change.
Appendix One
Statement by Delegates of Catholic Trustees to Minister Angela Smith, Stormont, March 2006.
Congruent withthe distinct ethos of Catholic education.
Catholic education does not mean education for Catholics alone but rather is a vision-led education welcoming and open to all. Catholic ethos education brings a value-added dimension to individual students, school communities and to society in general. In particular this translates itself into active promotion of the Common Good, engagement in the creation of a shared inclusive society and critical and reflective participation in the learning journey. Such a shared ethos and vision translates itself in ways that best suits individual schools at any time within a context of unity of vision amid a diversity of expression.
· All schools, in keeping with the philosophy of Catholic Education, work together in the interest of the Common Good;
· Each student is valued and cherished; there is a strong ethos of Pastoral Care, which promotes identity and belonging, and each is offered age appropriate support structures;
· The teaching of R.E. and the celebration of liturgy shall be an integral feature of the Catholic school;
· Pupils of other Religious traditions shall be supported and facilitated in the expression and learning of their faith traditions within the curriculum. Opportunities for shared prayer assemblies shall be encouraged in the interests of promoting unity amid diversity;
· The school shall actively promote Catholic principles of social justice in all areas of the formal and informal curriculum;
· The capacity for dialogue between faith and culture is actively promoted.
Appendix Two
Supporting Documentation
Universal Church References:
Vatican II : 1964. Gravissiumum educationis.
The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education:1977. The Catholic School.,
John Paul II: 1979 .Catechesi Tradendae.
The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education: 1988. The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School.
The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education: 1997. The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium.
The Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education: 2002. Consecrated Persons and their Mission in Schools.
Canon Law Society Trust: 1983. The Code of Canon Law in English Translation.
Extracts from Catholic Church Documents on Education:
· Person centred
Schools “are a privileged means of promoting the formation of the whole person” (CS (par. 8)
The Catholic school is “a centre in which a specific concept of the world, of people and of history is developed and conveyed”(CS par. 8)
‘The purpose of instruction at school is education, that is, the development of the human person from within, freeing us from that conditioning which would prevent us from becoming a fully integrated human being. The school must begin from the principle that its educational programme is intentionally directed to the growth of whole person’ (CS, par. 29)
‘The integral formation of the human person,which is the purpose of education includes the development of all the faculties, together with preparation for professional life, formation of ethical and social awareness, becoming aware of the transcendental, and religious education’. (CS, par. 17)
· Value system
Schools are “not only a place where one is given a choice of intellectual values, but a place where one has presented an array of values which are actively lived”(CS ,par 32)
‘Either implicit or explicit reference to a determined attitude to life is unavoidable in education because it comes into every decision that is made’. (CS, par.29)
‘The Catholic school finds its true justification in the mission of the Church; it is based on an educational philosophy in which faith, culture and life are brought into harmony’. (Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School) 1998, par.34)
· Plurality of School type
The Church favours choice of school while insisting on its rights to establish and run schools,
‘The church upholds the principle of a plurality of school systems’. (CS par.13)
· State Provision
It recognises the right of the State to provide schools when the common good requires it
‘In so far as the common good requires it, the State should establish its own schools’. (Gravissiumum educationis, par3) Vatican II
· Parents’ right to choose
However parents have a right to choose a school in keeping with their own values
Parents have a right to choose a school which will provide an education in keeping with their own beliefs and values.
‘Catholic parents have the right to choose the school which best promotes the Catholic education of their children’. (Canon 793)
· Freedom and conscience
However, the Church while seeing schools as part of its evangelising mission warn against proselytising
‘Christian education can sometimes run into the danger of a so called proselytism, of imparting a one sided outlook. This can happen only when Christian educators misunderstand the nature and the methods of Christian education’. (CS par. 9)
· Need for the support of a Christian community
The need for the support of a Christian community is stressed. A Catholic school cannot survive in a faith vacuum
‘Risk of becoming barren if no community of faith and Christian life receives the catechumen’. (Catechesi Tradendae 24)
‘The Lay Catholic educator is a person who exercises a specific mission in the Church by living in faith a secular vocation in the communitarian structure of the school... To this lay person, as a member of this community, the family and the Church entrust the school’s educational endeavour’. (LSC 24)
