PARISH PRACTICE JOHN DEEHAN Vital first lessons


One of the most difficult challenges for parents is finding the right school for their children. Catholic schools, often much sought after, also have serious responsibilities regarding their Catholic ‘ethos’. The parish,too, has a key role to play at the selection stage


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or many parents, September and October are stressful months, as they make final decisions about the secondary education of their children.


Not only do they have to evaluate the different schools they have visited in terms of educational opportunities, but they have to discern where their child will be happy. The parents will then have to see their


parish priests (in considerable numbers), asking them to sign the forms for Catholic schools attesting to the child’s and family’s attendance at Mass. So many are the numbers in some parishes (especially in bigger cities) that the priest may have little time to do more than put his signature to the form. These huge numbers might give an impres-


sion that the parents are desperate to get their child into a Catholic school, but the underlying reality can be different. Many of the forms presented relate to second- or third-choice options, or even to fallback positions if the parents cannot get into the one school they really have set their heart on – which may or may not be a Catholic school. The reality may only manifest itself weeks later, when a bundle of forms from the local “faith school” lands on the parish priest’s desk. For conscientious Catholic parents, the selection process is even more stressful. In addi- tion to the usual questions about educational attainment, travelling distance, and so on, they have to think about the promise they made to bring up their children in the teaching and practice of the faith. When they presented their child for baptism, they were reminded that they were the ones principally responsible for transmitting the content and practice of the faith. Many parents were grateful


to take advantage of a place in a Catholic primary school – although relatively few parents, when asked to say why they chose it, refer to their respon- sibility as the primary transmitters of the practice and content of the faith, and their need for help in this area. Sometimes


16 | THE TABLET | 1 October 2011 TO DO


Remind parents that they are the first and best teachers of their children in the ways of faith


Encourage parents to ask what help they will need from the school and the parish to transmit the content and practice of the faith during their child’s teenage years


Consider how you can invite parents into the conversation about how they can live out the promises they made at their children’s baptism


admission to a Catholic primary school can be followed by a quasi-abdication of parental responsibilities. Prayer, for example, can become something the children learn about and do in school – but it is marginalised in the home. The school is expected to show signs of Christian vocation and commitment – but one will seek in vain even for a crucifix in many Catholic homes. As they engage in the selection process, perhaps parents should be asking what help they will need from the school and the parish in order to transmit the content and practice of the faith during their child’s teenage years. Catholic secondary schools can help parents because they continue to live by the Christian ethos begun in the primary school, because it presents constant reminders of the need for a disciplined life of prayer and the sacra- ments, because it challenges students to think about their faith, maybe more deeply than their parents are able to, and it provides a supportive community. In the marketplace of education, parents ask what difference there is between a state school, a faith school and a Catholic school. They want the best for their children – and they may be impressed by banks of new computers or eye-catching sports facilities and GCSE results. Sometimes the local Catholic school might seem to be a poor neighbour. They may discover more by looking at statistics for added value which take into account a school’s locality and how it brings along students who may not have had the same home advantages as their own. Discerning Catholic parents will also be looking at what the school teaches and how they teach. They will wish to know what is the school’s pro- vision for religious education, what is its curriculum content, and how all that relates to the


school’s life. They may wish to know whether their school of choice ever has an act of worship, or whether religious education is more a descriptive survey of world religions. In the case of a faith school, if this is a


Church of England school, they may wish to know whether its starting point is the Catholic or Evangelical tradition, and whether an 11- year-old child is suddenly going to have to grapple with the question of intercommunion. It is not true to say that all schools are the same, even Christian faith schools. Just as the Catholic school cannot assume all the responsibilities of parents – so too the parish has responsibilities it cannot abdicate, and those responsibilities include helping parents to discern the best pathway for their child. At present, the secondary-school selection process has become a “rite of passage”, but it is one that raises questions that are too important and too difficult to settle within a few highly pressured weeks. Perhaps a change of parish practice could


help change the culture. With internet facilities, supplementary forms can be down- loaded, filled in and a meeting arranged with a parish priest for a time when there is less pressure. Many schools are happy to show prospective parents around outside of the selection season. Heads of schools and chaplains are often willing to speak in parish churches about Catholic education, without necessarily using the occasion as a “pitch” for their own school. Parents can be offered literature which spells out in detail different choices and the implications of the choices they can make. And they can be brought together to think through the issues. Without a change in culture and practice,


we take the risk that more of our young children will grow up with an impoverished understanding of the faith, and little sense of how to practise it. There is need for a big conversation, and parents need to be brought in on this conversation at the earliest oppor- tunity. This may mean the parish taking initiatives after baptism but well before school entry, or in the period following First Communion but before secondary-school selection becomes a live issue. And, where parents do decide to go out of the Catholic sector, may it be with full knowledge of the issues, and with a sense of how they will fulfil their responsibilities as Catholic parents.


■Fr John Deehan is parish priest of St Thomas More parish in Eastcote in the Diocese of Westminster.


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