Whatever did happen to 31 Holland Park Gardens?

                             WATCH AND PRAY OR JUST PRAY!

There will be another candlelit vigil outside the Vaughan School at 89 Addison Road, London W14 8BZ on 6th April at 6.15pm. Please support in person if you are able or support with prayers if not.

Bishop Stack sent me another lengthy letter last week (again signed by technology rather than his Lordship). It contained all the normal generalisations regarding Catholic education (normally churned out by the CES). The last paragraph ended with "I hope you will be able to support the Diocese in protecting the Catholic character of all our schools"

"Sorry my Lord? are you telling me that Catholic schools have a good Catholic character? You need to go to Specsavers"

Many Catholic schools in England and Wales do not have what I would describe as a 'Catholic character'. They are full of politically correct teachers who are much in the mould of the 'Weaving the Web' type of religious teaching.
The standards of religious knowledge shown by pupils is abysmal. Ask an eleven year old to list the Sacraments or to define grace.

I am well aware that there are many good Catholic teachers (and bloggers) but we are in the realm of generalisation here and the bad outweighs the good as far as I am concerned. For the Bishop to infer otherwise shows what strange standards Eccleston Square must abide by.

The Cardinal Vaughan Parents would also like us to question the Board of Governors...formulate your own questions or forward the questions below to the Clerk of the Governors at jackie.nicholls@cvms.rbkc.sch.uk but before Wednesday please!

Here they are:-

1 Paragraph 48 of the adjudicator’s report reports that the diocese objected to the 10% selection of musically gifted boys on the basis that this would be detrimental to other schools .  It is alarming that the diocese should prioritise the needs of a school before the needs of  pupils.

“The objection to partial selection by way of aptitude in music was grounded in the diocesan view of its impact on other schools”

The bishop has said they remain committed to musical excellence at the Vaughan. Can the governing body  explain how this can be in the light of the statement above by the Diocese?

 2  The last RE inspection report by the diocese (2006) available on the Diocese’s own website includes the following summary of the school:

“Description of School

The Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School is situated in West Kensington in West London. The school is characterised by a strong Catholic ethos which stresses firm discipline and hard work .Pupils are drawn from 72 parishes in the Archdioceses of Westminster and Southwark. There are 66 teaching staff of whom 38 (57.5%) are Catholic. Of the 903 pupils on roll, 8 are not Catholic. There are 302 pupils in the Sixth Form including 122 girls. English is an additional language for 163 pupils. The number of pupils entitled to free school meals is 95 (13.7%) which is above the national average. The percentage of pupils identified as having special educational needs including statements is 11.4% (103 pupils) which is above the national average.”

 Since the imposition of Diocesan approved criteria the percentage eligible for Free school meals has reduced  to less than 10%– can the diocese explain this?

 3  The new Chairman of governors at the Vaughan has promised greater transparency. Why has he refused to meet with parents when requested by the VPAG ? Why are the  minutes of the last governors’ meeting not yet available?

 4 We understand that a school property was sold in the 1980’s and that there are questions relating to what happened to the proceeds from this property. What action is being taken to answer the questions relating to 31 Holland Park Gardens?

Westminster responds on the Vaughan affair

Bishop George Stack has responded, on behalf of Archbishop Nichols, to my letter expressing concern over the way the Diocese is riding roughshod over the views of parents and governors of the Cardinal Vaughan School in its appearance of attempting to drag the school into the realms of the normal, low achievement level of so many Catholic schools in this country.

Bishop Stack

+ Stack tells me that the Archbishop has received "over 90 letters in the last two months on the subject". Why so few? I would have thought that, with 600 plus attending the candlelit vigil, more would have written; perhaps the two months element is the misleading one. This affair has been rumbling along for well over a year as far as I am aware. I am certain that the tally of letters must stand at more than 90.

The letter is a round robin, no attempt has been made to answer my specific points. It is the sort of letter you might receive if you complained to a biscuit manufacturer about a packet of biscuits that was mouldy. It is full of bland generalisations and sweeping statements: "The governing body of Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School is fully committed to the flourishing of the school. This includes maintaining its fine traditions of academic rigour and musical excellence. The work and achievements of the school are expressions of Catholic faith and part of the life and mission of the Church in Westminster."
Fine, but there is nothing about admissions policy there and this is the key to the dispute. The Bishop also enclosed a paper based on a talk given by Bishop Alan Hopes in April 2009 and a couple of sheets of "Frequently asked questions"
If I was Head of Customer Services of Westminster RC Church Ltd., I would wish to speak to Bishop Stack about his paper based approach to answering consumer complaints.  Bishop Hopes paper was aimed, primarily at the teaching staff of the school but there is one word missing from all but one of its 13 pages. The word? "Parent". Perhaps that is an indicator of where things have gone awry. No organisation can fail to ignore its main customer. Teachers are, of course, vital, but there is also a crying need for parental inter-action.
Managing a major school today is a very different proposition from that of 30 years ago. It requires a very wide range of both soft and hard skills and above all else, it requires a holistic approach involving parents, governors, teachers, Church and, especially, pupils.

I did not get the impression that Bishop Stack would comprehend this sort of approach to education, even his signature was rubber stamped.

THE VAUGHAN VIGIL - AT THE GATES!

Apparently the new Chairman of  the School Board of Governors, refused permission for the hall to be used and so the vigil had to take place outside in the cold of a February night. I am used to Governors who have a bit more authority about them and can think on their feet. Anyone with an ounce of PR sense would have brought the parents in, fed them with tea and buns and shown just how generous the Board is.....it didn't happen.

WHAT IS MORE, SOME 600, YES, 600, PARENTS AND SUPPORTERS TURNED OUT TO PROTEST AND SING HYMNS IN GOOD CATHOLIC FASHION!

Here is the brief account from the Vaughan Parents' website:-

                                               Candlelit Vigil 

We would like to thank the many hundreds of parents and friends of the Vaughan who attended our Candlelit Vigil on a cold evening. We sang hymns and prayed for the good estate of the School. It was a most prayerful and reverential occasion and one that will be remembered for a long time.   We had to stand in the street outside the School on a cold night as we were not allowed use of the School Hall on the order of Mr O'Donnell, the Chairman of the Governing Body and Foundation Governor appointed by Bishop Stack and Archbishop Nichols. Although Bishop Stack, the Chairman of the Westminster Diocesan Education Service, found the time to record an interview with the BBC on the day  and Archbishop Nichols found the time to issue a statement to the press on the day, it would appear neither had the time to instruct Mr O'Donnell to allow us the use of the School Hall on the day.  Could there have been a more telling example of the bullying and deliberate marginalisation of parents by the Diocese than this?

ends/.................