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Mark Dowd PAGE 9

Sharing a repentant killer’s last day on earth

No. 6518

Heads tell Gove that RE decision will undermine Catholic schools

BY MADELEINE TEAHAN AND MARK GREAVES

CATHOLIC headteachers have warned Michael Gove that his decision to downgrade Religious Education as a GCSE subject will “seriously disadvantage” Catholic schools.

They were speaking after the Government pushed ahead with excluding RE from the new English Baccalaureate, a school leaving certificate. The certificate is influential because it will be used to rank schools.

Roisin Maguire, headteacher at St Joseph’s College, Stoke-on-Trent, said she was “astounded” at the Government’s decision. She said that the new system would penalise Catholic schools because, unlike secular schools, they offered RE as a compulsory GCSE subject. To gain the certificate, known as an EBacc, pupils must achieve A* to C grades in English, maths, science, a language and a humanities subject – either history or geography.

Mrs Maguire said the proportion of pupils at Catholic schools achieving these grades would fall drastically if RE was not counted among core subjects.

She explained that last year over 90 per cent of pupils at St Joseph’s gained at least C grades in key GCSEs, but that dropped to about 50 per cent if RE was not included. “Other Catholic schools are likely to suffer a similar distortion of their performance,” she said.

She said that RE at GCSE provided as “rigorous” a challenge as history and that pupils’ grades showed the two subjects were comparable.

Her comments were backed by Pat Wager, headteacher at Sacred Heart

“

Catholic schools are likely to suffer a distortion of their performance

”

For the latest Catholic education news, visit CatholicHerald.co.uk secondary school in Newcastle, who said that RE at GCSE level was a “very demanding course”.

Mrs Wager said she wondered if Mr Gove had looked at its content. “It’s very much about philosophy of religion, ethics and history. In fact it covers the same intellectual area as, say, history GCSE. You have to weigh evidence and analyse different viewpoints. It is the study of our culture over the last 2,000 years. Why, then, is it not being given the same prominence as other [humanities] subjects?”

Mrs Wager also said the EBacc will greatly restrict the choice of pupils attending Catholic schools. At GCSE level they will have to take RE as well as either history or geography, leaving less room for other subjects. She said that headteachers across the country felt strongly that the exclusion of RE was wrong. “The Government must revisit this because it doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

Last week the Catholic Education Service said it was “very disappointed” at the Government’s decision. The bishops had previously described it as “unwise”.

A Commons select committee, meanwhile, said faith schools may be “indirectly discriminated” against by the EBacc because of its exclusion of RE. Its report pointed to a survey which found that nearly one in three secondary schools planned cuts to RE teaching. Many schools are reportedly ignoring legislation that requires pupils to be taught RE until they are 16.

ADepartment for Education spokesman said: “It is compulsory for every student to study RE up to 16. Success in RE GCSE continues to be recognised in the annual GCSE tables, as well as being a valuable qualification in its own right.”

CatholicHerald.co.uk

August 5 2011 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Benedict XVI enjoys taste of Bavaria

British Catholics give £3m to Africa

THE POPE was given a taste of Bavaria last week after folk dance group InzingTorring performed at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo during an audience to mark 60 years since his ordination.

The group hails from the small town of Traunstein, where the Pope attended seminary. The group’s style of folk music, Goaslschnalzer, takes its name from the AustrianBavarian music tradition, which derives from the sound of a whip.

BY ED WEST

CATHOLICS in England and Wales have raised over £2.5 million for the east Africa famine.

The money was donated through Cafod, the agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. Cafod director Chris Bain said the sum was “a tremendous tribute to Catholic communities which – despite the economic hardships at home – have once again shown overwhelming generosity towards those in need”.

He said: “We have seen hundreds of schools and parishes organising fundraising events for the appeal with their customary imagination and enthusiasm and every day in Cafod’s head office I have seen the envelopes and emails coming in, and heard the phones ringing, with individuals giving whatever they can afford. It is important that those supporters know that every penny they have raised will go directly to fund the work of Cafod and our church partners in the East and Horn of Africa.”

The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (Sciaf) has also expanded its emergency response and has raised £625,000 by appealing to Catholics.

Catholic charities are now deeply involved in the famine region across Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Kenya, including a camp in Kenya where 2,500 people are arriving every day. About 10 million people across the region are affected by the worst drought in 60 years, with major shortages in food and water, crop failure and the widespread death of livestock. High levels of malnutrition are reported among children and hundreds of thousands of people are on the move.

The Pope has also urged the faithful to help. Praying the Angelus with about 3,000 people gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa at Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father asked people to share their resources with “our many brothers and sisters who, in these days, in the Horn of Africa, suffer from famine aggravated by war and the lack of solid institutions”.

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Catholic Voices inspires groups across Europe ahead of papal visits BY MADELEINE TEAHAN

A MEDIA-training project established to communicate Catholic teachings to the media during the papal visit to Britain has inspired similar projects in Spain and Germany.

Led by journalist Austen Ivereigh and Jack Valero of Opus Dei, Catholic Voices was established last year to represent 21 Catholics, from different walks of life, who were trained to communicate difficult and controversial Catholic messages.

The success of the project has resulted in an attempt to mirror the work of Catholic Voices across the globe, most notably in Spain, where the Pope is due to arrive on August 16 to celebrate World Youth Day.

Three similar media groups have been established in Valencia, Barcelona and Madrid, to prepare for the Roman Pontiff’s arrival in the capital.

Mr Valero said that the spread of media projects since Catholic Voices’ inception has had a domino effect across Spain and now other countries were following suit.

“The first country where it started was in Spain where someone from Valencia saw us in action in September 2010 and contacted me in October,” he said.

The German laity is establishing its own media group, Catholic Faces, with the aim of presenting the Church’s teaching to the media in an accurate and intelligent way.

Mr Valero also anticipated the growth of Catholic Voices projects elsewhere.

“We are in conversation with groups in other countries,” he said. “These include Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Costa Rica and USA. For me, this shows that the idea is taking root that lay people can be excellent at communicating and that they can do this as a service to the Church.”

Pope: pack the Bible with your sun cream BY DANIEL COPPEN

POPE BENEDICT XVI has advised holidaymakers to pack a copy of the Bible in an address to pilgrims at Castel Gandolfo.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said the Pope had made “brief but important [holiday] suggestions” to pilgrims over the past few weeks. His suggestion to “include a copy of the Sacred Scriptures in our suitcase” follows on from his call last year for Catholics to become more familiar with the Bible. He said that the Pope “invited those of us who can to use our holiday time in a way that helps renew our relationships with others and with God”. Editorial Comment: Page 13

App to help lost World Youth Day pilgrims BY MARK GREAVES

PILGRIMS at World Youth Day in Madrid will be able to use a mobile phone application to locate a friend or group leader if they get lost.

The iPhone app, called iGPII, has a GPS function that tells pilgrims exactly where they are, where WYD events are and if there is a restaurant nearby that accepts

WYD pilgrim meal tickets. It can also locate anyone pilgrims have befriended with the device. The app, which has Vatican approval, was developed for the John Paul II Foundation for Youth and costs €3.99. It is available in English, French, Spanish, I talian and Portuguese. Editorial Comment: Page 13

INSIDE

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Milo Yiannopoulos Our bishops deserve a better website PAGE 12

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