Will our school pupils soon be ‘together, standing tall’
By BILL HEANEY
Are the days of schools being segregated on grounds of religion, as they are at present in West Dunbartonshire, coming gradually to an end?
Dumbarton already has a merged campus with Aitkenbar and St Peter’s primary schools sharing facilities and services in contiguous buildings in Bellsmyre.
That move when it was mooted became merged in controversy over proposals to share entrances, staff rooms, cloakrooms and playgrounds.
One reason given for sharing a staff room at Aitkenbar was that a priest might call in at the school and wish to have a meeting with the Catholic staff.
This would allegedly have been embarrassing and mean that special arrangements would have to be made for the Protestant staff at that time.
That was just nonsense, of course.
The late Archbishop Philip Tartaglia was in charge of the Archdiocese of Glasgow at that time and approved that arrangement, but he has now been replaced by Archbishop William Nolan.
Archbishop William Nolan and the late Archbishop Philip Tartaglia.
What his attitude is to sharing staff rooms and other spaces is unknown, but he has given his blessing to regular meetings, called synods, which will consult widely with delegates from parish councils, priests and other religious, to make important decisions about the way forward.
Whether synods will have representatives from council education committees, as has happened vice versa for many years, or not has not been discussed.
These synods would be similar to the presbytery meetings which were held monthly by the Church of Scotland.
Ministers and elders, men and women, met locally to make decisions about a wide range of matters and culminated in the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the KIrk in Edinburgh.
There has been a reorganisation of presbyteries and Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Helensburgh are now part of one large presbytery, Clyde Presbytery, where the first Moderator was the Rev Ian Johnstone, minister of Riverside Parish Church in Dumbarton.
The Democrat would have liked to have asked West Dunbartonshire Council what new arrangements if any are being put in place and what forward planning is being done here in relation to segregated schools, especially since pupils of other ethnic religions and none are being enrolled in local authority schools.
However, West Dunbartonshire Council refuse to discuss this or any other serious matters of policy with our journalists, which we consider is a democratic deficit which ignores press freedom and free speech.
The council appears to be sticking to former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP’s Secret Scotland communications strategy, which has been widely criticised, despite now having a Labour majority in power in Dumbarton.
Meanwhile, in Vale of Leven, St Kessog’s and Balloch PS are operating in a similar manner to Aitkenbar, taking pupils from Haldane and Jamestown.
Although none of these schools is completely merged, and they retain separate identities, uniforms and school badges, they are moving ever closer together in a number of ways, including taking pupils from ethnic minorities.
West Dunbartonshire Council have, for example, decided to move Balloch Library, which is to close due to council budget cuts, into the Balloch school campus, which will inevitably mean more pupils of different religions mixing together in common areas.
Some OLSP students tell me there have been cases in recent years of senior students being sent for classes from Our Lady and St Patrick’s to Dumbarton Academy prior to their final examinations – “otherwise we wouldn’t be able to take the exams we want and need to have”.
This has been happening because the education authority has not been able to recruit enough teachers to cover the subjects chosen by students to allow them to complete the portfolio of subjects they need to enable them to take up college and university courses.
Segregation is a sensitive subject, particularly for the Catholic Church, and West Dunbartonshire Council refuses to discuss important matters such as this with The Democrat although they spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on “communications”.
Their motto appears to be Whatever you say, say nothing.
The 21st century is becoming an era of significant change as Scotland’s two principal churches, the Catholic Church and the Church of Scotland, move closer together and enjoy better relations than ever.
Congregations have dropped markedly though and Catholic and non denominational churches are closing their doors, with many of them now being used for everything from badminton courts to bingo halls.
Because it is now extremely difficult for them to recruit clergy, and the age profile of existing clergy is such that previous staffing levels are unachievable, parishes and congregations, which used to have as many as four priests attached to them, are now reduced to just one or, in some cases, none at all.
There were talks in St Patrick’s Church recently about parish “clusters” which means a small number of priests may live in one parish house and cover services in a number of churches.
This plan, if it is approved by parish councils and is introduced, and that could happen over the summer, will mean cut backs in services.
Also, it is still to be decided what will happen to school chaplaincies since Monsignor John Hughes, currently parish priest of St Joseph’s in Helensburgh and chaplain to OLSP, is due to retire soon at the required age of 75.
At the moment a number of retired priests and missionary priests from Africa cover for parish priests who are on holiday or sick leave. Deacons and even nuns also help out by taking funeral services and carrying out other duties.
I learned at the weekend that St Mary’s in Dublin 7 is first Catholic school to come under Educate Together patronage in State schools as part of pilot programme.
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This transfer of St Mary’s Primary School in Dublin 7 has come about as part of their Government’s plan to support the transfer of schools from religious to multi-denominational patronage, where demand exists for such a change.
St Mary’s was one of a number of schools in the Dublin Archdiocese consulted during the 2022/23 school year as part of the Government’s “reconfiguration” pilot programme.
It involved a consultation process with the St Mary’s school community, conducted by a Department of Education-appointed facilitator, and the Archdiocese’s education secretariat.
Efforts to transfer patronage away from religious-run schools over the past decade or more have proved slow and, in some cases, divisive, much in the same way as we saw here when West Dunbartonshire Council proposed to close St Martin’s PS in Renton.
The council wanted to merge St Martin’s with St Mary’s PS in Bank Street, Alexandria, which the Renton parents were dead against and didn’t hold back when it came to informing the council of their views on the matter.
The Irish Government is said to be at risk of missing its target of ensuring there are 400 multi-denominational primary schools – about 12 per cent of all primary schools – by the end of the decade.
In Dublin, it seems, that in accordance with the wishes of a majority of the school community at St Mary’s, Archbishop Farrell has written to Minister for Education Norma Foley confirming his intention to transfer patronage from Monday, April 15th.
He said the school principal, Eadaoin Kelly, and the teachers and staff of St Mary’s School were very dedicated to the education and pastoral care of the pupils.
“I wish them blessings as they begin a new chapter in their service of the pupils, the parents and guardians of the school,” he said.
Emer Nowlan, chief executive of Educate Together, said the she was delighted to welcome the “vibrant inner-city school community” into the its network.
“We are very conscious of St Mary’s long history as a successful Catholic school, which has always adapted to the changing needs of its local community, and we appreciate the support of the current patron and the local parish for this process,” she said.
“We look forward to working with parents, staff and pupils, and the local community, to support a smooth transition.”
Eadaoin Kelly said the change was part of embracing the “rich diversity” of the community.
“The children are at the centre of all our work and we are responsive to their needs. Through the reconfiguration process, our school community recognised that equality-based patronage is the best fit for the diverse families we serve.
“We will continue our inclusive, restorative and supportive practice as an Educate Together school and look forward to sharing and learning with and from other schools in the network,” she said.
Yasmine Othman, a parent of children in third and fifth classes, said it was a positive step into the future of Irish education.
“It should have an exceptional step-by-step influence as we move forward and develop our young people into every aspect of life in a modern Ireland. We look forward to being part of Educate Together and this exciting new adventure,” she said.
“We are excited about the opportunities this transfer opens up for communities all around the country,” she said. “Up to now, most of Educate Together’s growth has been through the new schools process, so that families outside our main cities have lost out.
“The option to choose an Educate Together school shouldn’t depend on where you live, and we hope that the department’s new reconfiguration process will enable school communities in other areas who want to join our network to do so.”
Top picture: A mixed group of pupils pictured in Dalmuir with West Dunbartonshire education convener Clare Steel during a visit by the Scotland football team captain John McGinn. There are no longer any rules in football or other sports where particpants have to belong to a particular religion in order to to take part. The Irish international rugby union team for example sing two anthems before their matches, one of which refers to Ireland “together standing tall”.