Explanations
Distribution of Roman Catholic schools
The distribution of Roman Catholic schools, consistent with the aim of providing every Roman Catholic pupil with a place at a Roman Catholic school, is largely a reflection of two factors. First is the historical distribution of the Roman Catholic population (1). The core focus remains Lancashire and Merseyside with the strongest concentration in Liverpool. From there a belt extends out into Cheshire and Greater Manchester and down through Staffordshire into the West Midlands. A further concentration is in the north-east and also in Greater London with particular strengths in Brent, Kensington and Chelsea and in Hammersmith and Fulham.
The second factor has been the gradual spread of the Catholic population out from its earlier nineteenth-century concentrations into the new towns and suburbs of the twentieth century and also into the countryside. The fact that most of the LEAs have at least 5% Roman Catholic schools shows that Catholic school building has been able to keep up with this population diffusion. The main difficulty has been in the more strongly rural areas, where the lowest percentages of Roman Catholic schools, all under 2.5%, are in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall and Lincolnshire. This is hardly surprising for there is a limit to the distance that children are able to travel to their primary schools, especially in their earlier years, despite the facility of free transport and the encouragement that parents receive from the church to send their children to a Catholic school.
Distribution of Church of England schools
On account of the historical development of the school system during the nineteenth century, when the Church of England was the main provider, the pattern of Church of England schools significantly reflects the population patterns of the nineteenth century. Hence the Church of England is particularly strong in rural areas, where it has many small schools which traditionally served the whole community, the so-called single-school area. It also has strengths in many of the older urban areas such as London and the towns and cities of the north-west. However, beyond such broad generalisations it is difficult to go. The present pattern is the result of a complex interplay of individual action by parishes and benefactors, diocesan policies which were pursued with varying degrees of effectiveness or the lack of any such policies, national initiatives especially through the National Society, and the counter-forces of those who tried to limit the influence of the Church of England or who were active in the development of Board schools – initially set up to fill gaps left by the Church of England. For a detailed and satisfactory explanation of the present pattern, a series of local studies is needed, which collectively would build up on a patchwork-quilt basis. Some such studies are already in existence (2), and a collating study of these would go some way to a fuller explanation.
In 1944 the Church of England had to decide between aided and controlled status for its schools. No clear guidance was offered from either the Church Assembly or the National Society, and this was despite Archbishop Temple’s call to ‘save the schools as church schools’. The result was a typically Anglican mixed economy of both approach and result. The processes are well documented in a thesis by S.E. Kelly (3). He undertook a major empirical study involving the analysis of two thousand questionnaires returned from bishops, diocesan directors of education, clergy, heads of church schools, chairs of local education authorities and various other diocesan officials such as diocesan secretaries. The questionnaire results were supplemented by an extensive literature analysis.
In analysing diocesan statements and policies in relation to church school status, Kelly found some dioceses making strong statements in support of aided status (Bath and Wells, Blackburn, Carlisle, Chester, London, Portsmouth, Southwark, Winchester and York) and others equally strongly supporting controlled status (Bristol, St Edmondsbury and Ipswich, Sheffield). Some gave a less clear lead but on balance favoured aided status (Birmingham, Lincoln) or controlled (Chichester, Ely, Wakefield). In some dioceses opinion was sharply divided (Derby, Manchester) and others gave no indication of policy at all but left decisions to be made locally (St Albans, Salisbury, Worcester). The decision to offer diocesan support for aided status had far-reaching financial implications, and several dioceses immediately launched fund-raising appeals. However, as Kelly says, ‘It is clear that the authority of [that] diocesan statement was not of itself sufficient to ensure its implementation.’
Evidence from 22 of the 43 dioceses shows no uniformity between the intentions stated at the time of the 1944 Act and the outcomes a decade later in terms of proportions of aided and controlled schools. Anglican dioceses had little authority to enforce policy and little financial backup to encourage the development of aided schools; it was very likely that the provision of voluntary schools within a particular diocese would run counter to diocesan policy. In some dioceses there was controversial debate and in others there was no policy other than that decisions were to be made at a parochial level. Kelly concludes,
The patterns of diocesan provision identified during the first half of the 1970s varied widely from diocese to diocese in extent, in the proportion of aided to controlled schools and in post-primary school provision. In general, those patterns owed more to parochial decision than to diocesan policy.
1 Cf J.D. Gay, The Geography of Religion In England. Duckworth 1971.
2 Register of Research in Religious Education. CEM, 1997.
3 S.E. Kelly, The Schools of the Established Church in England: a study of diocesan involvement since 1944. Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, 1978.