D oubts as

sixth form plan unveiled
WESTMINISTER diocese unveiled its plans to reorganise Catholic secondary schools in west London last week, and as predicted in the Catholic Herald (May 2) came out in favour of a sixth form college on the site of the Cardinal Manning School in north Kensington.
Pledging that "children would not be the casualties" in the reorganisation which has been under discussion for five years, Kathleen O'Gorman, the director of Westminster Diocese Education Service (WDES), presented the plan to establish six 11-16 schools and a sixth form college in place of the existing eight secondary schools.
Despite the endorsement of Cardinal Hume who urged the need to act in a "positive and creative manner" in his introduction, the wisdom of the plan has been questioned because of the refusal of the London Oratory School to take part in the proposed sixth form college.
The Oratory Fathers have made their opposition to any alteration in the character of their school plain from the outset of the consultation. Since they are the trustees of the school, and not the Diocese as is the case in six of the other schools concerned, they cannot be forced to change their minds.
Some dissatisfaction at the • new plans has been voiced in other schools. Chairman of the governors at the Cardinal Manning School, John O'Donnell, said that it appeared his school had caught "the backlash of everything else" in the planned reorganisation. He felt that the plan did not contain "enough acknowledgement of the considerable amount of work we have done" in the fields of multi-ethnic education, and with children with special learning difficulties.
He predicted that some of the parents of boys at the Manning school would not be prepared to send their children to the Cardinal Vaughan School as is foreseen by the plan when the Manning School becomes the sixth form college. The Vaughan School was some distance from the Manning site, he said, and was of a very different character. Parents might consider taking their children out of the Catholic system, he predicted.
Launching the proposals, Mrs O'Gorman expressed her confidence in the educational merits of sixth form colleges and quoted the example of the 'recently opened Catholic sixth form college in south London.