Ecumenical school drops Catholic link

BY JOE JENKINS AND PAUL HARRISON CHRIST'S SECONDARY School in south-west London last week became the first ecumenical school in Britain and Northern Ireland to abandon its Catholic arm in favour of Anglicanism.
The move by the 284year-old Richmond school was rubber-stamped in April by Gillian Shepherd, the former Secretary of State for Education and Employment, and is the first of its kind. Fifteen ecumenical schools nationwide were set up by Shirley Williams 18 years ago under Labour in an experiment to integrate the two religions in a single school.
Catholic demand for places at the school is limited, with only 10-15 per cent of pupils practising Catholics, despite Christ's being the only Catholic secondary comprehensive in Richmond.
However, there are numerous Catholic schools in neighbouring boroughs, including Hammersmith & Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow.
There are also plans to consolidate the school on its east site, involving a building project to be funded by the DfEE at a cost of kl million. Christ's is to be renamed Richmond High School, bringing to a close five years of wrangling between Catholic, Anglican and local education authorities.
The changes mean that the school will draw more pupils from Richmond and Kingston than from areas like Hammersmith and Clapham, in line with the current trend in south-west London.
Headmaster Peter Jenkins said: "We are very conscious that at a time when the peace process in Northern Ireland is so fragile, that people may get the wrong message that this is a reversal in the postitive direction towards peace talks. This is not the case.
"There are too many players in the field at the moment. There is a lot of funding available to schools at the moment and to get it you have got to act quickly."
Tony Barnet, a governor, told the Herald that the school had found it difficult to settle on a syllabus that satisfied both Anglicans and Catholics. While "intellectually close", he said, the approach of the faiths to moral issues are "attitudinally deeply different" and this had caused a conflict of interests.
Fr Anthony Logan, who retired as the Catholic representative on the board of governors, said that his only thought about the end of the 18-year partnership this week was "the success of the school from now on".