If we want to maintain the faith character of our state-funded Catholic schools, we cannot leave this to head teachers. The role of Foundation Governor is vital, and many have the necessary skills

Education is and always has been, one of the most important missions of the Catholic Church. The first universities were Catholic, and after the restoration of the hierarchy in the mid-nineteenth century, the bishops prioritised the building of schools over churches. In fact, the Catholic Church was providing education for the poor in this country long before the state was.

The 1944 Education Act marked an historic alignment of the country’s different providers of education and enshrined in law the principle of state-funded Catholic schools. The Act provided the legal basis on which our schools continue to exist, protecting some of the key characteristics that keep Catholic schools Catholic.

One of these protected characteristics is the ability of the bishops to appoint a majority of Foundation Governors on the governing bodies of their schools. This is to ensure that the bishops can always be confident that their education policies will be implemented in their schools.