Plans to combine single-sex Catholic schools

7:00am Saturday 16th February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Dolores Cowburn, Bradford Chief Reporter

Paul Heitzman, executive headteacher of St Bede’s and St Joseph’s outside St Joseph’s Paul Heitzman, executive headteacher of St Bede’s and St Joseph’s outside St Joseph’s

Two single-sex Catholic schools with more than a century of history could be merged into a co-educational super high school if parents react favourably to a consultation on the proposed changes.

St Joseph’s and St Bede’s Catholic Schools currently only have a shared sixth form and are single-sex from 11 to 16 years, but under new plans they could move to one co-educational 11 to 18 years high school.

That school would be called St Bede’s and St Joseph’s Catholic High School and could eventually have 2,000 students.

A consultation is currently ongoing until March to find out exactly what parents want.

If the plans are okayed, from September 2014, Year 7 will be mixed and the other years will be phased in until 2018.

Paul Heitzman, the executive headteacher of St Bede’s and St Joseph’s, said that parents wanted co-educational facilities.

He stressed that the rich heritage of both schools would be kept with a merger.

“There are lots of reasons for doing this,” he said.

“Both schools are in the top ten schools in Bradford in terms of results.

“St Joseph’s is in the top three which already has a letter from the Secretary of State for Education for being in the top 100 improving schools in the country in terms of progress.

“There are falling Catholic numbers in the city and parents have been very clear in our parent primary schools that they want a co-educational school.

“Both schools are more than 100 years old and single-sex was the norm for Catholic schools back then.

“The criteria is baptised Catholics have first choice, then non-Catholics from our parent primary schools, then thirdly non-Catholics, who may have a sibling already with us.

“We are very proud of our tradition and will want to preserve it.”

Simon Gallacher, the headteacher of St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School, praised Mr Heitzman’s “brave proposal”.

“It is a huge change to Catholic Secondary Education in Bradford, but it is a change that will result in better provision and education for your children,” he told parents in a letter.

“Our year six children in 2014 will be able to move up together, keeping friendships already established while also having the usual opportunity to make new friends.”

Comments(9)

Patrick Bateman says...
11:22am Sat 16 Feb 13

As an alumnus of St Bede's I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I see advantages in that boys would benefit from being socialised with girls (and vice versa) but on the other I think academic achievement may suffer due to the distractions that may cause. For me the bigger issue going forward is the burgeoning proportion of non-Catholic pupils which attend the school. While by no means a fan of faith schools I wonder what impact this will have. That being said, if this proposal goes through I suspect that such enrolment from non-Catholic households may well be curtailed anyway (and one wonders whether this is the hidden agenda here..?)

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Albion. says...
11:46am Sat 16 Feb 13

Is this an indication that catholic schools are becoming surplus to requirements?

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Outraged English Subject says...
2:23pm Sat 16 Feb 13

Definitely a hidden agenda been played out in the background. The ability to recruit baptised Catholics from the community is worrying; however the availability of non-Catholics looking for a good school should be extremely high. One can only wonder to the real reason for the proposed plans to combine single-sex Catholic schools, which I believe would be a giant backward step. (Sadly may be a defensive one).

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jonathancrewdson says...
5:14pm Sat 16 Feb 13

I went to St Bede's and left there is 1993. There was talk about this back then and has been for years since. The number of Catholics in Bradford has been falling steadily for decades and the economic viability of running two separate schools is going to be difficult to sustain.

Both schools have excellent academic records and I do personally think this is at least in part down to them being single sex. I know there are other high achieving schools out there that are mixed gender but it does remove an unnecessary distraction. There may be other things they can do first though in terms of sharing costs and perhaps even staff before looking at creating one mixed school.

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MontyLeMar says...
5:46pm Sat 16 Feb 13

I wonder what the parents of the many Asian girls who attend St Josephs will think? They just want their girls to get a good education and may prefer single sex schools, especially if they are traditionalists. Too many distracting boys in class could see exam results decline.

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maguirem says...
11:40am Sun 17 Feb 13

Prior to the closure of Yorkshire Martyrs Catholic College in Westgate Hill Street in 2011, students were co-educated on this site in South Bradford with a 50/50 catchment of catholic/non-catholi
c children attending. This followed the council's policy on mixed education and kept the equality and diversity critics at bay, however, the reduction in children applying from "practising" catholic familes was such that the Bishop of Leeds made the decision to close the school. As St Bede's and St Joseph's were well established schools with listed buildings status, children and families in South Bradford were denied a secondary catholic education in their neighbourhood due to the logistics of running three schools that were wider apart, the latter, YMCC taking fewer practising catholics. As the decline in numbers increases and the intergration of a diverse population expands, this problem will grow and the catholic church may find that there is no requirement whatsoever for any secondary catholic education in this part of the city.

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hellswood says...
7:13pm Sun 17 Feb 13

As a parent with children at both schools I would be against the merger of the two school into one single co ed school. If they had wanted a co ed school they should never have closed Yorkshire Martyrs. My son had to move from there to S Bedes from which he was turned down when moving to an upper school. My youngest daughter is already in St Josephs and I find it to be a school that focuses more on its grading in the charts than on its students. Whereas at St Bedes I find they are more Student friendly. Boys and Girls learn differently. Boys are more hands on where most girls will be more prepared to sit and write from a board, They do not take just Catholic children, some of the larger community prefer their children to go to same sex school and this has been provided by both St Bedes and St Josephs for a long time. If they do not believe that there are not enough Catholic children to maintain the two separate school, they could operate as single sex schools for all denominations and serve the communities of Bradford a lot better

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markjoe says...
10:04am Mon 18 Feb 13

The problem is that the Catholic primary schools are full and over subscribed yet the St Bedes has a Catholic population of 40%. St Bedes has taken a backwards step when the Yorkshire Martyrs merged with the two schools are is only just starting to move forward. They are planning for St Josephs to house years 7,8,9 and St Bedes to house years 10,11 and the Sixth form.

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allannicho says...
10:16am Mon 18 Feb 13

It is so sad how Bradford is changing
since I was a lad.
St Marys Mother church of Bradfords Catholics gone, now the break-up
of two excellent schools.

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