Keeping faith in school system

Nowhere is the issue more relevant than in Bexhill where the first formal education offered came at the initiative of Dr Thomas Pye. The Rector of St Peter's from 1589 to 1609 set up a "scole house".

For much later generations, it was Church of England schools such as the original St Peter's schools and those at All Saints', Sidley, and St Mark's at Little Common which provided education at a time when local authority provision was non-existent.

Today, faith schools still prosper in the town at primary level with All Saints' still helping to serve Sidley and St Mary Magdalene's continuing to serve the Roman Catholic Community. Ninfield also continues to be served by its Anglican primary.

The town faith schools at both primary and secondary level work seamlessly in partnership with the county schools under the umbrella of the dynamic Bexhill Consortium.

But it is at secondary level where the current national debate has a sharper local focus.

Secondary provision in the town is shared between the county-funded Bexhill High and St Richard's Catholic College.

So, are faith schools a valued institution or, as some would believe, an anachronism which should be discarded?

Bexhill's example demonstrates that had it not been for what we now know as "faith schools" the town of a century or more ago would have lagged behind at a crucial stage in its development when literate and numerate young people were needed in the process of emerging from backward village obscurity to fast-growing resort.

How long it would have taken the fledging local government system to have caught up and matched need with provision remains a matter for debate.

The recent flurry of Letters to the Editor over the admissions policy at St Richard's Catholic College is a sure indicator that the wider faith school issue is also likely to remain a more pertinent matter of debate.

But can it really be to the nation's loss that if parents are so concerned to see that their young people's academic progress is matched by spiritual guidance that they are prepared to invest heavily in school provision?

If St Richard's did not exist Bexhill would probably be served by a second county council school. Instead, in Bexhill High and St Richard's it has diversity and '“ subject to the vexed issue of admissions policy to an over-subscribed school '“ parental choice.

There is a good case to be made for allowing institutions who in addition to academic excellence have specialist knowledge and commitment continuing to do what they do best.

They are complementary to the state system, not in opposition to it.