A decade ago St Monica’s Church Aided Primary School in Cathays struggled to stay open in a rotten old building with half its capacity of children. A new head teacher invigorated the staff and developed the activities of the school in such a way that it soon commended itself anew to local families, and the intake grew back up to its normal size.
The problems of a century old building in need of repair proved to be insurmountable. This did nothing to prevent high standards of teaching and pastoral care being maintained at great cost to the well-being of teachers and support staff who sacrificed themselves for the children. The head and governors worked for several years without success to raise funds for renovation. The Church in Wales could not afford the 25% of capital costs outlay on repairing or rebuilding on the site, running to an estimated total of two million pounds which was its statutory obligation to provide.
Meanwhile, pupil numbers of enrolled in other local schools began to fall, for demographic reasons, although numbers at St Monica’s did not fall away, because the school’s socially inclusive and multi-cultural policy rooted in Christian understanding of justice and hospitality motivated parents from a much wider area to seek admission for their children to a school in which they had confidence. The school includes children of all learning abilities and special needs, children of several different cultural and language minority groups. It has pupils of Muslim and Hindu backgrounds, as well as a non-Anglican majority.
Finally an acceptable solution emerged, a proposal was put forward to re-locate the school in the buildings of neighbouring Gladstone Primary School’s Infant block. Numbers there had reduced to the point where it was possible to consolidate all school activities in the Junior building and divide the playground and out-houses. This plan offered St Monica’s significantly more space in a better building, and was gladly accepted by staff, governors and parents.
It was not well received by the Gladstone School community, worried about its falling rolls. Some its members conducted a local political campaign opposing the proposal. Despite the excellent reputation of St Monica’s, some elected political representatives were unsupportive, reluctant to challenge or criticise this negativity. One cited difficulties around the poor reputation of church schools in other parts of England to justify reservations about the plan and reactions to it, deliberately ignoring the success and good repute of a church school in their own area.
The decision, supported tactfully by the LEA officers involved survived the Council Scrutiny committee process, and was finally implemented after more delays in the summer of 2005. St Monica’s re-opened in its new buildings for the Autumn Team and continues to flourish in its new home, receiving an ‘outstanding’ citation in the 2006 OFSTED inspection.
Local people were apprehensive about the fate of the old school buildings, lest they be demolished to make way for more student residences or be turned into yet another pub. However, the buildings weren’t empty for long. They were bought from the Diocese of Llandaff by the Cardiff Muslim Education Trust, for use as a special primary school for Muslim children, and apprehension turned to bewilderment on the part of some. The building’s entire roof was replaced before the school was opened.
The local Islamic community was able to raise funds to cover both the costs of repairs the Diocese could not afford, plus costs of purchase, due to aid from the Muslim community in the Middle East. It is not a state aided religious school, as is St Monica’s, but a private foundation. The two schools enjoy cordial relationships with each other.
Muslim pupils have not moved away from St Monica's to the new school. The private school is catering for a different range of children, some of whom need to retain strong connections with their parental country of origin and its language and religious cultural traditions. The confidence shown by parents of other faiths and none at all in the quality of education provided by St Monica's church school is as high as it ever was.
The problems of a century old building in need of repair proved to be insurmountable. This did nothing to prevent high standards of teaching and pastoral care being maintained at great cost to the well-being of teachers and support staff who sacrificed themselves for the children. The head and governors worked for several years without success to raise funds for renovation. The Church in Wales could not afford the 25% of capital costs outlay on repairing or rebuilding on the site, running to an estimated total of two million pounds which was its statutory obligation to provide.Meanwhile, pupil numbers of enrolled in other local schools began to fall, for demographic reasons, although numbers at St Monica’s did not fall away, because the school’s socially inclusive and multi-cultural policy rooted in Christian understanding of justice and hospitality motivated parents from a much wider area to seek admission for their children to a school in which they had confidence. The school includes children of all learning abilities and special needs, children of several different cultural and language minority groups. It has pupils of Muslim and Hindu backgrounds, as well as a non-Anglican majority.
Finally an acceptable solution emerged, a proposal was put forward to re-locate the school in the buildings of neighbouring Gladstone Primary School’s Infant block. Numbers there had reduced to the point where it was possible to consolidate all school activities in the Junior building and divide the playground and out-houses. This plan offered St Monica’s significantly more space in a better building, and was gladly accepted by staff, governors and parents.
It was not well received by the Gladstone School community, worried about its falling rolls. Some its members conducted a local political campaign opposing the proposal. Despite the excellent reputation of St Monica’s, some elected political representatives were unsupportive, reluctant to challenge or criticise this negativity. One cited difficulties around the poor reputation of church schools in other parts of England to justify reservations about the plan and reactions to it, deliberately ignoring the success and good repute of a church school in their own area.
The decision, supported tactfully by the LEA officers involved survived the Council Scrutiny committee process, and was finally implemented after more delays in the summer of 2005. St Monica’s re-opened in its new buildings for the Autumn Team and continues to flourish in its new home, receiving an ‘outstanding’ citation in the 2006 OFSTED inspection.Local people were apprehensive about the fate of the old school buildings, lest they be demolished to make way for more student residences or be turned into yet another pub. However, the buildings weren’t empty for long. They were bought from the Diocese of Llandaff by the Cardiff Muslim Education Trust, for use as a special primary school for Muslim children, and apprehension turned to bewilderment on the part of some. The building’s entire roof was replaced before the school was opened.
The local Islamic community was able to raise funds to cover both the costs of repairs the Diocese could not afford, plus costs of purchase, due to aid from the Muslim community in the Middle East. It is not a state aided religious school, as is St Monica’s, but a private foundation. The two schools enjoy cordial relationships with each other.Muslim pupils have not moved away from St Monica's to the new school. The private school is catering for a different range of children, some of whom need to retain strong connections with their parental country of origin and its language and religious cultural traditions. The confidence shown by parents of other faiths and none at all in the quality of education provided by St Monica's church school is as high as it ever was.
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