St Mary’s College, Hull takes the lead

On 16th July 2008, St Mary’s College in Hull hosted a successful conference sponsored by the Youth Sport Trust, with the support of the Catholic Education Service and the Church of England. ‘Community Cohesion, what does it mean for us?’ was the first national conference for faith school specialist sports colleges. Held at the National Centre for Early Music in York, the conference was aimed at head teachers, Directors of Specialism, Partnership Development Managers and diocesan officers and was chiefly organised by St Mary’s College.

Headteacher Ged Fitzpatrick said,

“St Mary’s College involvement in hosting this event stemmed from discussions with the Youth Sport Trust about how we might identify the particular contribution of faith school sports colleges to community cohesion, in response to the new duty to promote community cohesion [on which schools will be inspected from September]. We wanted to find a vehicle for demonstrating positively and proudly our conviction that promoting community cohesion is at the heart of what we do every day on many levels. The conference already has enabled us to share good practice with similar schools and we look forward to being involved in joint projects and next year’s conference.”

For more information about the conference please contact David Vickers, Assistant Head at St Mary’s College e-mail: dvickers@staff.st-marys.hull.sch.uk tel: 01482 800 999.

Reprinted by kind permission of the Catholic Education Service.