Education Sunday is when we commemorate our predecessors of the 19th century, many of whom were living in poverty, who paid for our schools to be built. Our parishioner forebears and their Bishops rightly saw education as the principal means of handing on the faith and improving the spiritual, moral, social and cultural lives of children and young people. Their sacrifices helped re-establish the 2,175 Catholic schools and four universities. Established by the Bishops in 1848, Education Sunday is one of the oldest Days of Special Prayer in the liturgical calendar of England and Wales. Catholic schools continue to be true to their mission: they educate more pupils from the most deprived backgrounds; outperform national GCSE English and Maths averages by five percentage points; and are more ethnically diverse than other state-funded schools. For this success to continue, however, the help of the whole Catholic community remains essential. As throughout history, all Catholics need to be prepared to support, promote and defend Catholic education. You can do this by becoming a school Foundation governor or Trust Director.
Please contact Bill McEntee at Clifton Diocese via bill.mcentee@cliftondiocese.com if you would like to be a governor or director. In this way, we can hand on to the next generation the great educational legacy of those poor and immigrant Catholic communities of the Victorian era who built our schools and universities.
The Catholic Education Service (CES) website states: http://catholiceducation.org.uk/about-us/news-items/item/1003777-catholic-schools-need-your-help and the CES has provided a range of resources
http://catholiceducation.org.uk/schools/education-sunday for schools and colleges to help celebrate the day