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C O L U M N S

Francis Campbell The UK is now focusing ever more on its own internal identity / 5

Christopher Howse’s Presswatch The silly, shallow level of the television-Twitter alliance / 7

Sara Maitland We have a marked tendency to become upset if anyone tries to change our religious imagery / 12

R E G U L A R S

Great Catholics 16 Puzzles 16 Parish Practice 17 Notebook 18 Letters 19 The Living Spirit 20

‘Psychological collapse and wracked hearts’ – Handel’s Tamerlano in Brussels 26

CONTENTS 14 FEBRUARY 2015 // VOL 269 NO. 9087

F E A T U R E S

4 / Holding on for fear of something worse Why the West must stay united in support of Ukraine / BY ROBERT BRINKLEY

6 / Must try harder The Labour Party snubs Catholics at its peril / BY MIKE CRAVEN

8 / Accountability starts here Sanctions for bishops who fail to act on abuse are urged / BY CHRISTOPHER LAMB

8 / A survivor’s story Confession allows for compassion and healing / BY LARRY KAUFMANN

10 / Life in harm’s way A counterblast to supporters of mitochondrial donation / BY DAVID A. JONES

11 / Hope deferred

The road to church unity has had many twists and turns / BY PAUL BRADSHAW

13 / Why Benedict was right The real meaning of the controversial Regensburg lecture / BY DAMIAN HOWARD

15 / Language of love

A Valentine’s Day lesson on how we describe God’s love / BY DANIEL O’LEARY

N E W S

28 / Christianity faces ‘extinction’ in Iraq

The Church in the World 29 / Prelates take their protest to the street

31 / Letter from Rome News from Britain and Ireland 32 / Labour-supporting nuns criticise Hunt

COVER ILLUSTRATION: TOM JAY

s01-s12 Education su pp 14 Feb 15.qxp _Education 2/11/15 2:54 PM Page 1

TABLETEducation

12-PAGE SUPPLEMENT

FEBRUARY 2015

SCHOOLS, COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES

than 800pupils, making it one of the biggest primaries in the country.

St Joseph’s is one of four local Catholic primaries set to grow. Construction is about to begin on a £5million extension, which will take it from two to three forms of entry,

with the number of pupils rising from 420

to 630.

Thegoverning body agreed t o the expansion, despite concerns about the growing size of the over-subscribed school,

because it wanted tomeet the needs of

Catholics within the p arish.

“There was amassive debate a bout whether growth would affect our ethos and values. Ashead teacher Iwas confident it wouldn’t,” said head BenCassidy. “We’re going to end upwith an amazing primary campus. Wewill have the ability to provide specialist facilities for th e older children while maintaining an enriching, nu rturing environment for the younger children.

“So wewill have the best of both wo rlds.

W hat it will do, because of the extra numbers, is allow us to g ive an age-appropriate curriculum to each year

Dioceses across the country are scrambling to provide enough school places to cope with the huge demand. Jeremy Sutcliffe looks at why birth rates have increased and the different ways in which the extra numbers are being accommodated

Primary numbers group.”

This debate abou t the benefits and pitfalls of expansion is being played out in Catholic schools upanddownthe country as a result of increased demand for places, duemainly to a rise in the b irth rate, which has soared since the start of themillen nium.

Following a steady decline in the 1990s,

the total fertility rat e– the number of children per woman–hasrisen in England andWales from a low of 1.6 3 in 2001 to 1.94

in 2010, when it reached a peak. According to the Office for National Statistics, which monitors birth rates, there are four key

STJOSEPH’SCatholic Primary in Ealin g,

west London, ha s been serving the families of immigrants fo rmore than a century. Since it opened on its present site in

Hanwell, in 1906, it has accommodated the children of refugees and economi cmigrants from all over the world.

Aquick glance at amapwill te ll youmuch about the community St Joseph’s serv es. In the northern corner of th eborough is RAF

Northolt, where thousands of Polish families landed in the post-Second WorldWar period, eager to start anew life in anew country after fleeing the twin ravages of

Naziism andCommunism.

Afewmiles to the west is Heathrow Airport, nowgateway to the United Kingdom for anew generation ofmainly

EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT

economic migrants, particularly f rom Poland and other members of the European

Union. This round of inc omingmigration is just the latest in the ebb and flow of population flux that has brought succes sive waves of Poles, Italia ns,West Indians, Irish andmanyother nationali ties to settle in

Ealing. M igration is just one of the r easons why

Ealing is currently b attling abulge in demand for schoo l places. Since 2008, it has been implementing amassive primary expansion programme that, by 2017, will provide an addition al 36 forms of entry for schools across the borough, creating an extra

7,560 school places. Manyof these newplaces are in local

Catholic schools. Most sp ectacularly, a brand new super-sized primary, wi th four forms of entry, ope ned in Acton in 2012. By

2017, when it reaches full capacity, Holy

Family Catholic Prim ary will havemore reasons for the increase.

First, morewomencurrently in their twenties are having childr en. Secondly, more womenatolder ages are having c hildren,

having previously postp onedmotherhood.

Thirdly, there has be en an increase in the number of foreign-born womenwhotendto have higher fertility thanUK-born women

(that is, they arem ore likely to decide t o have children) . And fourthly, government policies and the e conomic climate have had an indirect influenc e on individual decisions about having children. While inward migrat ion is clearly an important factor in areas such as Eal ing,

there is awhole range of social and economic factors affecting women’s decisions to have children. Th e rising birth rate began at a time when the British

(Continued on page s2.)

INSIDE | Homeschooling | Trainee teachers’ challenge | Music in primaries

1 2 - P A G E P U L L - O U T

14 FEBRUARY 2015 | TABLET Education | s1

Primary numbers How dioceses accommodate the high demand for school places JEREMY SUTCLIFFE / s1

Ahead of the learning curve Trainee teachers at a top US university forgo campus comforts to hone their skills / s6

Plus The Teacher who Inspired Me MARGARET ARCHER

B O O K S / P A G E 2 1

David Goodall An Empire on the Edge: how Britain came to fight America NICK BUNKER

Lynn Roberts Portrait of a Man GEORGE PEREC

A R T S / P A G E 2 5

Exhibitions Marlene Dumas: The Image as Burden LAURA GASCOIGNE

Opera Tamerlano ROBERT THICKNESSE

Theatre The Hard Problem MARK LAWSON

Television Bob Servant JOHN MORRISH

14 FEBRUARY 2015 | THE TABLET | 3