Scottish Catholic Observer

East Renfrewshire Council has set out proposals to build a £9.5 million shared primary school in Newton Mearns, which will replace Calderwood Lodge Primary in Newlands, Glasgow (right), managed and owned by East Renfrewshire Council—the only Jewish school in Scotland—and ease some of the pressure on St Cadoc’s, currently Newton Mearns’ only Catholic primary school.

Elaine Green, East Renfrewshire Council’s education convener, said there is ‘a pressing need for a second primary school for Catholic Faith children in Newton Mearns.’

“Also, our Jewish school community has for some time wanted to relocate to East Renfrewshire, where most of its pupils live,” she said. “That’s why we have decided to carry out this informal consultative exercise with groups of both faiths.

“We are going into this with very positive soundings.”

Fr Thomas Boyle, the Catholic Church’s representative on East Renfrewshire Council’s education committee, said that—having spoken to Archbishop Philip Tartaglia of Glasgow and Fr David Boyd, Apostolic administrator of Paisley, both of whose dioceses would be included in the new school’s catchment area—a Catholic-Jewish shared campus ‘was the kind of arrangement that made good sense.’

He highlighted, however, that the Church has ‘always been wary of, and has often opposed, shared campus proposals.’

“These proposals have, until now, involved a denominational school and a non-denominational school,” Fr Boyle said. “Sometimes these have been presented by authorities as a proposal to help promote ‘community integration,’ as if schools were responsible for the fact that some of our fellow citizens seem to live with the mentality of the 16th and 17th centuries’ wars of religion. The Church has never accepted that denominational schools cause bigotry and fears that they might actually become the victim of such sectarianism by being blamed for it.

“Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, in our age there are those who oppose the idea of religion having any role in education… We have experienced situations of shared campuses where the Catholic school has been under tremendous pressure not to freely express its religious nature.

“This proposal presents neither of these issues. Two denominational schools which have a religious outlook on life and in this case it is with esteem that we look to the Jewish community as our ‘ancestors in faith’ as Pope Francis expresses it. Two schools from different religious traditions each with their own ethos, headteacher and staff, both based on the commandments, cannot but complement each other.”

With discussions at the early stages, Rabbi Moshe Rubin, of the Giffnock and Newlands synagogue, said the Jewish community would need to know full details of the plan before it could lend its support.

“We would have to know exactly what this means, but we are very supportive of the council, who provide unbelievable support for Jewish education,” he said. “The idea [for a shared school] has not been rejected, but we need to know exactly what it means and how it will work.”

Catholic pupils attending the proposed new primary school would continue their education at St Ninian’s High School, in neighbouring Giffnock. Although St Ninian’s has recently faced problems with overcrowding, East Renfrewshire Council has said that—given Catholic pupils at the new school will be coming from St Cadoc’s catchment area—the school has ‘more than enough places to meet this demand.’

—[email protected]

—This story ran in full, with additional photographs, in the October 4 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.