Boarding school ditches Catholicism to attract more pupils

A boarding school has severed its long-standing relationship with the Catholic Church to attract more families and better reflect its “diverse” student body.

Prior Park College in Bath has changed its faith designation from Catholic to Christian, ending an almost 200-year relationship with the Catholic Church.

The school, founded by Bishop Baines in 1830 as a Catholic seminary and school for boys, said the move followed a “lengthy re-evaluation” about “how well our college reflects the students we have today”.

Ben Horan, the headmaster, added that many parents had expressed frustrations over the “restrictive nature of being a Catholic school and the limited educational choices and outcomes that come with that”.

The school’s website said gay former pupils had voiced concerns over “how difficult they found their education at the college – both historically and relatively recently”.

Prior Park claimed it had been told it should “censor student-led publications if they expressed a view contrary to Catholic teaching”, and that the school’s support for Pride celebrations “have been criticised by some for being contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church”.

In March, Mr Horan sent a letter to parents warning them that a new inspection framework for Catholic schools was “attempting to exercise a far greater degree of control” over their teaching.

The Catholic Schools Inspectorate (CSI) was established in 2022 to combine the diocesan school inspectors of England and Wales into one body.

It launched a “rigorous” new inspection framework that year to scrutinise Catholic schools’ teaching, writing on its website: “Inspection is one of the ways the bishop acts as a ‘good shepherd’ to his schools.”

An inspection report following the CSI’s visit to Prior Park earlier this year claimed that the school must “strengthen the centrality of Christ in the daily experience of students and staff”. It said this would help pupils “better understand the Catholic life and mission of the college”.

‘Faith on pupils’ own terms’

Mr Horan criticised the report’s findings, telling parents in March that his teachers “pride ourselves on not proselytising to our young people, but instead in encouraging them to engage with faith and spirituality on their own terms”.

The school already accepts pupils from all faith backgrounds, and fewer than one in five currently enrolled describe themselves as Catholic.

Its decision to axe ties with the Catholic Church means that it will no longer face mandatory inspections by the CSI, nor will students be required to study theology at GCSE.

The school said it would continue to offer Sunday Mass in its Grade I-listed chapel during term time, “pray together as a school”, and employ a lay chaplain.

Announcing the move, Mr Horan said Prior Park had become “increasingly diverse in recent years, with people from different backgrounds and sexual orientation now represented across both the student and teaching body”.

“The relationship with the Catholic Diocese remains important to us, but as society has changed, so have the pressures put upon schools to better reflect the needs and ambitions of those they serve,” he added.

A statement on the school’s website denied that the decision was directly linked to the CSI inspection, but added: “In a world of falling church attendances, it is perhaps unsurprising that there appears to be a greater level of expectation by the Catholic Church’s hierarchy for its Catholic schools to do the job of bringing young people to ‘the faith’.”

Fees to rise by 10 per cent

Mr Horan said a switch to a broader Christian underpinning would also help the school remain attractive as the sector was “crying out for help” amid increased financial pressures, including the Government’s imposition of VAT that will come into force from Jan 1 2025.

The co-educational boarding school, which charges more than £40,000 annually for full boarders, will raise fees by an initial 10 per cent from January.

The school said that while the decision to ditch its Catholic roots “has been under consideration for many years … the pressure that a tax on education brings to schools like Prior Park has undoubtedly sharpened the college’s focus to complete the process”.

Mr Horan said he had already been in contact with “several other Catholic schools” that were asking for advice on how they might follow Prior Park’s lead.

It marks the latest evolution among historic private schools as they scramble to remain competitive, with many single-sex schools reportedly considering going co-educational.

Sir William Perkins’s School, a girls’ private school in Surrey, announced in June that it will be fully co-ed by 2030, starting with the phased admission of boys in Years 7 and 12 from September 2026.

Melanie Duke, the school’s chairwoman, said the decision followed increased demand from families to send siblings to the same school.

The Catholic Schools Inspectorate was contacted for comment.