A two-year strategy for education in the Diocese of Truro has been approved by members of the Diocesan Board of Education after also receiving backing from the Bishop’s Diocesan Council and the Diocesan Synod.

Lee Moscato, Diocesan Director of Education, said: “I am thrilled that after input from so many people in so many different roles and places we have shaped this plan outlining some big, exciting, and important commitments for children, young people and their schools and communities. I am excited that our plan will see us living out the Church of England’s Vision for Education and reflecting one of the core priorities of our diocese: conspicuously celebrating children and young people.”

The strategic plan has five main aims:

  • Powerful partnerships: a focus on partnerships and how, through these, the diocese can improve educational, societal and life affecting outcomes for all children in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
  • Joining the DoTS (Diocese of Truro Schools): To ensure meaningful connections of, and for, Church schools across and beyond our diocese and ensuring that schools are integral in all of the work of our diocese.
  • Community, Care, Connectedness: To provide to the most vulnerable in the diocese through providing the right people, in the right place with the right purpose to support the well-being, pastoral and spiritual needs of children, young people and their families.
  • Worshipping life of schools and communities: To ensure flourishing school communities that are committed and equipped to develop the spiritual life of the school and the communities they serve.
  • Creation Care: To support schools as we make a concerted effort to do more to care for God’s creation and enable others to cherish creation, cut carbon and speak up.

To achieve these aims, work will include the delivery of the ‘Programme for Church School Flourishing’ which will provide high-quality professional development and network events for school leaders and staff to meet and share best practice and training.  The programme will see Truro collaborate with other dioceses in the South West as it partners in the work of schools and trusts. There will be support for schools to develop projects and resources with a particular focus on mental health to provide the support that our young people and communities need. Chaplaincy will be developed to support the spiritual needs of young people and families. Two new roles, Creation Care and Cut Carbon Support Officers for Schools, will also be appointed to support schools and trusts in their work around the environment and sustainability.

The Church of England’s Vision for Education is Deeply Christian, Serving the Common Good and is not simply for Church schools. It recognises the Church of England’s involvement in education over many centuries, and seeks to promote excellence everywhere, for everyone.

Lee added: “A core part of this DBE strategic plan is to ensure that our deeply rooted Christian foundation is further strengthened in our Church schools and that a light is shone on and from them to all schools. It provides opportunity to share the threads, such as teaching and learning both in RE and across the curriculum, authentic Christian worship and the living out of ethos and values, with all schools.  This plan aims to ensure that in schools which are not rooted in an explicit Christian ethos, our vision for education can still be expressed and promoted as one of human flourishing that can inspire what all schools are and do.”

This plan will see the diocese living out its vision and values beyond its 43 Church Schools in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.  It will see Truro partner with multi-academy trusts, professional and statutory bodies, communities, charities, and organisations all with the aim to see that our children live life in all its fullness.