By their fruits you will know them: distinctive features of Catholic education

In Pursuit of School Ethos

“…There are, however, some difficulties in that the ethos described formally in school documentation or defined by school authorities often departs considerably from the ethos which emerges from the intentions, interactions and behaviour of school members. For a school to embrace a truly distinct and uniform ethos, the values and beliefs of those in authority must reflect and reinforce those of individual school members (Morris, 1998). Tensions, according to Morris, are often apparent between the values which schools purport to uphold and transmit and the actual values and beliefs held by individual school members.…”

“…In St Elizabeth's the ethos emphasises outward conformance to Catholic doctrine. This can be achieved because, as Morris (1998) suggests, there is a certain degree of coherence and distinctiveness in the community that such schools serve. By their very nature, however, integrated schools are about difference and diversity.…”

Headteachers in Catholic schools: challenges of leadership

“…Thus, the work of various writers in the UK, Australia and the USA, such as Bryk, Lee, and Holland (1993), Flynn (1985Flynn ( , 1993, Grace (1995Grace ( , 2002, Hornsby-Smith (1978, 1987, 1991, 1999, McLaughlin et al (1996) Morris (1994Morris ( , 1995Morris ( , 1997Morris ( , 1998aMorris ( , 1998bMorris ( , 2005Morris ( , 2007Morris ( , 2008, O' Keefe and Zipfel (2007) and Sullivan (2000Sullivan ( , 2001 has contributed greatly to an understanding of the culture, challenges and tensions within Catholic education. Encouraged by the work of Gerald Grace at the Centre for Research and Development in Catholic Education (CRDCE) at the Institute of Education, University of London, there is now a developing body of knowledge in Catholic education, which has drawn attention to the distinctive nature of its schools.…”

Measuring the Contribution of Roman Catholic Secondary Schools to Students' Religious, Personal and Social Values

“…During the second half of the 1990s and through the 2000s, in a series of studies examining academic performance, Morris (1994Morris ( , 1995Morris ( , 1997Morris ( , 1998aMorris ( , 1998bMorris ( , 2001Morris ( , 2005aMorris ( , 2005b and Godfrey and Morris (2008) drew attention to the apparent success of Catholic schools in engendering a positive attitude toward learning among their students. On the other hand, in respect of the post-16 sector, Morris (2007) found considerable variation in student achievement in relation to the size and status of Catholic sixth forms.…”