The Way ahead: Church of England schools in the new millennium

The Report of the Church Schools Review Group, chaired by Lord Dearing, was officially published on 14 June 2001. The Way ahead is the culmination of the Review Group's work after 18 months, and sets out the Review Group's vision for the future of Church of England schools and the Group's recommendations to the Church. In framing its recommendations, the Review Group has set out to give substance to the words of the General Synod's Resolution that inspired its work, that "Church schools stand at the centre of the Church's mission to the nation".

You may also be interested in: The Challenge of a Lifetime.

Buy the report

The report is published by Church House Publishing, ISBN: 071513857x. Copies of the report are available for £7.95 plus postage and packing from Church House Bookshop, 31 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3NZ; bookshop@c-of-e.org.uk.

Read the report

The report is provided in PDF format and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to be able to view and print the files. If you need more information about PDF files and how to view them, please read the instructions on downloading PDF files before you begin.

Please also bear in mind that the report is provided as published in June 2001. Some details, such as college contacts or the number of schools in a particular diocese, may have changed. For address and contact details in particular see Contact a diocese and Church colleges of higher education on this web site, where we are able to keep the information up to date.

Full report

The Way ahead report in full
wa-whole.pdf - 615 KB

The full report is a fairly large file, so if you are using a slow connection you may prefer to download just those parts in which you are most interested, using the links below.

Independent schools

Two short excerpts specifically related to independent schools, from chapter 4 'Distinctiveness and partnership' and from chapter 10, the 'Summary of recommendations':
wa-indep.pdf - 52 KB

Report section by section

Prelims, wa-prelim.pdf - 38 KB

Membership of the Church Schools Review Group, wa-memb.pdf - 37 KB

Preface, wa-pref.pdf - 38 KB

Executive summary, wa-exec.pdf - 28 KB

chapter 1 Introduction, wa-1.pdf - 49 KB

chapter 2 Some history, wa-2.pdf - 49 KB

chapter 3 Why Church schools: for what purpose and for whom?, wa-3.pdf - 72 KB

chapter 4 Distinctiveness and partnership, wa-4.pdf - 88 KB

chapter 5 Proposals for increased provision, wa-5.pdf - 230 KB

chapter 6 Teachers, teachers, teachers, wa-6.pdf - 66 KB

chapter 7 The ministry, the Church and the parish, wa-7.pdf - 62 KB

chapter 8 Leadership, management and governance, wa-8.pdf - 57 KB

chapter 9 The Church colleges, wa-9.pdf - 65 KB

annex The distinctiveness of Church colleges, wa-annex.pdf - 38 KB

chapter 10 Summary of recommendations, wa-10.pdf - 63 KB

appendix 1 Differences between categories of Church schools, wa-ap1.pdf - 41 KB

appendix 2 Church schools by diocese, wa-ap2.pdf - 91 KB

appendix 3 Church of England secondary school GCSE results and other statistics, wa-ap3.pdf - 46 KB

appendix 4 Anglican colleges in England and Wales, wa-ap4.pdf - 90 KB

appendix 5 Vocation by the Archbishop of Wales, wa-ap5.pdf - 32 KB

appendix 6 Membership of subgroups, wa-ap6.pdf - 38 KB

appendix 7 Glossary of abbreviations and other terms, wa-ap7.pdf - 29 KB

Index, wa-index.pdf - 37 KB

You can also view the list of those who submitted evidence (web page only, not included in the report).