Back in the first century, the Apostle Paul planted a lot of new churches in cities across the Mediterranean.

In an age before websites, communications plans and social media algorithms, he kickstarted a remarkable movement that grew in a remarkable way.

However, once these first Christian communities got going, they needed support, structures, encouragement and, sometimes, correction.

This prompted Paul to write a letter designed to motivate anyone who would listen.

And in writing this letter, he did what, in our schools today, any great assembly giver, classroom teacher, school production director, sports team coach or academic mentor knows to do.

When you need to communicate something really well and connect with someone’s heart, soul and vision, you lean into a great metaphor.

In more than one of his letters, Paul reaches for what we might imagine is one of his favourite metaphors - “one body, many parts” - the well-known passage from the New Testament that encourages us to work well together: we don’t all need to be an eye, hand, foot etc, but we do need to work together rather than alone, honouring the importance of all the parts, especially those that at first seem less significant.

Whatever your faith background, this is a beautiful illustration for any kind of team, group, organisation or system seeking coherence and collaboration while also retaining difference and distinctiveness.

All schools in strong trusts

Which brings us to now. The recently published schools White Paper articulates a clear vision for all schools to become part of a strong trust.

This is welcomed by the National Society for Education - not least because it aligns fully with the Church of England’s own national position that was taken several years ago.

We must exercise care, as system leaders, to make wise structural changes that can enable the more sustainable flourishing of children and adults.

For the Church of England, those kinds of structural decisions are not taken at a national level, in a one-size-fits-all way, but rather in each region (or “diocese”) where the diocesan board of education is the decision-making body for the Church of England schools there.

Dioceses have long been engaged in place-based strategy - grouping schools, supporting collaboration and planning sustainable futures.

They have deep local knowledge and a commitment to long-term stewardship, with dioceses together providing around 20 per cent of all the schools in the country.

For that reason, when the schools minister met with the diocesan directors of education last week, it was a mutually productive opportunity to talk openly about the principles of great collaboration, and the kinds of structures that strong trusts offer in which our schools (including the smallest ones) could flourish.

For just like the children and adults who learn and work in them, we believe that schools flourish together, not alone.

While our national position continues to see all schools becoming part of a strong trust, our vision is not for the structures themselves but for the children who can then flourish in them.

Anchor institutions

Collaboration needs careful planning and appropriate resourcing, and we must prioritise the voice and vitality of small schools in all of our thinking. Too often, policy reforms are seen through a lens of larger institutions.

Without that proper focus on smaller schools, any hope of delivering community cohesion beyond our largest urban areas will be fruitless.

For more than 200 years, the Church of England has run schools as anchor institutions - they sit at the heart of their communities, including in areas of high deprivation, as places of belonging, service and hope.

This is outlined in our Vision for Education: deeply Christian, serving the common good and it is this vision that will underpin the next chapter of renewed partnership with government, shaping trust development, accountability, area planning and community collaboration, through a bespoke place-based approach.

‘One body, many parts’

If you had taken a trip around the Mediterranean to visit Paul’s early churches in the first century, I suspect the system leader or bureaucrat within you might have hoped to see conformity, brand identity and adherence to ideas developed in a central office.

Instead, I suspect you would have seen vibrant diversity, breadth of experience, place-based ministry, context-driven activities and very different ways of doing things - a multiplicity of models working well within the wider collaborative partnership.

This is “one body with many parts” in action.

So, as we seek effective collaboration through this journey of reform, let’s prioritise the core principles of working and living well together that enable schools to serve their particular communities faithfully. This will enable leaders to deliver these welcome reforms more effectively.

Andy Wolfe is interim chief education officer at the Church of England

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