Getting embedded together: new partnerships for twentieth-century Catholic education

The educational landscape is undergoing a level of change unparalleled since the 1960s. The creation of ‘Free Schools’ and ‘multi-academy trusts’ (MATs), coupled with the changing demographic of urban populations and fiscal constraints, are requiring schools and dioceses to strategically address how to maintain and sustain a successful Catholic educational offer for future generations. In this chapter, we will argue that a cohesive approach between Catholic Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), schools and dioceses affords the best opportunity for delivering success and maintaining Catholic educational distinctiveness. Within a theological framework, we contend that this is realised through the paradigm of the sacramental perspective which interweaves the sacred and the secular and calls all to be ‘embedded together’.