Department for Education Notice: St Mary's Church of England Primary School

Proposal

Statutory notice on behalf of The Department for Education

School

St Mary's Church of England Primary School (Westbury, Shropshire).

Attachments

Please see attached:

• DfE Notice and Declaration, St Mary's Church of England Primary School
• Diocese of Hereford, Educational Endowments Order (EEO) 2022
  

Timescale

• Notice date: 10 October 2021
• Notice period: one month

Background information

What is a notice under sections 554 and 556 of the Education Act 1996?

In certain circumstances, section 554 of the 1996 Act enables the secretary of state to make fresh provision for the endowments of trusts held or used for the provision of religious education, where those trusts have subsequently failed, by allowing the endowment to be used for appropriate educational purposes^*.

So far as educational charitable trusts associated with voluntary, foundation or former grant-maintained schools are concerned, a failure of a trust is usually brought about by the closure of the school to which it relates. Failure would also occur if a school did not close but moved to a new site and the former site was no longer used for the purposes of the school, or where part of the site is no longer used for the purposes of the school, for example where a teacher's house is no longer used as such. Because the land held on the trusts is no longer being used for the purposes of education, the trust fails. Normally, when a charitable trust would otherwise fail the Charity Commission make a cy-pres scheme to re-apply the endowments for purposes as near as possible to those originally intended. However, both the Department for Education and the Charity Commission have agreed that education endowment orders under section 554 take priority unless the section 554 eligibility criteria are not met.

* As defined in s.556 of the Education Act 1996.

What is a diocese?

The group of churches that a bishop supervises is known as a diocese. Typically, a diocese is divided into parishes that are each overseen by a priest.

The Diocese of Hereford covers Herefordshire, parts of south Shropshire and some parishes in Worcestershire, Powys and Monmouthshire.

How can I find out more about the Diocese of Hereford?

You can find out more about the work of the Diocese of Hereford and its work with schools on its website.